Humble yourself proud. Our Father. Follow the commandments of God exactly! Humble yourself, proud man! Priests are ministers at the throne of God. Do we wish for heaven

Book 5. Teaching 26

I. On the day of Rev. Nicholas Svyatosha, once a glorious and rich Russian prince, and after becoming a monk, in the Kiev-Pechersk monastery in 1106, a humble monk who served either as a doorkeeper or as a simple worker, who with ardent love and great joy performed all the most menial work in the monastery, very It will be fitting to offer your love, my brethren, the following teaching of St. Demetrius of Rostov on humility.

II. Nowhere will you find peace, man, as soon as in humility, and you will not experience such embarrassment as in pride. If you want to have peace and quiet, be humble; but if not, then in rumors and confusion, in sorrow and sorrow you will wear out your life and you will always be subject to a fall. Humble yourself before all, and you will be exalted by the Lord. It is of little use that you yourself will become exalted, and not God will exalt you. Your exaltation is falling away from God, and your exaltation from God is accomplished by His grace. If you begin to ascend yourself, God will humiliate you; but if you humble yourself, God will exalt you. But even with such exalted, be humble, and the Lord will exalt you for all eternity. Humble yourself before the Lord and he will exalt you, says the apostle ().

Remember the image of humility: you received your flesh from the earth, and you will return to the earth again. You did not call yourself to life, and you do not know where you will move from this temporary life. Be humble so that you always say with the prophet: Lord, my heart was not haughty, and my eyes were not lifted up, and I did not enter into the great, and inaccessible to me (). And one more thing: I am a worm, not a man, a reproach among people and contempt among the people.

How can you not humble yourself when you have nothing of yourself? How can you exalt yourself when without God's help you can do nothing good by yourself? So humble yourself, as God made you humble. God made you humble, and you are arrogant! God allowed that without Him you could not do anything good, and you ascribe everything to yourself and exalt yourself! What do you have that you wouldn't get? And if you have received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? - says the apostle (). “Think humbly, think humbly, do everything humbly so as not to stumble on every path. Remember where your body and soul came from. Who created them and where they will go again, and realize to yourself that you are all dust ... Look into yourself and know that everything in you is vain. Apart from the grace of the Lord, you are nothing, like an empty reed, a barren tree, dry grass, fit only for burning, a sinful vessel, a spacious receptacle for all filthy and lawless passions. In itself you have nothing good, nothing pleasing to God, only sin and crime. You cannot make a single hair white or black ().

Do not ascend by dignity, if you have it, nor by seniority: there they will look not at dignity, but at the love of virtue; not to majesty and pride and nobility, but to meekness and humility. For not in pride and greatness, but in our humiliation, the Lord remembered us and delivered us from our enemies, says the prophet (). Very many who are inglorious here will be glorious there, the humble here will be noble there. But here the glorious and honest will be there in great dishonor; the noble ones of this world will be rejected there, and the poor ones will be accepted; the proud and arrogant are with demons, but the humble are with the Lord. There is no partiality there, as happens here: there the Lord will set everyone in His righteous and faithful measure. So pursue humility and you will be exalted by the Lord Himself. - How great is your rank, so have humility. To the extent that people honor and praise you, consider yourself dishonorable.

Do not boast of any virtue lest God reject you. Do not think, do not say: I did it, I did it so that all your goodness would not suddenly crumble before your own eyes. And if you did something good, say: Not I, but the grace of the Lord is with me. Our salvation is not so much in our correction as in the grace of Christ. Attribute everything to God, so that in all good things He will be your quick helper.

Desire not seniority and no honor on earth, and do not consider yourself honest and worthy in everything, but rather consider yourself the worst of all. Then you will be honest and worthy when you recognize yourself as small; only then will you be something when you consider yourself to be nothing. The Lord showed you His image of humility: He humbled Himself, being obedient even unto death, the death of the cross. Obedience is born from humility, but strife and disobedience are born from pride.

You have nothing to be proud of, man: you have nothing good of your own, you have nothing of your own. If people ascribe something good to you, attribute it all to God, for everything is from Him, He created everything. From you, without God's help, not some good, but any evil can come, since you were conceived in iniquity, and your mother gave birth to you in sin (). Just as branches without a root cannot produce anything from themselves, so you will not wish or do anything good without God's grace. The Lord is the root, and you are the branch; until then you can do something pleasing to God while you are with God, but when you depart from God, you will fall into all evil. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it is on the vine, so can we, unless we abide in the Lord (), for the Lord Himself says: Without Me you can do nothing. - If the Lord does not build the house, then those who build it work in vain: if the Lord does not protect the city, then the guard is awake in vain ().

Try and work in good, but do not rely on yourself, but always pray to God and diligently seek His help.

If he helps you, the work will be done; if not, everything falls apart. If what is yours seems to be good, and the Lord is displeased, what good is it to you? Even if in your arrogance you wanted to boast of something before the Lord, and He would not accept it: how will you help yourself? Will he not tell you, as in the gospel parable: friend, I do not offend you ... take what is yours and go (). If you consider yourself to be something, then you are nothing before Him. If you recognize yourself as reasonable and fit for something, then for that very reason you are not at all useful for anything. If you recognize yourself as pure and righteous, then before the Lord you appear even more wretched and sinful than all people. Everyone who is haughty in heart is an abomination before the Lord, says Solomon (). Therefore, be humble, acknowledge your weakness. Remember that everything is God's, and not ours, everything is from God, and not from you. Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from above from the Father of lights, says the apostle (). Remember that everything is in the mercy of Christ, and not in your strength and power. Know that without God's help you are ready for any evil, that without His grace all your corrections are like a cobweb.

Do not be proud and conceited, lest you become like a demon. The demon fell away from God by ascribing everything to himself, and not to God, who created everything. Therefore, he fell away from everything and lost the grace of the Lord. Without humility, you are nothing before God. And in humility, every virtue grows. Do not think highly of yourself, do not think that you have surpassed others in your mind and wisdom, and you can embrace everything; but think how great is the world and all the ends of the earth, in which there is an innumerable multitude of persons worthy of all glory and honor, whom the grace of the Most Holy Spirit miraculously made wise, whom you did not imitate, and whom you do not even know, and cannot comprehend with your mind, what countless many thousands of thousands surpass you. The runner thinks that he is running faster than anyone else; when he joins the others who are fleeing, then he will realize his weakness. Here is the measure of humility for you: when you are the best of all, admit that you are worse than all creatures, every creature. Consider yourself the worst of all, so that the Lord will recognize you as the best.

What is humility? Humility is self-knowledge and self-abasement. And it is righteous to recognize yourself as nothing: after all, you were created from nothing. And do not consider yourself anything, because you have nothing of your own, your own. We are created from nothing, and we do not know where we will go, and how the Lord will arrange us. By the will of the Lord, we were born, and then we will turn into stench, dust and ashes, and our soul will be arranged, as the Lord Himself knows, the Creator and Builder of all.

III. My beloved brethren! Let us imprint in our hearts these holy and soul-saving words of our saint and great teacher of our Church, St. Dimitri Rostovsky. Let us add to them the following words of the Gospel: come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke (but not the yoke of pride and exaltation) upon you, and learn from Me, for you are meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls ().

L. I. Sinitsko th

15/28-II-46

The grace of God be with you, my dear Lyudmila Ivanovna!

Batiushka and I cordially greet you with the upcoming Holy Forty Day. We prayerfully wish to spend it as it should and, fasting bodily, richly saturate with luxurious dishes from the rich meal that the Holy One in Triodion offers us - in particular, taste the source of the immortal.

I received your letter the day before. I am very pleased with it and deeply grateful to you. Sorry for not speeding up [with] the answer.

How is your granddaughter? We remember him daily. The Lord comforts us with the opportunity to celebrate Vespers every evening, in the morning hours, we go to Matins “in the cells”, “on the beds, being touched”, or, rather, being lazy. On holidays we rule and have matins.

We have a priestly prayer book and selected hymns. We thank God for this too, but we miss having nothing more.

Our living conditions are satisfactory. It's only a bit cold, especially when the weather is windy, and there has been almost no firewood lately. Fortunately for us, the winter is relatively warm, in February there were thaws. The winds were not so frequent.

My health is good, work does not burden me. It's just a shame that taking care of the stomach takes a lot of time. But, apparently, this is for humility. Do not be proud, proud man, you have nothing to be proud of when for the sake of the womb you are ready to leave everything else.

I really love our divine service, our wondrous hymns and prayers, and I have long dreamed of bringing together all the services and rites that were published separately and remaining in manuscripts, of correcting, supplementing, redesigning them in order to bring them closer to the understanding of modern pilgrims and facilitate the possibility of using them for modern worshipers.

And so I imagined myself that I was one of the few connoisseurs of the Charter and church books that remained now (although for myself I know very well that I am an “expert” or an expert, but only an “expert” in quotation marks). I began to think with anxiety that if in the near future I did not get the opportunity to carry out my assumptions, at least to start this business, it would not start at all, and what I had already collected and done would perish, while it seems to me that it is very necessary and useful for the Church of God. That is why I wrote to the Patriarch.

Three times I sent what was written, - twice what was written was lost on the way, the third time the draft reached, and a copy from it was presented for its intended purpose. Nine months have passed since the sending of the first letter and five since the submission of the copy, and still there is no movement, only people close to P[patriarch] A[leksy] strongly advise to write more.

And I see in the delay that has taken place an indication that the time has not yet come, there is not yet the will of God for the fulfillment of my plans. Take it easy, proud man. Therefore, I decided to refrain from any new steps for the time being. When the time comes, and my assumptions prove to be necessary, the Lord Himself will direct and arrange.

Batiushka feels more or less satisfactorily, but senile and chronic illnesses cannot be cured, and what kind of treatment can there be in our conditions. It doesn't work at all yet. But he is in great pain. His main caretaker, Varvara Vladimirovna, became very seriously ill, which is very dangerous with her exhausted body. Pray for her.

The Lord bless you and your entire family, especially your grandmother's favorite. I call on everyone to be blessed.

With love, pilgrim Your e[bishop] A[fanasiy]

* The PSTGU publishing house published the book “What a great consolation is our faith! .. Selected letters of St. Athanasius the Confessor, Bishop of Kovrov.”

The publication is dedicated to the legacy of one of the most famous and authoritative hierarchs-confessors of the Russian Church. The collection includes a biography of Vladyka Athanasius, his famous autobiographical chronicle Stages and Dates of My Life, and 126 selected letters from Vladyka's extensive epistolary legacy (textological errors in previous publications of St. Athanasius' letters have been corrected).

The selection, chronologically covering almost 40 years (from 1923 to 1960), includes the most important letters both historically and spiritually. Possessing an extraordinary gift of consolation, a loving and caring pastor, Bishop Athanasius, even under the most difficult conditions of imprisonment and exile, raised the spirits of his children, instructed and healed spiritual wounds. These letters are one of the most impressive documents testifying to the confessional "even to death" pastoral service of the Russian hierarch during the years of persecution.

Speech delivered by F. M. Dostoevsky on June 8 (20), 1880
at a meeting of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature and published on August 1, 1880 in the Writer's Diary.

"Pushkin is an extraordinary phenomenon, and perhaps the only manifestation of the Russian spirit," said Gogol. I will add from myself: and prophetic. Yes, for all of us, Russians, something indisputably prophetic lies in its appearance. Pushkin just comes at the very beginning of our correct self-consciousness, which has just begun and originated in our society after a whole century with the Petrine reform, and his appearance greatly contributes to illuminating our dark road with a new guiding light. In this sense, Pushkin is a prophecy and an indication. I divide the activity of our great poet into three periods. Now I am not speaking as a literary critic: referring to Pushkin's creative activity, I only want to clarify my idea about his prophetic significance for us and what I mean by this word. I note, however, in passing that the periods of Pushkin's activity do not seem to me to have firm boundaries between themselves. The beginning of "Onegin", for example, belongs, in my opinion, to the first period of the poet's activity, and "Onegin" ends in the second period, when Pushkin already found his ideals in his native land, accepted and loved them entirely with his loving and insightful soul. It is also customary to say that in the first period of his activity, Pushkin imitated European poets, Parny, Andre Chenier and others, especially Byron. Yes, without a doubt, the poets of Europe had a great influence on the development of his genius, and they retained this influence throughout his life. Nevertheless, even Pushkin's very first poems were not mere imitations, so that even in them the extraordinary independence of his genius was already expressed. In imitation, there never appears such independence of suffering and such depth of self-consciousness that Pushkin showed, for example, in "Gypsies" - a poem that I fully attribute to the first period of his creative activity. Not to mention the creative power and swiftness, which would not have appeared so much if he had only imitated. In the type of Aleko, the hero of the poem "Gypsies", a strong and deep, completely Russian thought is already expressed, later expressed in such harmonic fullness in Onegin, where almost the same Aleko no longer appears in a fantastic light, but in a tangibly real and understandable form . In Aleko, Pushkin has already found and brilliantly noted that unfortunate wanderer in his native land, that historical Russian sufferer, who so historically appeared in our society cut off from the people. He found it, of course, not only with Byron. This type is true and captured unmistakably, a constant type and for a long time with us, in our Russian land, settled. These Russian homeless wanderers continue their wandering to this day and, it seems, will not disappear for a long time. And if they don’t go to gypsy camps in our time to seek from the gypsies in their wild peculiar way of life their world ideals and peace in the bosom of nature from the confused and absurd life of our Russian-intelligent society, then they still hit socialism, which has not yet been under Aleko, they go with new faith to another field and work on it zealously, believing, like Aleko, that in their fantastic work they will achieve their goals and happiness not only for themselves, but also for the world. For the Russian wanderer needs precisely universal happiness in order to calm down: he will not reconcile cheaper - of course, so far it is only a matter of theory. This is still the same Russian man, only at different times. This man, I repeat, was born just at the beginning of the second century after the great reforms of Peter the Great, in our intelligent society, cut off from the people, from the power of the people. Oh, the vast majority of intelligent Russians, and then, under Pushkin, as now, in our time, they served and serve peacefully in officials, in the treasury or on railways and in banks, or simply make money by various means, or even engage in science , give lectures - and all this regularly, lazily and peacefully, with a salary, with a game of preference, without any inclination to run to gypsy camps or somewhere to places more appropriate for our time. Many, many things are being liberalized "with a touch of European socialism", but to which a certain complacent Russian character has been given - but after all, all this is only a matter of time. What is the fact that one has not yet begun to worry, and the other has already managed to reach the locked door and hit his forehead hard on it. The same thing awaits everyone in due time if they do not take the saving road of humble communion with the people. Yes, even if this does not await everyone: only the "chosen ones", enough only a tenth of those who are worried, so that the rest of the vast majority will not see peace through them. Aleko, of course, still does not know how to properly express his anguish: for him all this is somehow still abstract, he only has a longing for nature, a complaint about secular society, world aspirations, lamentation about the truth lost somewhere and by someone, which he cannot find it. There is a bit of Jean-Jacques Rousseau here. What this truth is, where and in what it could appear, and when exactly it is lost, of course, he himself will not say, but he suffers sincerely. The fantastic and impatient man longs for salvation, for the time being, only primarily from external phenomena; yes, it should be so: "True, they say, somewhere outside it can be, somewhere in other lands, European, for example, with their solid historical system, with their established social and civil life." And he will never understand that the truth is primarily within himself, and how to understand this for him: after all, he is not his own in his land, he has been weaned from work for a century, has no culture, he grew up as a college girl in closed walls , performed duties strange and unaccountable as he belonged to one or another of the fourteen classes into which educated Russian society is divided. So far, he is just a torn blade of grass rushing through the air. And he feels it and suffers from it, and often so painfully! Well, what about the fact that, perhaps belonging to the family nobility and, even very likely, possessing serfs, he allowed himself, by the liberty of his nobility, to be seduced by people living "without law", and for a while began to drive and show Mishka in a gypsy camp? It is clear that a woman, a “wild woman,” in the words of one poet, could most likely give him hope for the outcome of his longing, and he rushes to Zemfira with frivolous, but passionate faith: “Here, they say, where is my outcome, that’s where, maybe be, my happiness is here, in the bosom of nature, far from the world, here, among people who have no civilization and laws! And what turns out: at his first encounter with the conditions of this wild nature, he cannot stand it and stains his hands with blood. Not only for world harmony, but even for the gypsies, the unfortunate dreamer was not useful, and they drive him out - without vengeance, without malice, majestically and ingenuously:

Leave us, proud man;
We are wild, we have no laws,
We do not torture, we do not execute.

All this, of course, is fantastic, but the "proud man" is real and aptly captured. For the first time he was captured by Pushkin, and this must be remembered. Precisely, precisely, almost over him, and he will angrily tear and execute for his offense, or, even more conveniently, remembering his belonging to one of the fourteen classes, he himself will cry out, perhaps (for this has happened too), to the law that torments and the one who executes, and will call him, if only his personal offense would be avenged. No, this brilliant poem is not an imitation! Here the Russian solution to the question, the “damned question”, is already suggested, according to popular faith and truth: “Humble yourself, proud man, and above all break your pride. truth and popular wisdom. "Truth is not outside you, but in yourself; find yourself and yourself, subjugate yourself, master yourself - and you will see the truth. This truth is not in things, not outside you and not somewhere beyond the sea, but first of all in your own You will conquer yourself, humble yourself, and you will become free as you never imagined yourself, and you will begin a great deed, and you will make others free, and you will see happiness, for your life will be filled, and you will finally understand your people and their holy truth. the gypsies and nowhere else have world harmony, if you yourself are the first to be unworthy of it, angry and proud and demand life for free, without even assuming that you have to pay for it. This solution to the problem in Pushkin's poem is already strongly suggested. It is even more clearly expressed in "Eugene Onegin", a poem no longer fantastic, but tangibly real, in which real Russian life is embodied with such creative power and with such completeness, which did not happen before Pushkin, and even after him, perhaps.

Onegin comes from St. Petersburg - certainly from St. Petersburg, this was undoubtedly necessary in the poem, and Pushkin could not miss such a major real feature in the biography of his hero. I repeat again, this is the same Aleko, especially later, when he exclaims in anguish:

Why, as a Tula assessor,
Am I paralyzed?

But now, at the beginning of the poem, he is still half fat and a man of the world, and has lived too little to have time to be completely disappointed in life. But he is already beginning to visit and disturb

The noble demon of boredom is a mystery.

In the wilderness, in the heart of his homeland, he is certainly not at home, he is not at home. He does not know what to do here, and feels as if he were visiting himself. Subsequently, when he wanders in longing for his native land and for foreign lands, he, as an undeniably intelligent and undeniably sincere person, even more feels himself a stranger among strangers. True, he loves his native land, but he does not trust her. Of course, I heard about my native ideals, but I do not believe them. He believes only in the complete impossibility of any kind of work in his native field, and looks at those who believe in this possibility - and then, as now, few - with sad mockery. He killed Lensky simply from the blues, who knows, maybe from the blues according to the world ideal - this is too in our opinion, it is probable. Tatyana is not like that: this is a solid type, standing firmly on its own soil. She is deeper than Onegin and, of course, smarter than him. She already with one noble instinct foresees where and in what the truth is, which was expressed in the finale of the poem. Perhaps Pushkin would have done even better if he had named his poem after Tatyana and not after Onegin, for she is undoubtedly the main character of the poem. This is a positive type, not a negative one, this is a type of positive beauty, this is the apotheosis of a Russian woman, and the poet intended her to express the idea of ​​the poem in the famous scene of Tatyana's last meeting with Onegin. It can even be said that the positive type of a Russian woman of such beauty has almost never been repeated in our fiction - except perhaps for the image of Liza in Turgenev's "Noble Nest". But the manner of looking down made it so that Onegin did not even recognize Tatyana at all when he met her for the first time, in the wilderness, in the modest image of a pure, innocent girl, who was so shy before him from the first time. He was unable to distinguish completeness and perfection in the poor girl, and indeed, perhaps, he took her for a "moral embryo." This is she, an embryo, this is after her letter to Onegin! If there is anyone who is a moral embryo in the poem, it is, of course, himself, Onegin, and this is indisputable. Yes, and he could not recognize her at all: does he know the human soul? This is a distracted person, this is a restless dreamer in his whole life. He did not recognize her later, in St. Petersburg, in the form of a noble lady, when, in his own words, in a letter to Tatyana, "he comprehended with his soul all her perfections." But these are only words: she passed him in his life without being recognized or appreciated by him; That is the tragedy of their romance. Oh, if then, in the village, at the first meeting with her, Childe Harold, or even, somehow, Lord Byron himself, would arrive there from England, and, noticing her timid, modest charm, would point out to him - oh Onegin would immediately be amazed and surprised, because in these worldly sufferers there is sometimes so much spiritual servility! But this did not happen, and the seeker of world harmony, having read her a sermon and acted very honestly, set off with his world longing and with the blood shed in stupid anger on his hands to wander around his homeland, not noticing it, and, boiling with health and strength , exclaim with curses:

I am young, my life is strong,
What can I expect, longing, longing!

Tatyana understood this. In the immortal stanzas of the novel, the poet depicted her visiting the house of this so wonderful and mysterious person for her. I'm not talking about the artistry, the unattainable beauty and depth of these stanzas. Here she is in his study, she looks at his books, things, objects, tries to guess his soul from them, solve her riddle, and the "moral embryo" finally stops in thought, with a strange smile, with a premonition of the solution of the riddle, and her lips whisper softly :

Isn't he a parody?

Yes, she should have whispered it, she figured it out. In Petersburg, then, after a long time, when they meet again, she already knows him completely. By the way, who said that secular, court life had perniciously touched her soul and that it was precisely the dignity of a secular lady and new secular concepts that were partly the reason for her refusal to Onegin? No, it wasn't like that. No, this is the same Tanya, the same old village Tanya! She is not spoiled, she, on the contrary, is depressed by this magnificent Petersburg life, is broken and suffers; she hates her dignity as a secular lady, and whoever judges her differently does not understand at all what Pushkin wanted to say. And now she firmly says to Onegin:

But I am given to another
And I will be faithful to him forever.

She expressed it precisely as a Russian woman, this is her apotheosis. She tells the truth of the poem. Oh, I won't say a word about her religious beliefs, about her view of the sacrament of marriage - no, I won't touch on that. But what: is it because she refused to follow him, despite the fact that she herself told him: “I love you”, or because she is “like a Russian woman” (and not southern or not some kind of French) , unable to take a bold step, unable to break his fetters, unable to sacrifice the charm of honors, wealth, his secular significance, the conditions of virtue? No, the Russian woman is brave. A Russian woman will boldly follow what she believes in, and she proved it. But she "is given to another and will be faithful to him for a century." To whom, what is true? What are these responsibilities? To this old general, whom she cannot love, because she loves Onegin, but whom she married only because her "mother prayed with tears of spells", and in her offended, wounded soul there was then only despair and no hope, no light? Yes, she is faithful to this general, her husband, an honest man who loves her, respects her and is proud of her. Let her "mother begged" her, but she, and no one else, agreed, she, after all, she herself swore to him to be his honest wife. Let her marry him out of desperation, but now he is her husband, and her betrayal will cover him with shame, shame and kill him. And how can a person base his happiness on the misfortune of another? Happiness is not only in the pleasures of love, but also in the highest harmony of the spirit. How to calm the spirit if a dishonest, ruthless, inhuman act stands behind? Should she run away just because my happiness is here? But what kind of happiness can there be if it is based on someone else's misfortune? Let me imagine that you yourself are building the building of human destiny with the goal of making people happy in the end, finally giving them peace and tranquility. And now imagine, too, that for this it is necessary and inevitably necessary to torture only one human being, moreover, even if not so worthy, even funny in a different way, a creature, not some Shakespeare, but just an honest old man, a young husband his wife, in whose love he blindly believes, although he does not know her heart at all, respects her, is proud of her, is happy with her and is calm. And only he must be disgraced, dishonored and tortured, and your building should be erected on the tears of this dishonored old man! Will you agree to be the architect of such a building on this condition? Here is the question. And can you admit even for a minute the idea that the people for whom you built this building would themselves agree to accept such happiness from you, if suffering is laid in its foundation, let's say, though an insignificant creature, but mercilessly and unjustly tortured, and , having accepted this happiness, to remain forever happy? Tell me, could Tatyana decide otherwise, with her lofty soul, with her heart, so affected? Not; The pure Russian soul decides this way: “Let me alone lose happiness, let my misfortune be infinitely stronger than the misfortune of this old man, may, finally, no one ever, and this old man too, recognize my sacrifice and appreciate it, but I don’t want to be happy by ruining another!” Here is a tragedy, it is happening, and it is impossible to go over the limit, it is already too late, and now Tatyana sends Onegin away. They will say: yes, Onegin is also unhappy; Saved one and killed another! Excuse me, here is another question, and perhaps even the most important one in the poem. By the way, the question why Tatyana did not go with Onegin has a very characteristic history among us, at least in our literature, and therefore I allowed myself to expand on this issue in this way. And what is most characteristic is that the moral solution of this question has been questioned by us for so long. This is how I think: even if Tatyana had become free, if her old husband had died and she had become a widow, then even then she would not have followed Onegin. It is necessary to understand the whole essence of this character! After all, she sees who he is: the eternal wanderer suddenly saw a woman, whom he had previously neglected, in a new brilliant, inaccessible environment - but in this environment, perhaps, the whole point of the matter. After all, this girl, whom he almost despised, is now worshiped by the light - the light, this terrible authority for Onegin, despite all his worldly aspirations - that's because, that's why he rushes to her blinded! Here is my ideal, he exclaims, here is my salvation, here is the outcome of my anguish, I overlooked it, and "happiness was so possible, so close!" And as before Aleko to Zemfira, so he rushes to Tatyana, looking for all his permissions in a new bizarre fantasy. But doesn’t Tatyana see this in him, but didn’t she see him for a long time? After all, she knows for sure that he, in essence, loves only his new fantasy, and not her, humble, as before, Tatyana! She knows that he takes her for something else, and not for what she is, that he does not even love her, that maybe he does not love anyone, and is not even capable of loving anyone. despite suffering so painfully! He loves fantasy, but he is a fantasy himself. After all, if she goes after him, then tomorrow he will be disappointed and look at his passion mockingly. It has no soil, it is a blade of grass carried by the wind. She is not like that at all: she, both in despair and in the suffering consciousness that her life has perished, still has something solid and unshakable on which her soul rests. These are her childhood memories, memories of her homeland, the rural wilderness, in which her humble, pure life began - this is "a cross and a shadow of branches over the grave of her poor nanny." Oh, these memories and former images are now the most precious thing to her, these images are the only ones left to her, but they save her soul from final despair. And this is not a little, no, there is already a lot, because here is a whole foundation, here is something unshakable and indestructible. Here is contact with the motherland, with the native people, with its shrine. What does he have and who is he? She should not follow him out of compassion, only to amuse him, so that at least for a while, out of infinite loving pity, give him a ghost of happiness, knowing firmly in advance that tomorrow he will look at this happiness with mockery. No, there are deep and firm souls who cannot consciously give up their shrine to shame, even if only out of infinite compassion. No, Tatyana could not follow Onegin.

So, in "Onegin", in this immortal and inaccessible poem of his, Pushkin was a great folk writer, as no one had ever been before him. He at once, in the most apt, most far-sighted way, marked the very depths of our essence, our superior society standing above the people. Noting the type of Russian wanderer, a wanderer to this day and in our day, the first to guess him with his ingenious instinct, with his historical fate and with his great significance in our future fate, putting next to him the type of positive and indisputable beauty in the face of a Russian woman, Pushkin, and, of course, also the first of the Russian writers, showed us in other works of this period of his activity a number of positively beautiful Russian types, finding them among the Russian people. The main beauty of these types is in their truth, indisputable and tangible truth, so that it is no longer possible to deny them, they stand as if sculpted. Let me remind you once again: I am not speaking as a literary critic, and therefore I will not explain my thought with a particularly detailed literary discussion of these brilliant works of our poet. On the type of Russian monk-chronicler, for example, one could write a whole book to indicate the full importance and all the significance for us of this majestic Russian image, found by Pushkin in the Russian land, brought out by him, sculpted by him and set before us now forever in an indisputable , humble and majestic spiritual beauty, as evidence of that powerful spirit of folk life, which can single out images of such undeniable truth. This type is given, it is, it cannot be disputed, it cannot be said that it is an invention, that it is only a fantasy and idealization of the poet. You contemplate for yourself and agree: yes, it is, therefore, the spirit of the people that created it, is, therefore, the life force of this spirit is, and it is great and immense. Everywhere in Pushkin one hears faith in the Russian character, faith in his spiritual power, and if faith, therefore, is hope, great hope for the Russian person,

In the hope of glory and good
I look ahead without fear,

the poet himself said on a different occasion, but these words can be directly applied to all of his national creative activity. And never before has a single Russian writer, either before or after her, united so sincerely and kindly with his people as Pushkin. Oh, we have many connoisseurs of our people among writers who wrote so talentedly, so aptly and so lovingly about the people, but meanwhile, if we compare them with Pushkin, then, really, so far, for one, there are many things for two exceptions from his most recent followers, these are only "gentlemen" who write about the people. Among the most talented of them, even among these two exceptions, which I have just mentioned, no, no, and something arrogant will suddenly flash, something from a different way of life and world, something that wants to elevate the people to itself and make them happy with this uplift. In Pushkin, there is precisely something that is really related to the people, reaching in it almost to some kind of simple-hearted tenderness. Take the Tale of the Bear and how a peasant killed his bear lady, or remember the verses:

Swat Ivan, how we will drink.

and you will understand what I want to say.

All these treasures of art and artistic insight were left by our great poet, as if in the form of an indication for future artists who would follow him, for future workers in the same field. One can positively say: if there were no Pushkin, there would be no talents that followed him. At least, they would not have manifested themselves in such strength and with such clarity, despite their great gifts, in which they managed to express themselves later, even today. But it’s not only one thing in poetry, not only in artistic creativity: if there weren’t Pushkin, they wouldn’t have decided, perhaps with such unshakable strength (in which it appeared later, although still not for everyone, but for very few) our faith in our Russian independence, our now conscious hope in our popular forces, and then our faith in the future independent appointment in the family of European peoples. This feat of Pushkin becomes especially clear if we delve into what I call the third period of his artistic activity.

I repeat again and again: these periods do not have such firm boundaries. Some of the works even of this third period could, for example, appear at the very beginning of our poet’s poetic activity, for Pushkin was always an integral, integral, so to speak, organism that carried all its rudiments at once, within itself, without perceiving them from outside. Appearance only awakened in him what was already contained in the depths of his soul. But this organism has developed, and the periods of this development can indeed be identified and noted, in each of them, its special character and the gradual degeneration of one period from another. Thus, the category of his works can be attributed to the third period, in which world ideas predominantly shone, the poetic images of other peoples were reflected and their geniuses were embodied. Some of these works appeared after Pushkin's death. And in this period of his activity, our poet is something almost even miraculous, unheard of and never seen before him anywhere and by anyone. In fact, in European literature there were artistic geniuses of enormous magnitude - Shakespeares, Cervantes, Schillers. But point to at least one of these great geniuses who would possess such a capacity for universal responsiveness as our Pushkin. And it is precisely this ability, the most important ability of our nationality, that he shares with our people, and that, most importantly, he is a people's poet. The greatest of European poets could never embody with such force the genius of a foreign, neighboring, perhaps with them, people, its spirit, all the hidden depths of this spirit and all the longing of its vocation, as Pushkin could show it. On the contrary, addressing foreign nationalities, European poets most often reincarnated them into their own nationality and understood them in their own way. Even in Shakespeare, his Italians, for example, are almost entirely the same English. Pushkin is only one of all the world's poets who has the ability to completely transform into a foreign nationality. Here are scenes from "Faust", here is "The Miserly Knight" and the ballad "There once was a poor knight in the world." Re-read "Don Juan", and if it were not for Pushkin's signature, you would never know that it was not written by a Spaniard. What deep, fantastic images in the poem "A Feast in the Time of the Plague"! But in these fantastic images one can hear the genius of England; this wonderful song about the plague of the hero of the poem, this song of Mary with verses:

Our children in a noisy school
Voices were heard

these are English songs, this is the anguish of the British genius, his weeping, his pained foreboding of his future. Remember the strange verses:

Once wandering among the wild valley...

This is an almost literal transcription of the first three pages from a strange mystical book written in prose by an ancient English religious sectarian - but is this just a transcription? In the melancholy and ecstatic music of these verses one feels the very soul of northern Protestantism, the English heresiarch, the boundless mystic, with his dull, gloomy and irresistible aspiration and with all the unrestrained mystical dreaming. Reading these strange verses, you seem to hear the spirit of centuries of reformation, you understand this militant fire of the beginning of Protestantism, you finally understand history itself, and not only by thought, but as if you yourself were there, passed by the armed camp of sectarians, sang with them their hymns, wept with them in their mystical delights, and believed with them in what they believed. By the way: next to this religious mysticism, there are religious stanzas from the Koran or "Imitation of the Koran": isn't there a Muslim here, isn't this the very spirit of the Koran and its sword, the ingenuous majesty of faith and its formidable bloody power? And here is the ancient world, here are the "Egyptian nights", here are these earthly gods, who sat down above the people as their gods, already despising the genius of the people and its aspirations, no longer believing in it anymore, having indeed become solitary gods and distraught in their separation, in the dying in their boredom and longing they amuse themselves with fantastic atrocities, the voluptuousness of insects, the voluptuousness of a female spider eating her male. No, I positively say that there was no poet with such universal responsiveness as Pushkin, and the point here is not only in responsiveness, but in its amazing depth, but in the reincarnation of one’s spirit into the spirit of foreign peoples, the reincarnation is almost perfect, and therefore miraculous, because nowhere in any poet of the whole world has such a phenomenon been repeated. This is only in Pushkin, and in this sense, I repeat, he is an unprecedented and unheard-of phenomenon, and in our opinion, prophetic, because ... further development, the nationality of our future, already hidden in the present, was expressed prophetically. For what is the strength of the spirit of the Russian people if not its striving towards universality and all-humanity in its ultimate goals? Having become a completely popular poet, Pushkin immediately, as soon as he touched the strength of the people, already foresees the great future purpose of this strength. Here he is a guesser, here he is a prophet.

In fact, what is the Petrine reform for us, and not only in the future, but even in what has already happened, what has already happened with our own eyes? What did this reform mean for us? After all, it was not only for us the assimilation of European costumes, customs, inventions and European science. Let's take a closer look at how it happened. Yes, it is very possible that Peter initially only in this sense began to produce it, that is, in the sense of the most utilitarian, but later, in the further development of his idea, Peter undoubtedly obeyed some secret instinct that attracted him, in his work, to future goals undoubtedly greater than the immediate utilitarianism alone. In the same way, the Russian people did not accept the reform out of utilitarianism alone, but undoubtedly having already sensed with their presentiment almost immediately some further, incomparably higher goal than the closest utilitarianism - having felt this goal, again, of course, I repeat this, unconsciously, but, nevertheless, both immediately and quite vitally. After all, at that time we rushed at once to the most vital reunion, to the unity of all mankind! We did not hostilely (as it seemed should have happened), but friendly, with complete love, accepted into our soul the geniuses of foreign nations, all together, without making predominant tribal distinctions, being able by instinct, almost from the very first step to distinguish, remove contradictions, to excuse and reconcile differences, and thus have already shown our readiness and inclination, which has just appeared to us and said to us, for a universal universal reunion with all the tribes of the great Aryan race. Yes, the purpose of the Russian man is undeniably pan-European and worldwide. To become a real Russian, to become completely Russian, perhaps, means only (finally, emphasize this) to become a brother of all people, an all-man, if you like. Oh, all this Slavophilism and our Westernism is nothing but a great misunderstanding among us, although it is historically necessary. For a real Russian, Europe and the lot of the entire great Aryan tribe is just as precious as Russia itself, like the lot of its native land, because our lot is universality, and not acquired by the sword, but by the power of brotherhood and our fraternal desire for the reunification of people. If you want to delve into our history after the Petrine reform, you will already find traces and indications of this thought, this dream of mine, if you like, in the nature of our communication with the European tribes, even in our state policy. For what did Russia do in all these two centuries in its policy, if it did not serve Europe, perhaps much more than itself? I don't think that it happened only from the inability of our politicians. Oh, the peoples of Europe do not even know how dear they are to us! And later, I believe in this, we, that is, of course, not we, but the future future Russian people will understand everything to the last, what to become a real Russian will mean exactly: to strive to bring reconciliation into European contradictions already completely, to indicate the outcome of the European yearning in your Russian soul, all-human and reuniting, to accommodate all our brothers with brotherly love, and in the end, perhaps, to utter the final word of the great, common harmony, the fraternal final consent of all tribes according to Christ's gospel law! I know, I know too well, that my words may seem enthusiastic, exaggerated and fantastic. Let, but I do not regret that I expressed them. This had to be said, but especially now, at the moment of our triumph, at the moment of honoring our great genius, who embodied this very idea in his artistic power. Yes, and this idea has already been expressed more than once, I am not saying anything new. The main thing is that all this will seem arrogant: “Is this our fate, they say, our poor, our rough land? Is it destined for us in humanity to express a new word?” Well, am I talking about economic glory, about the glory of the sword or science? I am talking only about the brotherhood of people and about the fact that the Russian heart, perhaps of all peoples, is most destined for universal, for all-human fraternal unity, I see traces of this in our history, in our gifted people, in the artistic genius of Pushkin. Let our land be poor, but this impoverished land "in the form of a slave came blessing" Christ. Why can't we include his last word? And he himself was not born in a manger? I repeat: at least we can already point to Pushkin, to the universality and all-humanity of his genius. After all, he could accommodate other people's geniuses in his soul, like relatives. In art, at least in artistic creativity, he showed this universal aspiration of the Russian spirit undeniably, and this is already a great indication. If our thought is a fantasy, then with Pushkin there is at least something to base this fantasy on. If he had lived longer, perhaps he would have revealed the immortal and great images of the Russian soul, already understandable to our European brothers, would have attracted them to us much more and closer than now, perhaps he would have had time to explain to them the whole truth of our aspirations, and they would already understand us more than they do now, they would begin to predict us, they would stop looking at us so distrustfully and arrogantly, as they still look at us now. If Pushkin had lived longer, perhaps there would have been less misunderstandings and disputes between us than we see now. But God judged otherwise. Pushkin died in the full development of his powers and undoubtedly took some great secret with him into the coffin. And now we are solving this mystery without him.

How does the Church treat the words of F.M. Dostoevsky from the novel "The Brothers Karamazov" that the most important thing is for a person to be happy?

Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) answers:

The words that people are created for happiness belong to the elder Zosima. In the artistic work of F.M. Dostoevsky reveals his ideological positions with the entire figurative and compositional structure of the work. Verbally, the writer expresses his thoughts only in the “Diary of a Writer” and in correspondence. In a letter from Ems (August 7/19, 1879) to the physicist and publicist N.A. Lyubimov F.M. Dostoevsky wrote: “It goes without saying that many of the teachings of my elder Zosima (or, rather, the way they are expressed) belong to his face, that is, to his artistic image. I, though quite the same thoughts that he expresses, but if personally Push expressed them, he would have expressed them in a different form and in a different language. He is could not neither in another language nor in in a different spirit to be expressed, as in the one I gave him. Otherwise, an artistic face would not have been created.

Words about happiness were said to the landowner who visited the old man, who suffered from disbelief in a future life, in response to her remark (“And what are you sick with? You look so healthy, cheerful, happy”): “I feel unusually better today, but I already know it's only a minute. I now understand my illness unmistakably. If I seem so cheerful to you, then nothing and never could you please me so much as by making such a remark. For people are made for happiness , and whoever is completely happy is directly worthy to say to himself: “I have fulfilled the covenant of God on this earth.” All the righteous, all the saints, all the holy martyrs were all happy.” This opinion correlates with the theological understanding of the purpose of the creation of man.

The Holy Fathers are united in understanding the purpose of the creation of man - eternal bliss.

Saint Gregory the Theologian: “We received existence in order to prosper; and prospered after they received being; we were entrusted with paradise to enjoy; a commandment was given to us, so that by keeping it, we would earn glory.”

Saint John of Damascus: "As good, God created us not to punish, but that we should be partakers of His goodness."

Saint Philaret of Moscow: “God created man with such a purpose that he would know God, love and glorify Him, and through this he would be eternally blessed.”

Rev. Justin (Popovich): “Man was created in order to participate in the blessedness of God by means of perfecting himself in the goodness of God and therefore to glorify God, his Creator and Savior.”

In the biblical sense, the word "blessed" (Heb. ashre; Greek makarios- letters. "happy") means the highest degree of happiness. Its fullness will be in the Kingdom of Heaven, but those who sincerely live according to the gospel commandments while still on earth, by virtue of communion with God, are rewarded with sublime joy, which is a foretaste of future unearthly happiness. Elder Zosima, in contrast to narrow worldly ideas, says that all the saints, including the martyrs, were happy because they "fulfilled the covenant of God on this earth."

Speaking about the ways to achieve perfect happiness, Christianity does not oppose it to earthly happiness. Happiness is a state in which a person experiences inner satisfaction, fullness and meaningfulness of life and the fulfillment of his destination. It is also possible in earthly life, but it is incomplete and temporary. “It is no small matter for those who are in happiness not to be proud of their prosperity, but to be able to modestly use happiness” (St. John Chrysostom). The same saint points out that in achieving happiness, the main thing is the internal structure of a person, and not external circumstances: “Many, abounding in wealth, consider life unbearable, while others, living in extreme poverty, always remain the most joyful of all.” Continuing this thought, the saint emphasizes that neither poverty, nor illness, nor reproach, nor insult, nor dishonor are misfortunes when a person lives righteously. "True misfortune consists in offending God and doing something that is not pleasing to Him."

The most damaging to happiness is pride. The person infected with it is unhappy himself and causes harm to others. “A proud and rebellious man will see bitter days; but the humble and patient will always rejoice in the Lord” (St. Ephraim the Syrian). A proud person is alienated from God and often falls into severe temptations. “There is nothing worse than pride, which is why God constantly strikes it with all means” (St. John Chrysostom).

F.M. Dostoevsky, in his speech at the Pushkin jubilee (June 8, 1880), called for humility. This call was directed against all socialists, revolutionaries and reformers who, possessed by vanity, want to forcibly make all people happy: “Humble yourself, proud man, and above all break your pride. Humble yourself, idle man, and above all work hard in your native field, ”this is the decision according to the people's truth and the people's mind. “The truth is not outside of you, but in yourself; find yourself and yourself, subdue yourself, master yourself - and you will see the truth. This truth is not in things, not outside of you and not somewhere beyond the sea, but above all in your own work on yourself. You will conquer yourself, you will pacify yourself - and you will become free, as you never imagined yourself, and you will start a great deed, and you will make others free, and you will see happiness, for your life will be filled, and you will finally understand your people and their holy truth. Gypsies and nowhere else have world harmony, if you yourself are the first unworthy of it, angry and proud and demand life for free, without even assuming that you have to pay for it.

Happiness comes from hard work. The most difficult work must be done on oneself in order to cultivate the field of one's soul and remove from it all the weeds and thorns. In the preparatory materials for the novel "Crime and Punishment", while working on the third edition, F.M. Dostoevsky wrote: “There is no happiness in comfort, happiness is bought by suffering. Such is the law of our planet, but this immediate consciousness, felt by the life process, is such a great joy that one can pay for years of suffering. Man is not born to be happy. Man deserves happiness, and always suffering. F.M. Dostoevsky came to this idea experimentally. Vsevolod Sergeevich Solovyov (1849-1903) recalls him in the words of the writer about his suffering in hard labor: “When I found myself in the fortress, I thought that this was the end for me, I thought that I could not stand it for three days, and - suddenly I completely calmed down . After all, what did I do there? .. I wrote “The Little Hero” - read it, can you see bitterness, torment in it? I had quiet, good, kind dreams, and then the further, the better. ABOUT! it was a great happiness for me - Siberia and hard labor! They say: horror, anger, they talk about the legitimacy of some kind of anger! Terrible nonsense! It was only there that I lived a healthy, happy life, I understood myself there, my dear ... I understood Christ ... ”It was the experience of Christian suffering that helped F.M. Dostoevsky to express patristic thoughts about true happiness by artistic means.

“Night at sunrise with the evening star.
Quietly shines with a jet of gold
Western edge.
Lord, our path is between stones and thorns,
Our path is in darkness: You, Light of the non-evening,
Shine us!
In the mist of midnight, in the midday heat,
In sorrow and joy, in sweet peace,
In a tough fight
Everywhere the radiance of the Holy Sun,
God's wisdom, and power, and word...
Glory to Thee!”

A.S. Khomyakov. Evening Song

Christian, always remember and always carry in your heart the great words of the Lord's Prayer: Our Father, Who is ecu in Heaven. Remember who our Father is. God is our Father, our Love. Who are we? We are His children, and we are brothers among ourselves. In what kind of love should the children of such a Father live among themselves? As soon as the children of Abraham were, the works of Abraham were quickly done (Jn. 8:39). What things should we do? Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. Give us our daily bread today (our bread [common to all], and not your own; pride must be banished from the hearts of the children of God: we are one) and leave us our debts (if you want and love God to forgive you sins, - for consider it a custom to forgive sins even to people who sin against you, love is long-suffering and merciful [cf.: 1 Corinthians 13, 4]). Do not lead into temptation (and do not fall into temptation yourself: do not let your feet be in turmoil, the Lord will slumber below, keep you, your cover on your right hand [cf.: Ps. 120, 3, 5]). But deliver us from the evil one (do not give yourself up to his will, and the Lord will not betray you to him). As Yours is the Kingdom (recognize the one King - God and work for Him alone) and strength (kg. Trust His almighty power) and glory (jealous for His glory with all your might and all your life). Amen. All this is true.
Saying: Our Father, we must believe and remember that the Heavenly Father never forgets and will not forget us, for what kind earthly father forgets and does not care for his children? I will not forget you, says the Lord (Isaiah 49:15). Take these words to your heart! Remember that the Heavenly Father constantly surrounds you with love and care and is not in vain called your Father.

Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt

Follow the commandments of God exactly!

We should be prompted to the faithful and exact fulfillment of the law of God by the fact that the law of God, according to the word of the Apostle Paul, is holy, that every commandment of God, according to the word of the same apostle, is holy and righteous and good (Rom. 7; 12). And truly, can something imperfect and unimportant come out of the mouth of the Creator, the All-Wise, All-Good and Most Holy, something that can be neglected as unnecessary and useless for us? No, all the words of the Lord are spirit and life (John 6; 63), all of them with high intelligence inspire us with what is needed for our good in this and the future life. If you want to be more convinced of this, consider the commandments of God, and you will indeed not find a single one among them that would be superfluous and useless, but, on the contrary, you will clearly see that they are all very necessary and beneficial for us. For example, in the first two commandments of the Decalogue, the Lord commands us that we recognize Him alone as God and not worship idols; who does not see how necessary these commandments are to protect us from pernicious polytheism and pagan errors? So, in the Fifth Commandment, the Lord orders us to honor our parents, and under their name inspires us to show due respect to those who, like them, are taking care of us, somehow: Sovereign, rulers and spiritual shepherds; Is it not obvious that this is required by the good of the family, church and society? Here, in other commandments, the Lord commands that we do not steal, do not commit adultery, do not encroach on the life, honor and property of others: oh, what would be in the world if there were no these commandments and people did not fulfill them! .. Then people like fierce beasts, they would torment and eat each other, then the world would turn into a den of murderers and robbers; then it would become worse than Sodom and Gomorrah in debauchery, and it would be impossible for honest people to live in it! In short, every commandment of God is very necessary and beneficial, because it inspires us with something that is useful for us and for others. And from this it is clear, brethren, that we must faithfully fulfill the law of God, not only out of obedience to the Creator, the Legislator, but also for our own good, and not only temporal, but also eternal.
We must carefully fulfill the law of God, not only for our temporal, but also for our eternal good, for the just God promises us a great reward in eternity for its fulfillment, and threatens with severe punishment for violation. The Lord, - says the apostle, - on the day of the righteous Judgment ... will reward everyone according to his deeds. Then there will be sorrow and distress for every soul of a person who does evil... glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good (Rom. 2; 5-6, 9, 10). Do you feel, brethren, the whole force of the urge contained in these words to do good, to fulfill the law of God? What kind of prudent person would not be zealous to fulfill the law of God now, even if it involved some labor for him, so that later he would forever be blessed in the glory and honor of heaven, and who would be so reckless that he decides now, for the sake of a temporary sin of sweetness, to transgress the law of God in order to suffer forever for their sins in the flames of Gehenna? If among us there are such reckless ones, then they are truly pitiable ...

Metropolitan Platon of Kyiv

Do we wish for heaven?

Do you, my brothers, after your death desire to go to heaven, to the Kingdom of Heaven, where is our Lord Jesus Christ now? Of course, you say we want. What shows you what you want? Whoever desires what he thinks about - and how often do we think about heaven? Whoever wants what, he speaks about it - and how often do we talk about heaven? Whoever wants what, he works and works for this, - but do we work for heaven, do we work? Whoever desires what asks God most of all, but do we ask God for the Kingdom of Heaven most of all when we pray? And now, for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven, have we come to the temple of prayer?
Ah, my brethren, in our lives it is almost invisible that we desire to be in heaven. What do we desire? Where will we be when we die? In the future life there are only two divisions, two places: heaven and hell, the Kingdom of Heaven and outer darkness. This means that whoever does not ascend to heaven after death will fall into hell. Without any doubt, we don't want to be in hell. May the Lord God deliver everyone from the place prepared for the devil and his angels.
So what do we want? What do we care about, what do we work for, what do we worry about? We don't know ourselves. Yes, our life sometimes bears little resemblance to the life of rational creatures; even less does it resemble the life of Christ's disciples, Christ's followers. What kind of followers of Christ are we if we do not strive to where He, our Lord, is now? What kind of intelligent creatures are we when we don’t even want to think about where we will be after death? - So to think about our salvation, to wish ourselves salvation, and not just to achieve it, we cannot, Lord, without Your help to us.
Christ Jesus, ascend to heaven, enlighten me by Your grace that I myself do not know what I am doing, and whether I want to or not, save me, guide me on the path to Your Heavenly Kingdom! Amen.

Humble yourself, proud man!

Nowhere will you find peace, man, as soon as in humility, and you will not experience such embarrassment as in pride. If you want to have peace and quiet, then be humble; but if not, then in rumors and confusion, in sorrow and sorrow you will wear out your life and you will always be subject to a fall. Humble yourself before all, and you will be exalted by the Lord. It is of little use if you begin to exalt yourself, and not God will exalt you. Your exaltation is falling away from God, and your exaltation from God is accomplished by His grace. You did not call yourself to life and you do not know where you will move from this temporary life. Be humble so that you always say to the prophet: Lord! my heart was not puffed up and my eyes were not lifted up, and I did not enter into the great and inaccessible to me (Ps. 130: 1). How can you exalt yourself when without God's help you can do nothing good yourself? So humble yourself, as God made you humble. God made you humble, and you are arrogant! God allowed that without Him you could not do anything good, and you ascribe everything to yourself and exalt yourself! What do you have that you wouldn't get? And if you have received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? (1 Cor. 4; 7), says the apostle.
You have nothing to be proud of, man: you have nothing good of your own, you have nothing of your own. Have you ever been in this world before? Was not. Do you know when your mother conceived you in the womb? Or were you born by your industry? Do you comprehend what end you will come to? If, however, you do not know and comprehend all this, then why do you needlessly pride yourself not in your own, but in God's? If people ascribe something good to you, attribute it all to God, for everything is from Him, He created everything. Just as branches without a root cannot produce anything from themselves, so you will not wish for anything good and you will not do anything without God's grace. The Lord is the root, and you are the branch: until then you can do anything pleasing to God while you are with God, and when you depart from God, you will fall into all evil.
Try and work in good, but do not rely on yourself, but always pray to God and diligently seek His help. If he helps you, the work will be done; if not, everything falls apart. If what is yours seems to be good, and the Lord is displeased, what good is it to you?
Do not be arrogant about yourself, do not think that you have surpassed others with your mind and wisdom and that you can embrace everything. Consider yourself the worst of all, so that the Lord will recognize you as the best. What is humility? Humility is self-knowledge and self-abasement. And it is righteous to recognize yourself as nothing: after all, you were created from nothing. And do not consider yourself anything, because you have nothing of your own, your own. We are created from nothing and do not know where we will go, and how the Lord will arrange us. By the will of the Lord, we were born and then we will turn into stench, dust and ashes, and our soul will be arranged, as the Lord Himself knows, the Creator and Builder of all.

Saint Demetrius of Rostov

Priests - ministers at the throne of God

A great person is a priest, a servant at the throne of God. Who offends him offends the Holy Spirit who lives in him.
One must always remember that the confessor performs his ministry in the Holy Spirit, and therefore one must revere him. Believe, brothers, that if someone happens to die with a confessor, the dying confessor will say: “Holy Father, bless me to see the Lord in the Kingdom of Heaven,” and the confessor will say: “Go, child, and see God,” then it will be for him. the blessing of the confessor, because the Holy Spirit is the same in Heaven and on earth.
The Lord gave the Holy Church shepherds, and they serve in the image of Christ, and they have been given the power to forgive sins by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit acts through the confessor in the Sacrament, and therefore, when you leave the confessor, the soul feels its renewal with peace and love for your neighbor, and if you leave the confessor embarrassed, it means you have confessed uncleanly, and you yourself have not forgiven your brother from the soul of his sins.
Where there is no resistance on the part of the student to the teacher, the soul of the latter, in response to faith and humility, opens easily and, perhaps, to the end. But as soon as there is even a slight resistance to the spiritual father, the thread of pure tradition is inevitably interrupted, and the soul of the teacher is closed.