EXCERPTS from MY LIFE IN CHRIST by ST. JOHN OF KRONSTADT

How is it that the saints see us and our needs and hear our prayers? Let us make the following comparison: Suppose that you were transplanted to the sun and were united to it. The sun lights the whole earth with its rays, it lights every particle of the earth. In these rays you also see the earth, but you are so small in proportion to the sun, that you would form, so to say, but one ray, and there are an infinite number of such rays. By its identity with the sun this ray takes an intimate part in lighting the whole world through the sun. So also the saintly soul, having become united to God, as to its spiritual sun, sees, through the medium of its spiritual sun, which lights the whole universe, all men and the needs of those that pray. As you are aware, man, in his words, does not die; he is immortal in them, and they will speak after his death. I shall die, but shall speak even after my death. How many immortal words are in use amongst the living, which were left by those who have died long ago, and which sometimes still live in the mouths of a whole people! How powerful is the word even of an ordinary man! Still more so is the Word of God: it will live throughout all ages, and will always be living and acting. When praying, we must absolutely subject our heart to our will, and turn it towards God. It must be neither cold, crafty, untruthful, nor double - minded, otherwise what will be the use of our prayers, of our preparation for the Sacrament? It is good for us to hear God's voice of anger: "This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." So do not let us stand in church in a state of spiritual prostration, but let the spirit of each one of us on such occasions burn in its working towards God. Even men do not much value the services which we render to them coldly, out of habit. And God requires our hearts. "My son, give Me thine heart." Because the heart is the principal part of the man - his life. More than this, the heart is the man himself. Thus he who does not pray or does not serve God with his heart, does not pray at all, because in that case his body only prays, and the body without the mind is nothing more than earth. Remember, that when standing in prayer, you stand before God Himself, who has the wisdom of all. Therefore, your prayer ought to be, so to say, all spirit, all understanding. As the breath is necessary for the body, and as without breathing men cannot live, so likewise the soul cannot truly live without the breath of God's Spirit. As air is necessary for the body, so is the Holy Ghost for the soul. Air has some likeness to the Holy Ghost. As "the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." When your heart inclines to evil, and the evil one begins to undermine your heart, so that it is completely removed from the rock of faith, then say to yourself inwardly: "I know of my spiritual poverty, my own nothingness without faith. I am so weak, that it is only by Christ's name that I live and obtain peace, that I rejoice and my heart expands, whilst without Him I am spiritually dead, I am troubled, and my heart is oppressed; without the Lord's Cross I should have been long since the victim of the most cruel distress and despair. Only Christ keeps me alive: and the Cross is my peace and my consolation." If the fervour of faith in the heart is not sometimes stirred up, then in time, through negligence, faith may become entirely extinguished in us; and Christianity with its Sacraments may entirely die for us. The enemy takes pains to attain this end, and tries to extinguish faith in our hearts and to bury in oblivion all the truths of Christianity. That is why we see men who, being Christians, are only such in name, while by their actions they are quite heathen. You wish to comprehend the incomprehensible; but can you understand how the inward sorrows with which your heart is overwhelmed overtake you, and can you find, except in the Lord, the means to drive them away? Learn at first, with your heart, how to free yourself from sorrows, how to ensure peace in your heart, and then, if necessary, philosophise on the incomprehensible, for "if ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?" Those who are trying to lead a spiritual life have to carry on a most skilful and difficult warfare, through their thoughts, every moment of their life - that is, a spiritual warfare; it is necessary that our whole soul should be every moment a clear eye, able to watch and notice the thoughts entering our heart from the evil one and repel them; the hearts of such men should be always burning with faith, humility and love; otherwise the subtlety of the Devil finds an easy access to them, followed by a diminution of faith, or entire unbelief, and then by every possible evil, which it will be difficult to wash away even by tears. Do not, therefore, allow your heart to be cold, especially during prayer, and avoid in every way cold indifference. Very often it happens that prayer is on the lips, but in the heart cunning, incredulity or unbelief, so that by the lips the man seems near to God, whilst in his heart he is far from Him. And, during our prayers, the evil one makes use of every means to chill our hearts and fill them with deceit in a most imperceptible manner to us. Pray and fortify yourself, fortify your heart. If you wish to ask of God in prayer any blessing for yourself, then before praying prepare yourself for undoubting and firm faith, and take in good time means against doubt and unbelief. For it will go ill with you if during the prayer itself your heart wavers in its faith and does not stand firm in it; then do not even expect to obtain of the Lord what you have prayed for doubtingly, for in so doing you have offended the Lord, and God does not bestow His gifts upon a reviler. "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive," said the Lord. This means, that if you doubt and do not believe, you shall not receive. "If ye have faith and doubt not," said He also, "ye shall have power to move mountains." Therefore, if you doubt and do not believe, you shall not have power to do so. "Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed," says the Apostle James; "for let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double - minded man is unstable in all his ways." The heart that doubts that God can grant what it asks for is punished for this doubt: it is painfully oppressed and contracted by doubt. Do not anger Almighty God even by a shade of doubt - especially you, who have already experienced many and many times, the omnipotence of God. Doubt is a blasphemy against God, an insolent lie of the heart or of the lying spirit that nestles in the heart, against the spirit of truth. Fear it as you would fear a venomous serpent, or no - what I would rather say, is, despise it, do not take the slightest heed of it. Remember that God, during your prayer, is waiting for your affirmative answer to the question which He is inwardly asking you: "Believe ye that I am able to do this?" To which question you must from the depth of your heart reply, "Yea, Lord."Let the following considerations also help you in your doubt or unbelief: I ask of God, firstly, that which already exists, and nothing merely imaginary not a fanciful good, and everything that exists receives its being from God: because "without Him was not anything made that was made,"and therefore, nothing that happens can happen without Him, and everything has either received its being from Him, or happens by His will or His permission, by means of powers and faculties given by Him to His creatures - and in everything that exists or is still happening, God is an all - powerful Master. Besides this, "He calleth those things which be not as though they were." Therefore, had I even asked for that which does not exist, He could give it to me by creating it. Secondly, I ask of God what is possible, because what is impossible for us is possible for God; and there cannot be any difficulty even in this respect, because God can do for me even that which is impossible in my own opinion. It is our misfortune that our faith is hindered by the short - sightedness of our reason – that spider, that catches the truth in the web of its judgments, its arguments and analogies. Faith embraces and sees suddenly, whilst reason arrives at the truth by circuitous ways; faith is the means of communication between one spirit and another, whilst reason is the means of communication between the spiritually sensual and the spiritually sensual and even simply material: the first is the spirit and the latter the flesh. Having Christ in your heart, fear that you may lose Him, and with Him the peace of your heart; it is hard to begin again; efforts to attach oneself afresh to Him after falling away will be very grievous, and will cost bitter tears to many. Cling to Christ with all your might, gain Him, and do not lose boldness in approaching Him. Wherever I am, as soon as I raise the eyes of my heart in my affliction to God, the Lover of men immediately answers my faith and prayer, and the sorrow immediately departs. He is at every time and every hour near me, only I do not see it, but I feel it vividly in my heart. Sorrow is the death of the heart, and it is a falling away from God. The expansion, the peace of heart through lively faith in Him, prove more clearly than the day, that God is constantly present near me, and that He dwells within me. What intercessor or angel can set us free from our sins or sorrows? None, but God alone. This is from experience. The evil spirit tries to scatter prayer as if it were a sand - heap, tries to turn the words into dry sand, without coherency or moisture - - that is to say, without fervour of heart. Thus prayer may become either a house built on sand or a house built on a rock. Those build on sand who pray without faith, absently, coldly; such prayer is scattered of itself, and does not bring any profit to him who prays; those build on a rock who, during the whole time of their prayer, have their eyes fixed upon God, and pray to Him as to a living person, conversing face to face with them. Many do not pray because it seems to them that they did not receive any gift from God when they prayed before, or because they consider praying unnecessary; they say that God knows everything without our asking, and forget that it is said: "Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Our requests (prayers) are necessary expressly to strengthen our faith, through which alone can we be saved. "By grace are we saved through faith." "O woman, great is thy faith." For this reason the Lord made the woman pray earnestly, in order to awaken her faith and to strengthen it. Such men do not see that they have no faith - - the Christian's most precious inheritance, which is as necessary as life itself - - that they "make Him a liar" by their unbelief, and that they are the children of the Devil, unworthy of any of God's mercies; that they are going to destruction. It is also necessary that our hearts should burn during prayer with a desire for spiritual blessings, with love to God, and that we should vividly represent to ourselves His extreme mercy to mankind, and His readiness to hear all our prayers with fatherly love. "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him?" God, being the eternal Truth, does not suffer in us even a moment of doubt in the truth. God, as the eternal Mercy, "will have all men to be saved, and to come into the knowledge of the truth." And we, the children of the merciful God, also must wish with our whole hearts that all men, and even our enemies, should be saved, and must care for this. Watch your heart during all your life - examine it, listen to it, and see what prevents its union with the most blessed Lord. Let this be for you the science of all sciences, and with God's help you will easily observe what estranges you from God, and what draws you towards Him and unites you to Him. It is the evil spirit more than anything that stands between our hearts and God; he estranges God from us by various passions, or by the desires of the flesh, by the desires of the eyes, and by worldly pride. The inner man, amidst worldly vanity, amidst the darkness of his flesh, is not so bound by the temptations of the evil one, and looks out more freely early in the morning, just after waking up, like a fish, which sometimes throws itself up playfully on the surface of the water. All the remaining time he is enveloped in almost impenetrable darkness, his eyes are covered by a bandage, which conceals from him the true state of things spiritual and physical. Take advantage of these morning hours, which are the hours of a new life, or of a life renewed by temporary sleep. They show us in part that state in which we shall be when we shall rise up renewed on that great and universal morning of the nightless day of resurrection, or when we shall rid ourselves of this mortal body. Do not spare yourself, but pray earnestly, even if you have been toiling all day. Do not be negligent in holy prayer; say it to God unto the end from your whole heart, for it is a duty you owe to God. Having put your hand to the plough, do not look back. If you allow yourself to pray carelessly, and not from your heart, you will not fall asleep (if you pray at night) until you have wiped out by tears your sin before God. This is not so with everybody, however, but only with the more perfect. Take care, then, not to put your flesh before God, and disdain, for His sake, bodily repose. If you have made a rule to read so many prayers (whether they be long or short, fulfil the reading of all of them well), read the prayers with all conscientiousness, and do not do God's work with your heart divided in two, so that only one half belongs to Him and the remaining half to your own flesh. God is a jealous God, and will not suffer your duplicity, your self - pity. He will deliver you up to the Devil, and the Devil will not let your heart rest for your neglect of God, Who is the true peace of your heart, and Who will always do that which is for your own good, so as to keep your heart near Him; for every insincere prayer removes your heart from God and sets it in opposition to you yourself, whilst every earnest prayer draws your heart nearer to God and makes it perpetually godly. Thus, be assured, if you hurry over your prayers, to give rest to your body, you will lose both spiritual and bodily rest. Oh! by what labour, sweat, and tears is the approach of our heart to God gained! Is it possible that we should again make our very prayers (when careless) the means of our estrangement from God, and that God should not be jealous of this? For He pities us and our former labours, and He desires that we should again unfailingly turn to Him with our whole hearts. He wishes that we should always belong to Him. The only means by which you can spend the day in perfect holiness, peace, and without sin, is the most sincere, fervent prayer as soon as you rise from sleep in the morning. It will bring Christ into your heart, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, and will thus strengthen and fortify your soul against any evil; but still it will be necessary for you carefully to guard your heart. Is it possible to pray rapidly without injuring the effect of the prayer? It is possible to those who have learned to pray inwardly with a pure heart. During prayer it is necessary that your heart should sincerely desire that which you ask for, should feel the truth of what you are saying, and this comes naturally to a pure heart. That is why it is capable of praying even rapidly, and at the same time agreeably, to God, as the rapidity in this case does not injure the truth (sincerity) of the prayer. But for those who have not attained the capability of praying sincerely it is necessary to pray slowly, waiting for a corresponding echo in the heart to each word of the prayer. And this is not always soon given to men unaccustomed to prayerful contemplation. Therefore, for such men, it must be laid down as an absolute rule to pronounce the words of the prayer slowly, and with pauses. Wait until every word gives back its corresponding echo in your heart. Our soul is, so to say, a reflection of God's countenance, and the brighter this reflection is, the clearer and calmer is the soul; and the less bright this reflection is, the darker, the more disturbed is the soul. And as our soul is our heart it is necessary that every truth of God should be reflected in it through feeling, through gratitude, and that there should be no reflection in it of any lie. Feel God's love in the most pure mysteries, feel the truth of all prayers. Our heart is a mirror; as the objects of the outer world are reflected in an ordinary mirror, so ought the truth to be reflected with all exactitude in our hearts. Sometimes during a long - continued prayer only a few minutes are really pleasing to God and constitute true prayer and true service to God. The chief thing in prayer is the nearness of the heart to God, as proved by the sweetness of God's presence in the soul. Begin to fulfil the commandments relating to small things, and you will come to fulfil the commandments relating to great things: small things everywhere lead to great ones. Begin by fulfilling the commandment of fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, or the tenth commandment relating to evil thoughts and desires, and you will eventually learn to fulfil all the commandments. "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much." Truth is the foundation of everything that has been created. Let truth be also the foundation of all your works (both inward and outward), and especially the foundation of your prayers. Let all your life, all your works, all your thoughts, and all your desires be founded upon truth. Why does not the sinful soul obtain remission of its sins before it feels all their foolish - ness, all their destructiveness, and all their falsity from the whole heart? Because the heart is our soul; as it committed the sins, finding them at the time pleasant and plausible, therefore it must now repent of them and recognise them as leading to destruction and entirely wrong. This repentance is accomplished painfully in the heart, as the desire to sin is also usually in the heart. The world, and especially the man, are finite. The world is only a point of rest for cor - poreal creatures, in order that they should not disappear into infinity. How should we keep the festivals? We must celebrate in them either the event (with a view of investigating the greatness of the event, its object, and the fruits it brought to those who believe) or the person; as, for instance, our Lord, the Mother of God, the angels and saints (with the view of investigating the relation of that person to God and to mankind and his beneficial influence upon God's Church in general). It is necessary to investigate the history of the event or of the person whose festival we solemnise, to approach it or him with, our whole heart, to absorb them, so to say, into ourselves; otherwise the festival will be in - complete, and not pleasing to God. The festivals ought to influence our life, to vivify and kindle our faith in future blessings, and maintain in us a pious and gentle disposition. Yet they are mostly spent in sin and folly and met with unbelieving, cold hearts, often wholly unprepared to feel the great mercies which God has vouchsafed to us through the particular event or person whose festival is celebrated. Man is constantly perishing through sin, and therefore he requires a constant daily Sa - viour. This Saviour is Jesus Christ, the Son of God; only call upon Him inwardly with living, clear - seeing faith in your salvation, and He will save you. Thus has He miraculously saved me an innumerable number of times; this salvation was as manifest as, for instance, the visit of any deliverer to a prison from which he frees the prisoner. It is necessary for a priest to experience himself the power of faith, the sweetness of prayer, and the remission of sins, and also to experience cases when prayer is unsuccessful, as well as spiritual afflictions, and the consolations of grace; so that in his prayer to God for the faithful he may say thus, "Give unto them the same blessings as those which Thou always givest to my unworthy self;" and so that he may be able to pray about everything from his own experience. Forced prayer develops hypocrisy, renders a man incapable of any occupation requiring meditation and makes him slothful in everything, even in fulfilling his duties. This should persuade all who pray in this manner to correct their mode of praying. We must pray gladly, with energy, from the whole heart. Do not pray to God only when you are obliged to, either in sorrow or in need, for "God loveth a cheerful giver." Most men not only bear Satan's burden willingly in their hearts, but they become so accustomed to it that they often do not feel it, and even imperceptibly increase it. Sometimes, however, the evil enemy increases his burden tenfold, and then they become terribly despondent and fainthearted, they murmur and blaspheme God's name. The usual means that men of our time take to drive away their anguish are entertainments, cards, dancing, and theatres. But such means afterwards increase still more the anguish and weariness of their hearts. If, happily, they turn to God, then the burden is removed from their heart, and they clearly see that previously the heaviest burden was lying on their heart, though frequently they did not feel it. O, how many men there are who have "forsaken [God] the Fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no [living] water"! Men have very many such broken cisterns - - nearly everybody has his own. The broken cisterns are our hearts, our passions. The greatest gift of God, which we mostly need and which we very often obtain from God, through our prayers, is peace or rest of heart. As the Lord Himself says: "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Therefore, having obtained this rest, rejoice, and consider yourself as rich and possessing all things. For a long time I did not clearly understand how necessary it is that our soul should be strengthened by the Holy Ghost. But now the Most Gracious Lord has granted to me to know how indispensable this is. Yes, it is necessary every moment of our life, just as breathing is; it is necessary during prayer and throughout the whole of our life. Unless He strengthens our soul, it is constantly inclined to every sin, and, therefore, to spiritual death; it becomes enfeebled, loses all power, through the evil that enters into the heart, and incapable of any good. Without the strengthening of the Holy Ghost, one feels how the heart is under - mined by various evils, and is ready to sink every moment into their abyss. Then it is that our heart must stand firm as upon a rock. And this rock is - - the Holy Ghost. He strengthens our powers; and when a man prays, He strengthens his heart by faith and by the hope of receiving that which he prays for. He inflames the soul with love to God; He fills the soul with bright, good thoughts, strengthening the mind and heart. If the man has any work to accomplish, He strengthens his heart by the conviction of the importance and the necessity of his labour, and by an invincible patience which overcomes all difficulties. He inspires in the man, in his intercourse with people of various positions and both sexes, a respect for the human person, who is made after God's image - - whoever it may be - - and is redeemed by the Blood of Christ the Lord; and makes him disregard the sometimes very unsightly outer appearance of another man's body and dress, as well as his roughness of speech and manners. It is the Holy Ghost who unites us all through love, as the children of the same Heavenly Father, and in Jesus Christ teaches us to pray: "Our Father which art in Heaven . . ." When, during prayer, your heart is overwhelmed with despondency and melancholy, be sure that these proceed from the Devil endeavouring by every means to hinder you in your prayer. Be firm, take courage, and by the remembrance of God drive away the deadly feeling. Observe: if no in your thoughts, then in your heart, the enemy often endeavours to blaspheme the name of Almighty God. What constitutes blasphemy of the heart against God? Doubt, unbelief, despondency, impatience under God's chastisements, murmuring, and all the passions. By unbelief in God's truth and mercy, the enemy utters blasphemy against the truth, mercy, and omnipotence of God; by despondency, he blasphemes God's goodness; in general, by the outburst of human passions, he blasphemes God's all - merciful providence and truth. When it is said to the inner man: "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead," the real sleep of the soul, very like the ordinary bodily sleep, is meant. Also, when it is said: "My heart, awake; why sleepest thou?" the real sleep of the heart is meant, and it is not said merely allegorically. When the body sleeps, it is weakened in every part and becomes insensible; so likewise the soul, sleeping the sleep of sin, becomes weakened in its powers, and in - sensible to everything that concerns faith, hope, and love. Tell it, for instance, that the Son of God came down upon earth for it and became man to save it from everlasting death; speak to it of His saving teaching, His miracles, His sufferings and death upon the Cross, His Resurrection, Ascension, and His second coming. The soul cannot understand or contain all this; it is unable to feel God's benefits, but is asleep, perfectly asleep, to faith, hope, and love. It does not fear the righteous Judge, future torments, the worm that never rests, the unquenchable fire. It sleeps - - it neither hears, nor sees, nor feels. It is remarkable that bodily sleep begins with the heart; first of all the heart falls asleep, and afterwards the body. The sleeper's eyes are closed and do not see, neither do his ears hear; and it is the same with the soul that sleeps the sleep of sin. But the soul ought always to see through the eyes of the heart, even during sleep, as it is written: "I sleep, but my soul waketh." It is a strange phenomenon in our nature, perverted by sin, to hate those to whom we do good, and to make them pay for our benefits by disliking them! Oh, how narrow and poor in love and grace is our heart! How selfish it is! The enemy may well mock at us; he wishes to destroy the fruits of our good works. But the more good you do to others, the more you must love them, knowing that those who receive your benefits serve as a pledge to you of your receiving forgiveness from God. Outward prayer is often performed at the expense of inward prayer, and inward at the expense of outward; that is, when I pray with my lips or read, then many words do not penetrate into the heart, I become double minded and hypocritical; with my lips I say one thing, whilst in my heart I feel another. The lips speak truth, whilst the disposition of the heart does not agree with the words of the prayer. But if I pray inwardly, heartily, then, without paying attention to the pronunciation of the words, I concentrate it upon their contents, their power, gradually accustoming my heart to the truth, and thus entering into the same disposition of spirit in which the words of the prayer were written. In this way I accustom myself, little by little, to pray in spirit and truth in accordance with the words of the Eternal Truth: "They that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." When a man prays outwardly aloud, then he cannot always follow all the movements of his heart, which are so rapid that he is necessarily obliged to pay attention to the pronunciation of the words, and to their outward form. Thus the prayers of many of the clergy who read rapidly become quite untrue: with their lips they seem to pray; in appearance they are pious, but their hearts are asleep, and do not know what their lips say. This proceeds from the fact that they hurry, and do not meditate in their hearts upon what they are saying. We must pray for them, as they pray for us; we must pray that their words may penetrate into their hearts and breathe warmth into them. They pray for us in the words of holy persons, and we must pray for them also. He who says prayers hurriedly, without hearty understanding and feeling, being conquered by his slothful, sleepy flesh, does not serve God, but serves his own flesh, his self - love, and reviles God by his inattention and the indifference of his heart to prayer: "God is a spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth" - not hypocritically. However slothful and weak your flesh may be, however inclined to sleep you may be, conquer yourself; do not spare yourself for God; renounce yourself; let your gift to God be perfect; give God your heart. In times of rest, ease, and gratification of the flesh, the latter revives with all its passions and inclinations, whilst in times of oppression, vexation, and weariness, it is subdued with all its passions; this is why, in His wisdom and mercy, the Heavenly Father subjects our soul and body to grievous afflictions and sicknesses, and this is why we must not only patiently endure these afflictions and sicknesses, but must rejoice in them, even more than in a state of spiritual calm, ease, and bodily health, for the spiritual condition of the man who is not subjected to spiritual afflictions or bodily sicknesses must undoubtedly be bad, especially during an abundance of earthly blessings; his heart imperceptibly generates all kinds of sins and passions, and exposes him to spiritual death. Strengthen yourself by the undoubting invocation of the Holy Ghost the Comforter. He is well known to you. You so often invoke Him upon the Holy Gifts, and He, at your prayer, unfailingly and continually transubstantiates them, and you yourself partake again and again of the fruits of His divine acts. All you who draw near to serve God in prayer, learn to be like Him, meek, humble, and true of heart; do not let there be any deceitfulness or duplicity nor coldness in your soul. Strive to have His Spirit, for "if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." The Lord seeks in us that which is like and akin to Himself, on to which His grace may be grafted. Remember that not a single word is lost during prayer, if you say it from your heart; God hears each word, and weighs it in a balance. Sometimes it seems to us that our words only strike the air in vain, and sound as the voice of one crying in the wilderness. No, no; it is not so! We must remember that God understands us when we pray, that is, our words, just as those who pray perfectly understand the words themselves, for man is God's image. The Lord responds to every desire of the heart, expressed in words or unexpressed. [H]ow necessary it is to look, listen, taste, smell, and feel prudently; or, rather, how necessary it is to guard your heart so that through your outward senses, as through a window, no sin may steal in, and that the author himself of sin - - the Devil - - may not darken and wound that heavenly fledgeling, our soul, with his poisonous and deathly arrows. Do not be despondent when the clouds of hell, one darker than the other, descend upon your soul; when infernal malice, envy, doubt, obstinacy, and other passions, rise up in your soul; know surely that the gathering of these dark clouds upon your mental horizon is inevitable; but they are not always there and will not remain long; they are like the appearance of dark clouds on the sky in nature - - they pass over and disappear, after which the mental atmosphere of the soul is cleared up again. In nature there must be clouds on the sky, and the darkening of the light of day; but these clouds are not constant, they soon pass away, and then the light of the sun shines again with renewed power. Sometimes a man seems to pray fervently, but yet his prayer does not bring into his heart the fruits of peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Why is this? It is because in praying the appointed prayers he has not sincerely repented of those sins which he has committed during the day, by which he has defiled his heart, the temple of Christ, and by which he has angered the Lord. But had he remembered them, had he repented of them in all sincerity, and judged himself impartially, "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding," would immediately have entered into his heart. In the prayers of the Orthodox Church there is an enumeration of sins, but not of all; and often the very sins by which we have bound ourselves are not mentioned; therefore, we must absolutely enumerate them ourselves during our prayer, clearly recognising their gravity with a feeling of humility and heartfelt contrition. This is why, in the evening prayers at the enumeration of sins, it is said: "I have done wrong either in this or in that" - that is, it is left to our own will to make mention of these or those sins. It is necessary to rouse the heart to pray, otherwise it will become quite dry. The attributes of prayer must be: love of God, sincerity, and simplicity. We must pray in spirit, because God is a spirit, and not flesh; with truth, and not falsely, because God is the truth. The same may be said in regard to prayers to the saints. Do not call upon them only with the lips - - for they have neither lips nor voice, nothing corporeal—but with your heart or soul burning within you. Then they will hear you; for everything seeks that which is akin to it. Yes; not flesh and blood will inherit the kingdom of God, but the pure spirit burning with love to God. Pronounce the words of the prayer with heartfelt firmness. When praying in the evening, do not forget to confess in prayer to the Holy Ghost with all sincerity and contrition, those sins into which you have fallen during the past day. A few moments of fervent repentance, and you will be cleansed by the Holy Ghost from every impurity; you will be whiter than snow, and tears, purifying the heart will flow from your eyes; you will be covered with the garment of Christ's righteousness and united to Him, together with the Father and the Holy Ghost. It is sometimes well during prayer to say a few words of our own, breathing fervent faith and love to the Lord. Yes, let us not always converse with God in the words of others, not always remain children in faith and hope; we must also show our own mind, indite a good matter from our own heart also. Moreover, we grow too much accustomed to the words of others and grow cold in prayer. And how pleasing to the Lord this lisping of our own is, coming directly from a believing, loving, and thankful heart. It is impossible to explain this: it is only needful to say that when you are praying to God with your own words the soul trembles with joy, it becomes wholly inflamed, vivified, and beatified. You will utter few words, but you will experience such blessedness as you would not have obtained from saying the longest and most touching prayers of others, pronounced out of habit and insincerely. Charity, it is said, "rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth." It often happens to us to see the unrighteous sinful doings of men, or to hear of them, and we have a sinful habit of rejoicing at such doings, and of shamelessly expressing our joy by foolish laughter. This is wrong, unchristian, uncharitable and impious. It shows that we have not Christian love for our neighbour in our hearts: for charity "rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth."Let us, therefore, cease doing this, so that we may not be condemned with the workers of iniquity. When praying, keep to the rule that it is better to say five words from the depth of your heart than ten thousand words with your tongue only. When you observe that your heart is cold and prays unwillingly, stop praying and warm your heart by vividly representing to yourself either your own wickedness, your spiritual poverty, misery, and blindness, or the great benefits which God bestows every moment upon you and all mankind, especially upon Christians, and then pray slowly and fervently. If you have not time to say all the prayers, it does not matter, and you will receive incomparably greater benefit from praying fervently and not hurriedly than if you had said all your prayers hurriedly and without feeling: "I had rather speak five words with my understanding than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue."But it would, of course, have been very well had we been able to say these ten thousand words in prayer with due understanding and feeling. The Lord does not forsake those who labour for Him and who stand long before Him; for with what measure they mete, He will measure to them again, and He will reward them for the abundance of the sincere words of their prayer by sending into their souls a corresponding abundance of spiritual light, warmth, peace, and joy. It is well to pray long and continually; but "All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given." It is better for those who are not capable of long prayers to say short prayers, but with a fervent spirit. The incorporeal enemy enters the heart of man through satiety and drunkenness - - this can be felt by anyone who is observant. This is the reason why, with the growth of drunken - ness, the inclination to drunkenness increases so terribly (because the power of the enemy over the man increases) - - this is why you notice in drunkards a power involuntarily drawing them to satisfy their passion or their inward craving for wine. The enemy is in the hearts of these unhappy people. How can the demon of drunkenness be driven out? By prayer and fasting. The enemy enters the hearts of men because they have given themselves up to a carnal mode of life - - to gluttony, and because they do not pray. It is, therefore, natural that he can be driven out from them by opposite means - - that is, by prayer and fasting. When you are saying your prayers - - and especially if you have a rule of prayer according to a book - - do not hurry from one word to another without feeling its truth, without laying it to your heart, but always strive to feel with your heart the truth of that which you say. Your heart will oppose this - - sometimes by slothfulness and stony insensibility to that which you are saying, sometimes by doubt and unbelief, by a kind of inward fire and oppression, sometimes by distraction and deviation of the mind to earthly objects and cares, sometimes by the remembrance of the offences of your neighbour, and by a feeling of revenge and hatred towards him, sometimes by the representation of worldly pleasures, or the represent - ation of pleasure derived from reading novels and, in general, worldly books. Do not be self - loving; conquer your heart, and offer it to God as an acceptable sacrifice: "My son, give Me thine heart," and your prayer will unite you to God and all heaven, and you will be filled with the Spirit, and the fruits of the Spirit: righteousness, peace, joy, love, meekness, long - suffering, and hearty compunction. You want to finish your rule of prayer quickly, in order to give rest to your weary body? Pray fervently, and you will sleep the most peaceful, quiet, and healthy sleep. Do not hurry, then, nor say your prayers anyhow; by half - an - hour's prayer you will gain three whole hours of the soundest sleep. Are you hurrying to get to the place of your service or your work? Get up earlier; do not sleep so long; and pray fervently - - you will thus obtain tranquillity, energy, and success in your work for the whole day. Is your heart impatient to go to vain, worldly matters? Master it; let its treasure be not earthly vanity, but God; teach your ears to attach itself through prayer to God, and not to worldly vanity so that you may not be covered with shame in the day of sickness, and in the hour of death, like him who was rich in worldly vanity and poor in faith, hope, and love. If you do not pray as I have said, then you will neither prosper in life, nor in faith, nor in spiritual understanding. In order to be perfectly pleasing to God, we must also for His sake be perfectly indifferent to our flesh; for instance, when, during prayer, notwithstanding our slothfulness and strong inclination to sleep, we force ourselves not to yield to it, then we are indifferent to our flesh. The martyrs and ascetics had this perfect indifference for their flesh. Consider thyself also: the enemy sometimes tempts your patience too; his triumph is double if he succeeds in irritating you too: understand his wiles, and mock at them. When he exerts his violence against a person who is especially near to your heart, then your heart aches to hear his foolish words expressing the attachment of his heart to earthly things. Do not be depressed, do not despair, do not grieve, do not give way to anger, "considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." Call upon the Saviour: "Saviour, save us!" Do not be false to Him in any spiritual affliction, nor in any violence of the Devil and the passions. Remember that He Himself said: " Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me." The infinite power of the Lord is ever ready to come to our help; it is pleasing to the Lord of power and mercy to manifest His saving power in us, and to save us from our visible and invisible enemies. The more trivial the cause of the sorrow of the man's soul is, the more pitiable and deserving of compassion he is, for then we clearly see that the cause of it is - - the Devil. The carnal man considers the Christian's freedom as slavery; for instance, attending Divine service, fasting, preparation for the Sacrament, confession, communion, all the Sac - raments, and does not know that all this is a requirement of his nature, a necessity for his spirit. When during prayer the enemy suggests within you a craving for food, despise this material, nervous irritation, strengthen your heart more powerfully by prayer, inflame it by faith and love, and say to the tempter the following words of the Lord: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Prayer is my best food, fortifying and enlightening both the soul and the body. Someone, when, during prayer, he became languid and feeble in mind and body, and longed to sleep, roused himself by the following inward question: With Whom art thou conversing, my soul? And after this, by vividly representing the Lord before him, he began to pray with great feeling and tears; his blunted attention was sharpened, his mind and heart were enlightened, and he himself wholly revived. This shows what it is to represent the Lord God vividly to ourselves, and to walk in His presence! If - - he went on to say - - my soul, thou darest not converse languidly and carelessly with men above thyself in station, in order not to offend them, then how darest thou converse languidly and carelessly with the Lord? The sin of inattention is one to which we are, in a great degree subjected; we must not disregard it, but must repent of it; we give ourselves up to inattention, not only at home, but also in church. "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not." The causes of inattention are—the Devil, and our manifold attachment to worldly, earthly things; its reason is—want of faith; the means to overcome it—fervent prayer. We must not be exasperated, angry, and proud, as is habitual to our corrupt nature, against those who are angry, envious, or proud towards us, but we must pity them as over - come by the flames of hell, and by spiritual death; we must pray to God for them from the depths of our hearts, that the Lord may take away the darkness from their souls and enlighten their hearts by the light of His grace. We are darkened by our own passions, and do not see the foolishness, the monstrousness of them, and of our conduct; but when the Lord enlightens us by the light of His grace, then we, awaking as from a sleep, clearly perceive the monstrous - ness, the foolishness of our thoughts, feelings, words, and actions; our heart, which was hardened until then, softens; the evil passes away and is replaced by mercy, kindness, and indulgence. Therefore, in accordance with our Saviour's words, we must also love our en - emies: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you," for they, our brethren are also blind, have also gone astray. This present life is a life of exile: "The Lord God," it is said, "sent him forth from the garden of Eden;" and we, all of us, must earnestly strive to regain our country through repentance and works meet for repentance. Lord, "the desired fatherland give Thou to me, a citizen of Paradise me making once again." The present life is the narrow way, the way of afflictions, privations, and maladies. The narrower the way, the more convincing, the surer it is, that we are going the right, true way; the wider, the more certain it is that we are nigh to destruction. The present life is a daily, cruel, most bitter struggle against the enemies of our salvation, especially against the invisible, sub - celestial spirits of evil, who do not leave us in peace for a single day, but constantly make use of their craft and subtlety against us, kindling various passions within us, and wounding us in the most acute manner by their shafts. Remember, therefore, that an incessant war is waged against us; that there is not time to rest, to enjoy, and amuse ourselves in this life, which is given us for our preparation for the future one; neither when we are tried by misfortunes; nor even then, when it seems to us we are perfectly easy and happy, as, for instance, when we give ourselves to pleasure at theatres or soirée’s, when we display ourselves in festive attire and ornaments, when we give ourselves up to the pleasures of the table, when we turn round in the gay dance, drive in fine equipages, etc. Amidst all your worldly pleasures, man, the greatest misfortune hangs over you. You are a sinner; you are God's enemy; you are in great danger of losing eternal life, especially if you live negligently, if you do not do works meet for repentance. The wrath of God hangs over you, especially if you do not appease the God Whom you have offended by your prayers, penitence, and amendment. Thus, this is no time for you for pleasures, but rather for tears; your pleasures should be rare, and principally such as are afforded you by faith - in spiritual festivals. As we sometimes blaspheme the Divinity by the impure, dark, and evil state of our soul - blaspheme the Father, the Word, and the Most Holy Ghost, the Comforter - so, on the contrary, some men, through the benign disposition of their souls, are capable of comforting all by their words, thus glorifying the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost the Comforter, " Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." The Virgin Mary is the most merciful sovereign of all the sons and daughters of men, as the Daughter of God the Father, Who is love; the Mother of God the Word, of our love; the chosen bride of the Holy Ghost, Who is love consubstantial with the Father and the Word. How can we do otherwise than have recourse to such a sovereign and expect to receive all spiritual blessings from Her? Firmly purpose in your soul to hate every sin of thought, word, and deed, and when you are tempted to sin resist it valiantly and with a feeling of hatred for it; only beware lest your hatred should turn against the person of your brother who gave occasion for the sin. Hate the sin with all your heart, but pity your brother; instruct him, and pray for him to the Almighty, Who sees all of us and tries our hearts and innermost parts. "Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin." It is impossible not to often fall into sin unless you have a hatred of it implanted in your heart. Self - love must be eradicated. Every sin comes from the love of self. Sin always appears, or feigns to be, to wish us well, promising us plenteousness and ease. "The tree was good for food, and it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise." This is how sin always appears to us. If guardian angels did not preserve us from the snares of evil demons, O how often we should have fallen from one sin into another; how devils would have tormented us—they who delight in tormenting men—which indeed happens when the Lord allows the guardian angels to withdraw themselves from us for a time, and devils lay snares for us. Yes, the angels of peace, our true guides, the guardians of our souls and bodies, are ever with us if we do not voluntarily drive them away from us by the abomination of sensuality, pride, doubt, and unbelief. We somehow feel that they cover us with the wings of their immaterial glory, only we do not see them. Our good thoughts, inclinations, words, and deeds, all proceed from them. Concerning penitence. Penitence should be sincere, perfectly free, and not in any way forced by any particular time and habit, or by the person before whom the sinner confesses. Otherwise it would not be true penitence. It is said: " Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."Is at hand—that is, it has come by itself. It is not necessary to seek for it long—it seeks us, our free inclination; that is, you yourself must repent with heartfelt contrition. "They were baptized of him " (is said of those baptized of John) "confessing their sins"; that is, they themselves acknowledged their sins. And as our prayer consists principally of penitence and asking forgiveness of our sins, it must absolutely be always sincere and perfectly free, not against our will, not forced out of us by habit and custom. Such also should be our prayer when it is one of thanksgiving and praise. Gratitude supposes the soul of the man benefited to be full of free, lively feeling flowing freely from the mouth, "for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Praise, too, supposes an ecstasy of wonder in the man who contemplates the infinite goodness, wisdom, and omnipotence of God in the moral and material world, and therefore it ought also to be a perfectly free and intelligent action. In general, prayer should be a free and perfectly conscious outpouring of the man's heart before God, "I have poured out my soul before the Lord." In order to purify and stimulate our prayer, the Lord allows the Devil to painfully inflame our inward parts, so that we, feeling a strange fire within us, and suffering from it, may endeavour to bring into our heart by means of humble prayer the fire of God, the fire of the Holy Ghost giving life to our hearts. The Lord allows the enemy to tempt us in order to prove us, in order to strengthen our spiritual powers in our struggle against the enemy, and so that we ourselves may see more clearly towards what our heart inclines, whether it inclines to patience, hope, and love and in general to virtue, or to irritability, incredulity, murmuring, blasphemy, malice, and despair. Therefore we must not be despondent, but must good - humouredly and patiently bear spiritual darkness that descends upon our soul, the fire that weakens and inclines us to im - patience and malice, the affliction and oppression, knowing that all these are indispensable in the order of our spiritual life, that by these the Lord is proving us. Do not let us blaspheme against the true way - - the way of holy faith and virtue, and do not let us prefer the evil way. We are free, and must strengthen ourselves by every means and with all our power in faith and virtue, unto the laying down of our life for the way of truth; and how can this be if we have no temptations? Here is a society of men of the world: they go on talking and talking, for the greater part amusing themselves with trifles, and there is no mention of God - - the common Father of all - - of His love for us, of the future life, of recompense; why is it so? Because they are ashamed to speak of God. But what is still more surprising is that even persons deeming themselves pious, themselves luminaries, seldom speak of God, of Christ the Saviour, of the preciousness of time, of abstinence, of the resurrection from the dead, of judgment, of future bliss and everlasting torments, either in their family circle or amongst men of the world, but often spend their time in futile conversations, games, and occupations! This is, again, because they are ashamed to converse upon such subjects, being afraid to weary others, or fearing that they themselves may not be able to converse heartily upon spiritual subjects. O, adulterous and sinful world! Woe unto thee at the day of judgment by the universal and impartial Judge. "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not." Yes, the Lord and Cre - ator of all is not received by us! He is not received into our houses, nor into our conversations; or, else, when a man reads a religious book or prayers aloud, why does he sometimes do so as if against his will, reluctantly, his tongue hesitating? His mouth speaketh not out of the abundance of the heart, but out of straitness and emptiness it can scarcely speak at all. Why is this so? It proceeds from the neglect of reading books and of prayer, and from false shame sown in the heart by the Devil. What miserable creatures we men are! We are ashamed of that which ought to be regarded as the highest honour. O, ungrateful and evil - natured creatures! What torments do we not deserve for such conduct. When the enemy does not succeed in hindering the Christian upon the path of salvation by means of afflictions, oppression, poverty and various other privations, maladies, misfor - tunes, then he rushes to the other extreme: he fights against him by his own health, tranquillity, softness, the weakness of his heart, the insensibility of his soul to spiritual blessings, or by the opulence of his outer life. O, how dangerous is this last condition! It is more dangerous than the first state - - the state of affliction, oppression, of sickness, etc. In such a state we easily forget God; we cease to feel His mercies; we slumber and spiritually sleep. "While the Bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made: Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him." But in affliction we involuntarily turn to God to be saved; we constantly feel that God is the God of our salvation - - "the God Who saves"—that He is our life, our breath, our light, our strength. Thus, it is better for the Christian to live in some or other kind of affliction. Why do we honour the cross with such reverence that we make mention of its power in our prayers after asking for the intercession of the Mother of God and the heavenly Powers, before asking for that of the Saints, and sometimes even before asking for that of the heavenly Powers? Because, after the Saviour's sufferings, the cross became the sign of the Son of man, that is, the cross signifies the Lord Himself, incarnate and suffering for our salvation. On the cross Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice to God the Father for our sins on the cross, and by it, He has saved us from the works of the enemy; and this is why we honour it with such great reverence. And therefore it will always be a great power for be - lievers, delivering them from every evil, and especially from the evil action of invisible enemies. When you are asked to pray that someone may be saved from bodily death, for instance, from drowning, from death through any sickness, from fire, or from any other disaster, commend the faith of those who ask you to do so, and say in yourself: Blessed be your faith, according to your faith may the Lord fulfil my unworthy, feeble prayer, and may He increase my faith. Pray, my brethren, to the Mother of God when the storm of enmity and malice bursts forth in your house. She, Who is all - merciful and all - powerful, can easily pacify the hearts of men. Peace and love proceed from the one God, as from their Source, and Our Lady—in God, as the Mother of Christ the Peace, is zealous, and prays for the peace of the whole world, and above all—of all Christians. She has the all - merciful power of driving away from us at Her sign the sub - celestial spirits of evil—those ever - vigilant and ardent sowers of enmity and malice amongst men, whilst to all who have recourse with faith and love to Her powerful protection, She soon speedily gives both peace and love. Be zealous yourselves also in preserving faith and love in your hearts; for if you do not care for this, then you will be unworthy of the intercession for you—of the Mother of God; be also most fervent and most reverent worshippers of the Mother of the Almighty Lord; for it is truly meet to bless Her—the ever - blessed; the entirely spotless Mother of our God, the highest of all creatures, the Mediatrix for the whole race of mankind. Strive to train yourself in the spirit of humility, for She Herself was more humble than any mortal, and only looks lovingly upon the humble." He hath regarded the low estate of His handmaiden" (said She to Elisabeth), of "God, Her Saviour." Do not let pass any opportunity for praying for any man, either at his request or at the request of his relatives, friends, of those who esteem him, or of his acquaintances. The Lord looks favourably upon the prayer of our love, and upon our boldness before him. Besides this, prayer for others is very beneficial to the man himself who prays for others; it purifies the heart, strengthens faith and hope in God, and enkindles our love for God and our neighbour. When praying, say thus:" Lord, it is possible for Thee to do this or that to this servant of Thine; do this for him, for Thy name is the Merciful Lover of Men and the Almighty." "If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts [not only] unto your children [but also to strangers], how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give all possible good things to them that ask Him!" O Thou Almighty Sovereign, to Whose single sign all things, the whole visible and in - visible world, are obedient, grant that I may unceasingly glorify Thee by the simplicity of my faith in Thine infinite power. Give me the faith that will not be ashamed, firm hope, and unfeigned love for Thee and my neighbour. One of the infirmities of the human spirit is its slowness to faith and its slothfulness in acquiring a knowledge of the truth, especially of the truths of faith and piety. What do youths, and even grown - up and elder people, study most inertly and slothfully? The truths of faith and piety. This is proved by innumerable experiences. In order that men should esteem and love each other, should not be proud, should not be arrogant to each other, the most wise Lord has given to different men different natural and beneficial advantages, so that they may have need of each other. In this manner each one of us must involuntarily acknowledge this or that infirmity and humble himself before God and men. Lord, Thou Thyself hast said by Thy most pure lips: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."4I long to be perfect. Be Thou therefore every perfection for me, for Thou hast also said: "For without Me ye can do nothing." All prayers assume the great poverty and misery of our fallen nature; they also assume that the Lord is the ever flowing source of every perfection, every blessing; that He is our inexhaustible treasury. Truly, we must have poverty of spirit during prayer and at all times. " Blessed are the poor in spirit." Do not fear bodily privations, but fear spiritual privations. Do not fear, do not be faint - hearted, do not be irritated when you are deprived of money, food, drink, enjoyments, clothes, dwelling, even of your body itself; but fear when the enemy deprives your soul of faith, of trust, and love for God and your neighbour; when he sows hatred, enmity, attachment to earthly things, pride, and other sins in your heart. " Fear not them [men] which, will kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul." Peace is the integrity and health of the soul; to lose peace is to lose spiritual health. Thank our most speedy Mediatrix, our Lady, the Mother of our Lord, the most pure, most good Virgin Mary, for saving us through our fervent prayers from the harassments and oppression of the Devil. Look up to Her, with the eyes of your heart, in the Holy Ghost, who is everywhere present, fills everything, and who is incomplex. Look up at Her as being close to your very heart, and call upon Her: "Most speedy Lady Mediatrix, Mary, Mother of God, save me from the enemy—the disturber." And immediately, in an instant, She will save you according to the faith of your heart, according to your soul's trust in Her; and the op - pression, the fire, and heavy despondency will fall aside and leave you. It is only necessary to represent to yourself and firmly believe that the Holy Ghost is everywhere, in every place; that He is an incomplex Being, that in Him all heaven is near us, as upon the palm of the hand, with all its angels and saints, so that we have only to call upon the Lord, or upon the Virgin Mother of God, or any saint from the depth of the heart, with clear - sighted faith, with heartfelt repentance for the sins by which we are bound by the enemy or by which we have bound voluntarily ourselves—and our salvation will immediately shine forth. Marvellous is the saving power of our Lady; it flows into the heart like a healing balsam, or like fragrant, life - giving air, or like calming water. Only look on Her with the eyes of your heart, trusting in Her mercy and help. But this, too, is difficult—to look on Her with heartfelt, clear - sighted faith—just as it is difficult to look on the Lord Jesus Christ or the saints; for the enemy en - deavours by every means to stand like a hard, high, dark wall between our souls and the Lord, or the Mother of God, the angels and saints. The accursed one does not allow the eye of the heart to see the Lord or His saints; he darkens our heart in every way; he scatters faith, oppressing, burning, and darkening us inwardly. We must look upon all such actions as illusions and falsehood, and break through this imaginary wall to the Lord, or to His Holy Mother, or His saints. As soon as you break through this wall, you will immediately be saved. " Thy faith hath made thee whole." If the Holy Virgin, the Mother of God, through Her union with God, and through Her unprecedented service to the Lord of all, most speedily becomes everything to all those who ask with faith and love for Her intercession, delivering them from every evil, and bestowing upon them everything which leads to their salvation, in accordance with their prayer, then will not the Lord Himself do still more? Only do not be unbelieving; do not be cold to Him in your soul and insensible as a stone, but stir up within you your faith, your gratitude for God's benefits, the sincere recognition of your sins, and your great love for your Saviour, together with the Father and the Holy Ghost, Who loves you with an immeasurable love. The Holy Ghost accomplishes all wonders and miracles. By the same Spirit power is given to one, and to another works of power. You have only to speak with faith, and need have no anxiety as to the fulfilment of the word; the Holy Ghost will care for this. The Liturgy is the supper, the table of God's love to mankind. Around the Lamb of God upon the holy disc all are at this time assembled - - the living and the dead, saints and sinners, the Church triumphant and the Church militant. The Church is the eternal truth, because she is united with the truth, with Christ, and is animated by the spirit of truth: "I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." "His Body . . . which is the Church," says the Apostle. The priesthood, or in general holy men, are sacred reservoirs, from which the beneficial water is communicated to other believers. "Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." How pure and spiritual should be the lips of priests, who so often pronounce the most holy name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost! How still more spiritual and pure should be their hearts to contain and feel in themselves the sweetness of this most precious, glorious, and justly - worshipped name! O, how far a priest should withdraw himself from carnal delights, so as not to become flesh, in which the spirit of God cannot dwell! What carnal delights can there be for a priest, when he must absolutely delight in the Lord alone, so that He may grant him the petitions of his heart? What carnal delights can there be for a priest when he has so many spiritual children disclosing to him their various spiritual or bodily infirmities, with which he must heartily sympathise, concerning which he must give sincere and wholesome advice; when he must each day wrestle in prayer for them with his whole heart and with tears before the Lord, that the mental wolf may not fall upon them and ravish them, that God may grant that they may prosper in life and faith, and in spiritual wisdom? What carnal delights can there be for a priest when he must often perform the services in the church and stand before the altar of the Lord; when he has so often to celebrate the divine and most - wonderful Liturgy, and to be the celebrant and partaker of the heavenly, immortal, and life - giving Mysteries; when, in general, he has so often to celebrate sacraments and prayers? The heart that loves carnal delights is unfaithful to the Lord. "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." One of the most powerful wiles of the Devil is to weaken the heart through slothfulness, and with it all the spiritual and bodily powers. At such times faith, hope, and love are dried up in the heart; we become faithless, despondent, insensible towards God and men: the salt has lost its savour. In signing ourselves with the sign of the cross, with the three fingers we lay the upper end of the cross upon the forehead as an emblem of God the Father, Who is the uncreated Wisdom; the lower end of the cross upon the bosom as an emblem of the Son Who was begotten of the Father before all worlds, and which is in the bosom of the Father; and the transverse part upon the shoulders as an emblem of the Holy Ghost, Which is the arm or the power of God, or the band of the Lord, as has been said: "To whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed;" or: "The hand of the Lord was there upon me;" that is, the Holy Ghost. There is, besides, an image of the Holy Trinity in man himself. The thinking mind is the image of God the Father; the heart, in which wisdom dwells and expresses itself, is the image of God the Son, the Personal wisdom of God; the lips, through which that which is in the thoughts and in the heart proceeds, are the image of the Holy Ghost. " He breathed on them, and said unto them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost. . . ." When "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications . . . blasphemies. . . ." then it is the evil spirit nestling in man's heart which comes forth; but when "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good,"then that is the image of the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father through the Son. How great, therefore, is man! It has not been said in vain: "I have said ye are gods, and ye are all children of the most Highest." "If He called them gods unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken [that is, if it has been said, then it must be true, immutable], say ye of Him Whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God." O, the dignity! O, the greatness of man! Do not look upon any man, especially upon a Christian, otherwise than as upon the son of God, and receive him as the son of God, converse with him, behave with him as with the son of God, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. A certain person who was sick unto death from inflammation of the bowels for nine days, without having obtained the slightest relief from medical aid, as soon as he had com - municated of the Holy Sacrament, upon the morning of the ninth day, regained his health, and rose from his bed of sickness in the evening of the same day. He received the Holy Communion with firm faith. I prayed to the Lord to cure him. "Lord," said I, "heal Thy servant of his sickness. He is worthy, therefore grant him this. He loves Thy priests, and sends them his gifts." I also prayed for him in church before the altar of the Lord, at the Liturgy, during the prayer: "Thou Who hast given us grace at this time, with one accord to make our common supplication unto Thee," and before the most Holy Mysteries themselves. I prayed in the following words: "Lord, our life! It is as easy for Thee to cure every malady as it is for me to think of healing. It is as easy for Thee to raise every man from the dead as it is for me to think of the possibility of the resurrection from the dead. Cure, then, Thy servant Basil of his cruel malady, and do not let him die; do not let his wife and children be given up to weeping." And the Lord graciously heard, and had mercy upon him, although he was within a hair's - breadth of death. Glory to Thine omnipotence and mercy, that Thou, Lord, hast vouchsafed to hear me! The heart can change several times in one moment—to good or evil, to faith or unbelief, to simplicity or cunning, to love or hatred, to benevolence or envy, to generosity or avarice, to chastity or fornication. O, what inconstancy! O, how many dangers! O, how sober and watchful we must be! Alms - giving is good and salutary when to it is united the amendment of the heart from pride, malice, envy, slothfulness, indolence, gluttony, fornication, falsehood, deceitfulness, and other sins. But if the man is not careful to amend his heart, trusting only to his alms, then he will obtain but little benefit from them, for he builds with one hand and destroys with the other. When your flesh suffers through maladies, remember that it is the greatest enemy of your salvation that suffers, that is weakened by these sufferings, and bear them bravely in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who for our sakes endured the cross and suffered death; also, remember that all our maladies are God's punishment for sins; they cleanse us, they reconcile us with God and lead us back to His love. Grant us "Thy peace," it is said, "and Thy love, as Thou hast granted us all things." Remember, that during your illness the Lord Himself is with you ("I am with him in trouble"); that it has proceeded from a sign of the Master, punishing us as a father. You who believe in the time of your welfare, see that you do not fall away from God in the time of misfortune, but, like the martyrs, be constant in faith, hope, and love. Let that which tranquillises my thoughts and my heart be committed to writing as a memorial to me of the constant peace of my heart amidst the cares and vanities of life. What is it? It is the Christian saying, full of living trust and wonderful soothing power: "The Lord is everything to me." This is the priceless treasure! This is the precious jewel, possessing which we can be calm in every condition, rich in poverty, generous and kind to other people in the time of our wealth, and not losing hope even after having sinned. "The Lord is everything to me." He is my faith, my trust, my love, my strength, my power, my peace, my joy, my riches, my food, my drink, my raiment, my life, in a word, mine all. Thus, man, the Lord is everything to you; and you must be everything to the Lord. And, as all your treasure is contained in your heart and in your will, and God requires from you your heart, having said: " My son, give Me thine heart," therefore, in order to fulfil God's gracious and perfect will, renounce your own corrupt, passionate, seductive, will; do not know your own will, know only God's will. "Not my will, but Thy will be done." It is only when we pray fervently, only then that we feel calm, warm, at ease, and bright in soul, because then we are with God and in God; but as soon as we cease thus praying, then temptations and various troubles begin. O, most blessed time of prayer! People say that if you feel no inclination to pray, it is better not to pray; but this is crafty, carnal sophistry. If you only pray when you are inclined to, you will completely cease praying; this is what the flesh desires. "The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence." You will not be able to work out your salvation without forcing yourself. Kissing with the lips corresponds to kissing with the soul; and when we kiss holy things, we ought to kiss them with the soul and heart as well as the lips. It is remarkable that some irritable people, after an agony of violent and prolonged anger, and after having experienced all its torments, become, as they say, silky, meek, and peaceable. The same applies to the other passions. The Lord Himself has pointed out that their punishment lies in themselves—in their extreme agony. Pride, envy, hatred, avarice, covetousness—all are thus punished. Each passion is its own tormentor, and at the same time the executioner of each man possessed with it. Glory to the power of Thy grace, Lord! Nothing, no effort of sin, can resist it in those who call upon it with faith. Thus, when subjected to the violence of the enemy of everything good—the Devil—and tempted by passions, I made the sign of the cross upon myself, saying inwardly, " Nothing can resist the power of Thy grace," and the violence ceased, the trouble and oppression passed away, and were replaced by tranquillity and peace. Glory to Thy power, Lord! Flatterers are our greatest enemies. They blind our eyes, do not let us see our many de - fects, and thus hinder us upon the way to perfection, especially if we ourselves are self - loving and not far - seeing. This is why we must always stop those who flatter us, or avoid them. Woe unto him who is surrounded by flatterers! Happy is he who is surrounded by simple - hearted people who do not hide the truth, although it may be unpleasant! For instance, when they detect his weaknesses, faults, passions, and mistakes. Do not pay attention to the words of an arrogant man, but rather to their power. It often happens that words that appear harsh at first sight, do not proceed from any harshness of the heart, but only from habit. How would it be if everyone paid strict critical attention to our words, without Christian love, indulgent, sheltering, kindly, and patient? We must have died long ago. God's Wisdom, Mercy, and Omnipotence may be observed above all in the fact that the Lord places each one of us in such a position, that if we wish we can bring to God the fruits of good works, and save ourselves and others, and that out of the greatest sinners He makes righteous men, obeying His grace, which leads to salvation, and wonderfully saves us from all misfortunes, rescuing us even from destruction itself. You wish others to speedily correct themselves of their faults, but do you speedily correct yourself; do you not suffer from the same, as others? Is it not through you, through your not correcting yourself, that others linger in their sins and passions? Beggars every day pursue you: this means that - - God's mercy continually pursues you. " Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy." And who will flee from God's mercy? The Lord sometimes suddenly sends bountiful material gifts, such, for instance, as: money in payment for some very easy work, and thus rewards you for the expenditure you have incurred in affording help to your neighbour; in general He freely bestows upon us the bountiful gifts of His mercy, in order that we should not grudge His gifts to those whom He sends to us, or whom He allows to take our property, which He has given us in order that we should not be at enmity amongst ourselves, but should live in love and harmony; should our neighbour rob us of our property, even then we ought not to be disquieted, but should bear it meekly, trusting to God to punish for the offence. You know, that the Lord Himself meekly allowed even His garments to be taken from Him, and His body to be tor - tured upon the cross—for your sake, to teach you meekness and gentleness in all misfortunes and offences. When praying with people, we sometimes have to pierce through with our prayer as if it were the hardest wall—human souls, hardened and petrified by earthly passions—to penetrate the Egyptian darkness, the darkness of passions and worldly attachments. This is why it is sometimes difficult to pray. The simpler the people one prays with the easier it is. Our Lady, the Mother of God, is the most beautifully adorned temple of the Holy Trinity. She is, after God, the treasury of all blessings, of purity, holiness, of all true wisdom, the source of spiritual power and constancy. There is no need to ask anyone whether we ought to spread or propagate the Glory of God, either by writing, or by word, or by good works. This we are obliged to do according to our power and possibility. We must make use of our talents. If you think much about such a simple matter, then, perhaps, the Devil may suggest to you such foolishness as that you need only be inwardly active. The principal characteristic of this present, temporal life is temptation. The most merciful and bountiful Lord is everything to all and to me, a miserable sinner, and I have nothing of mine own (the renunciation of every possession). I ought to reverently thank God for everything—for the currents of air, light, water, for every mouthful of food, for clothes. Everything, even our bodies themselves, are indeed only earth and water. Amen. What does the holy Church instil in us by putting in our mouths, both during prayer at home and in church, prayers addressed, not by a single person, but by all? She instils in us constant, mutual love, in order that we should always and in everything, during prayer and during worldly intercourse, love one another as our own selves—in order that we, imit - ating God in three Persons, constituting the highest Unity, should ourselves be one formed of many. " That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us." If enemies surround you, and you are in spiritual distress, call immediately upon our Most Holy Lady. She is Queen in order that she may reign, by Her sovereign power, over the powers that oppose us, and may mightily succour us, for we are Her inheritance. We ought to have the most lively spiritual union with the heavenly inhabitants, with all the saints, apostles, prophets, martyrs, prelates, venerable and righteous men, as they are all members of one single body, the Church of Christ, to which we sinners also belong, and the living Head of which is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. This is why we call upon them in prayer, converse with them, thank and praise them. It is urgently necessary for all Chris - tians to be in union with them if they desire to make Christian progress; for the saints are our friends, our guides to salvation, who pray and intercede for us. If we are in lively, active union with the members of Christ here, if we love them in deed and in truth, then God's saints will be in lively, active union with us, and whatever we ask them they will obtain for us from Christ our God, for Whose sake they sacrificed all that was dear to them. If the truth of something has been revealed in the Word of God, has been investigated and explained to us by the Divinely enlightened mind of the saints, whom God has glorified, and has been recognised by the heart in its light and life - giving effect, then it is a great sin and diabolical pride of the intellect and heart to doubt it and to be perplexed about it. As in the earthly life there are poor and rich, so also in the spiritual life", in the spiritual order, there are also poor and rich. As the poor ask charity of the rich and well - to - do, and cannot live without their help, so also in the spiritual order the poor must have recourse to the spiritually rich. We are the spiritually poor, whilst the saints, or those who shine even in this present life by their faith and piety, are the spiritually rich. It is to them that we needy ones must have recourse. We must beg for their prayers that they may help us to become simple as infants; that they may teach us spiritual wisdom, how to conquer sins, how to love God and our neighbour. And therefore pray for me, saints of God, prophets, apostles, martyrs, prelates, venerable and righteous men, that I may become like unto you! My daily greatest misfortune is my sins, wounding and gnawing at my heart. But against this misfortune there is also a daily greatest Deliverer and Saviour, Jesus Christ. He daily benefits me, invisibly, bountifully. Poor sinners! Learn to know this Saviour as I know Him, by His grace, by His gifts. God's Saints are great through their spiritual disposition, through their faith, their firm trust in God, and their burning love to God, for Whose sake they despised all earthly things. O, how null we are, compared to them; how unlike unto them! They are great by their great deeds of abstinence, vigilance, fasting, unceasing prayers, their diligence in studying the Word of God, and in pious meditation. O, how unlike we are to them! How deeply we must venerate them! With what reverence we must ask for their prayers for us! But in no case must we regard them lightly, irreverently, remembering their godliness and their union with the Godhead. During prayer, be like a lisping infant, mingling your spirit in one with the spirit of the prayer you are pronouncing. Count yourself as nothing and accept the prayer as a great gift of God. Renounce your own carnal wisdom and do not listen to it, for carnal "knowledge puffeth up," it doubts, imagines, blasphemes. If, during prayer or at any other time, the enemy hinders your soul by any kind of blasphemy or abominations, do not become despondent in consequence of them, but say firmly in your heart: It was for the cleansing from these and like sins that our Lord Jesus Christ came upon earth; it was to heal these and other like infirmities of spirit that the Most Merciful came to help us; and if you say these words with faith, your heart will be immediately at rest: for the Lord will cleanse your heart. In general, you must not fall into despondency through any sin or evil imagination, but trust in the Saviour. O, boundless Mercy and Compassion of God! O, most great service of the God - Man to us sinners! And even until now He serves us in His love for men, cleansing and saving us. And therefore let the dominion of the enemy be covered with shame! When some inward disturbance or weakness of the heart prevents your pronouncing the words of the prayers during Divine service, then consider such disturbance and weakness as an illusion of the enemy, of the demon; throw aside the despondency, the faint - heartedness, and timidity, and speak concerning the name of the Lord without hurrying, calmly and intentionally louder; you will thus overcome your disturbance and weakness, and will obtain courage and strength. Everything is possible unto those who believe and trust. We must struggle and conquer. When your heart is touched by thoughts of fornication, or impurity, evil, or blasphemy, or when thoughts of malice, envy, avarice, covetousness, gluttony, darken, wound, and oppress you, then say to yourself, with firm, heartfelt conviction, that all this is an imagination of the Devil, and all such ideas and thoughts shall immediately vanish. Blessed is he that " speaketh the truth from his heart." Tortured will be he who imagines or thinks of evil and sin in his heart! "Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil." Despise the carnal delight of sin, for it is a provocation of the perishable flesh. When a thought of doubt in the truth comes to you, say, that this thought is an illusion, whilst the truth remains—eternal truth. The crucified flesh reconciles itself with the spirit and with God; whilst the flesh that is cherished, that is abundantly and daintily fed, fights hard against the spirit and against God, and becomes wholly an abomination of sin. It does not want to pray, and, in general, rebels against God by blasphemy, for instance, and estranges itself from God. This is from experi - ence. Therefore, "they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." It is sometimes necessary to ask a person who prays for himself, or for others, the following question in order to rouse his slumbering heart and conscience: "Are you in need of that for which you are apparently asking, and do you really desire to obtain it ? Do you sincerely desire, for instance, amendment and holiness of life for yourself and others?" The history of the choosing and the rejection of the Hebrews shows the truth, that God shall exalt and honour those who are faithful to Him, and shall abase and reject the ungrateful. It also shows the truth that He is faithful in His promises and threats. He Who has adorned the heavens with stars, could He not still more beautifully adorn His mental Heaven, the most pure Virgin, His Mother? He Who has adorned the earth with various and many - coloured flowers, and poured fragrance upon it, could He not adorn His earthly Mother with all the various flowers of virtues, making Her fragrant with all spiritual perfumes? Truly He could. And our Lady has become "Heaven and the Temple of the Godhead, adorned with all beauties, and more fragrant than all earthly perfumes. O, if God in His mercy, through the prayers of His most pure Mother, would adorn me, disfigured by sin; if He would make me, the unclean, fragrant! For with God nothing shall be im - possible. "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." The Devil generally enters into us through one single lying imagination, or through a single false thought and sinful desire of the flesh, and afterwards he works in us and disturbs us, so incomplex is he. Cannot, therefore, the Lord of all spirits enter into us through one single thought and through true and holy love, and abide with us, and be everything to us?And therefore pray undoubtingly; that is simply, in the simplicity of your heart, without a doubt: it ought to be as easy to pray as to think. During general prayer let your whole heart be in God, and do not on any account let it cling for a single moment to anything earthly; have also an ardent love for human souls, love for the sake of God, and be zealous for their salvation; pray for them as for those who are in great misery, for it is said: "All we who are subjected to the enticements of the evil one are in misery." Pride is of the demon; malice is of the same demon; envy of the same demon; the abom - ination of fornication is of the same demon; enforced blasphemy, of the same demon; en - forced doubt in the truth, of the same demon; despondency, of the same demon; the passions are various, but the same Satan acts in all of them; the passions are various, but they are, all together—the barking of the same Satan, only in different tunes; and the man, when subjected to them, is one and the same spirit with Satan. When you are subjected to the malicious and furious violence of the passions, and to the harassments of the Devil, during the fulfilment of various works for God, accept these sufferings as sufferings for the name of Christ, and rejoice in your sufferings, thanking God; for the Devil is preparing for you, without knowing it himself, the most shining crowns from the Lord! Amen. We must absolutely resist the Devil. How can we love God with all our heart, with all our soul and all our strength, and with all our thoughts? With all our heart means—undividedly, not dividing ourselves between the love of God and love of the world, or in general of creatures. If, for instance, you pray, pray with an undivided heart, not allowing your attention to be distracted by vain thoughts, by earthly attachments; be wholly in God, in His love, with all your soul—that is, do not only love Him with part of your soul, not only with your mind, without your heart and will sharing in this love—with all your strength, not with half your strength or slightly. When you have to fulfil any commandment, fulfil it most zealously, unto sweat and blood, unto laying down your life for it, if necessary, but not slothfully, indolently or unwillingly. Our soul is simple as thought, and rapid as thought or lightning. In an instant it can be wounded by sin and become attached to corruptible things; in an instant it can fall away from the love of God and its neighbour through a single unrighteous thought, through a single passionate desire, through a single malevolent thought, and, therefore, we must con - stantly watch our heart, lest it should incline to words or thoughts of evil, and must ever strive to preserve it in God's simplicity and purity, and in the love of God and its neighbour. Both learned and unlearned young men seldom go to church, and in general do not attend to their spiritual education, looking upon it as unnecessary and giving themselves up to worldly vanity. Attention must be paid to this. It is the fruit of pride, of want of spir - itual development. They consider attendance at church and Divine service as the business of the common people and women, forgetting that, in the temple, Angels officiate with trembling, together with men, and regard this as their highest bliss. Does not coldness towards public worship, towards Divine service, proceed from the fact that some do not understand it, and that others, although they have studied the science of Divine service, have been taught it drily, without any examples, only according to the understanding? whilst Divine service, being the high contemplation of the mind, is at the same time, and pre - eminently, the peace, sweetness and blessedness of the heart. Until now I have not become impoverished by being merciful to others, and shall not become impoverished to the last, for "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to - day."28 It is not said without reason: "He that giveth to the poor shall not lack." Indeed, up till now the Lord has only increased my temporal blessings, and has not taken them away. I praise the bountifulness of the Lord, His rich Providence. Thou art the representative of faith and of the Church, O priest; thou art the represent - ative of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself; therefore, thou must be an example of meekness, purity, valour, firmness, patience, of elevation of spirit. Thou art doing God's work, and must not lose courage before anybody; thou must not flatter anyone, nor be servile, and must consider thy work as higher than all human affairs. He who is accustomed to give account of his life at confession here will not fear to give an answer at the terrible judgment - seat of Christ. It is for this purpose that the mild tribunal of penitence was here instituted, in order that we, being cleansed and amended through penitence here below, may give an answer without shame at the terrible judgment - seat of Christ. This is the first motive for sincere confession, and, moreover, it must absolutely be made every year. The longer we remain without confessing, the worse it is for us, the more entangled we become in the bonds of sin, and therefore the more difficult it is to give an account. The second motive is tranquillity: the more sincere has been our confession, the more tranquil will the soul be afterwards. Sins are—secret serpents, gnawing at the heart of a man and all his being; they do not let him rest, they continually suck his heart; sins are—prickly thorns, constantly goring the soul; sins are— spiritual darkness. Those who repent must bring forth the fruits of repentance. The Lord said of His Church: "I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."31 This is said of the pastors of the Church, or the Church hierarchy, and of all true believers, as well as of all the sacraments, all the dogmas and commandments of the Holy Orthodox Faith, and of all the offices of the sacraments; for instance, the Liturgy, Holy Orders, Matrimony, Baptism, Chrism, Holy Oil, which have been established unto all the ages, and have already been in existence unchanged during many centuries. See how firm is the Church, founded by the Lord! Remember these words of the Lord, and do not waver in the slightest degree when celebrating any of the sacraments. Be firm as adamant. Let others mock at you, oppose you, when you are under the influence of any passion; do not be in the least offended with those who mock at or oppose you, for they do you good; crucify your self - love and acknowledge the wrong, the error of your heart. But have the deepest pity for those who mock at words and works of faith and piety, of righteousness; for those who oppose the good which you are doing, or which you wish to instil into others. God preserve you from getting exasperated with them, for they are deserving of pity and tears. Glory to Thee, Lord, my Saviour, for having delivered me at my prayer from the tyranny of the passions! I myself am nothing, but by the grace of the priesthood, by bestowing upon others the Divine Body and Blood, I become the second or third means of healing sicknesses. Through me the grace of the Spirit gives new life to infants and grown persons; administers in the sacrament of the Eucharist the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, uniting believers with the Godhead; through me it looses or binds the sins of men, opens or closes heaven, gives salutary counsels, rules, etc. O, how venerable is the office of priest! Do you see, brethren, how many benefits the Creator and Saviour pours upon you through priests? If people labour so long for worldly vanity, and often make us wait in vain for them to finish, then should not we, God's servants, labour for the Lord God slowly, pausing with understanding, with feeling, with great reverence and zeal, reading the prayers distinctly, separately? Better let people wait for us than we for them. Lord, let it be thus at every celeb - ration of Divine service, of the Sacraments. Give all this Thyself: for without Thee we can do nothing. Do not value God's Sacraments at the price of gold and silver. That which you have freely received, be also ready to freely give. Leave the reward for your labour to the free - will of those who receive the Sacraments, and labour for those who give, or can only afford to give you, the smallest remuneration for your spiritual labour, as willingly as for those who offer you a large remuneration. During God's work do not think of silver; do not offend the Holy Ghost, and do not sell God's gifts, lest your silver be the cause of your own destruction. Ah, indeed some really do sell, and others buy, or think of buying, the gifts of the Holy Ghost for silver, like Simon the sorcerer. What is the human soul? It is the one same soul or the one same breath of God, which God breathed into Adam, and which until now is diffused from Adam upon the entire human race. Therefore all men are as though one man, or one great tree of mankind. From this comes the most natural commandment, founded upon the unity of our nature: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God [your Prototype, your Father] with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. Thou shalt love thy neighbour [for who can be nearer to me than the man like unto me, of the same blood as me?] as thyself." To fulfil these two commandments is a natural necessity. For what purpose do I require property? In order to have means of subsistence for myself, my family and my relatives, and in order to help the poor, and not for the purpose of hoarding it. Measure bountifully, so that God may measure bountifully to you in accordance with your gift. Besides, all our property or all our means of existence are God's and not ours, and God is the Master of life. He cares for the support of our life, through ourselves or through others, or directly. " Let us commend ourselves and each other, and all our life to Christ our God."61 We say we must live, and our life is God, therefore God gives and will give all our means of existence. Orthodox Christians are like a family, the children of Jesus Christ, and in a good family the mother is always held in high respect (the Mother of God), likewise the elder brothers enjoy the respect and esteem of the younger ones, and these latter imitate the former. Lutherans and Anglicans! Why is it not so with you? Why is not the Mother of God duly reverenced and solemnly honoured and worshipped by you too ? Why do you not solemnly honour and worship the holy angels and God's saints? Why do you not wish to imitate them?Or is it that you honour God alone, and worship Him only? But you should remember that the Mother of the Lord Jesus Christ, the holy angels, and the saints are pure images of God, friends of God, as Abraham is called the friend of God. How can you, then, not worship the living images of God, the children and friends of God? People say that God is merciful; that He will have mercy upon us. Certainly, God is in - finitely merciful. But if He is infinitely merciful and bountiful to us, then why do we volun - tarily offend Him by our iniquities'! The more He loads us with benefits, the more we ought to love Him, to be grateful to Him, and obedient to His holy commandments or orders. But where is this love, this gratitude, this obedience? All possible sins and passions are ready to break into the soul, and strive to do so at every moment. But fight against them valiantly and vigilantly unto your last breath, looking upon them as dreams of your imagination, as illusions of the spirits of evil. Fasting is a good teacher: (1) It soon makes everybody who fasts understand that a man requires very little food and drink, and that in general we are greedy and eat a great deal more than is necessary—that is, than our nature requires. (2) Fasting clearly shows or dis - closes all the infirmities of our soul, all its weaknesses, deficiencies, sins, and passions; just as when muddy, standing water is beginning to be cleaned it shows what reptiles and what sort of dirt it contains. (3) It shows us all the necessity of turning to God with the whole heart, and of seeking His mercy, help, and salvation. (4) Fasting shows all the craftiness, cunning, and malice of the bodiless spirits, whom we have hitherto unwittingly served, and whose cunning, now that we are enlightened by the light of God's grace, becomes clear, and who now maliciously persecute us for having left their ways. The sign of the cross as a blessing from a priest or a bishop is an expression of the blessing or of the favour of God to a man in Christ and for Christ's sake. What a joyful, significative, and precious ceremony this is! Blessed are all who receive such a blessing with faith! How attentive should the priests themselves be in bestowing their blessing upon the faithful! " And they shall put My name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them." It is better not to pass on the words of reproach that have been transmitted to us by anyone, but to keep silence concerning them, or transmit words of love and good - will, then our spirit will be tranquil. But to pass on words of animosity and envy is very hurtful; they often produce, in the impatient and self - loving men, to whom they refer, a spiritual tempest, rekindle extinct enmity, and occasion dissension. We must have Christian patience, and the wisdom of the serpent. God's Saints are—beautiful, incorruptible, fragrant flowers. Do not touch these flowers with lips defiled by sins—that is, pray to them with a pure heart and pure lips, not carelessly, not with distracted thoughts, but with reverence, and without haste. They are speaking heavens; they led a heavenly, wonderful life on earth, doing great deeds, they lived in great love, in deep humility, gentleness, patience, self - denial, loving God above all things. What is the relation between the word and the deed? The word of God called the visible and invisible world from non - existence into existence; the word in the mouth of God—the word was deed. Therefore the word and the deed ought to be inseparable from each other, as the soul and body are inseparable in their being. He who faithfully and continually fulfils the word of Christ, with Whom the word is the deed, can even now accomplish great and wonderful deeds, and everything obeys His word: the demons obey Him, maladies are cured, and human morality is taught. Every man on earth is sick with the fever of sin, with the blindness of sin, is overcome by the fury of sin; and as sins mostly consist in malice and pride, it is necessary to treat everyone who suffers from the malady of sin with kindness and love. This is an important truth, which we often forget. We often, very often, act in opposition to this truth; we add malice to malice by our anger, we oppose pride to pride. Thus, evil grows within us and does not decrease; it is not cured, but rather spreads. Lord, have mercy upon us, have mercy upon mankind! It was through the eating of the forbidden fruit in Paradise that mankind acquired the cruel sickness of the soul, attachment to this transitory life, to earthly blessings and pleasures, that most destructive division of the heart between God and the world, between good and evil. And as earthly blessings cannot satisfy the soul, created for delighting in spiritual, eternal, infinite blessings, and they are not equally distributed amongst all—so that through passion or blind attachment some gain possession of very many of them, whilst others have very few, and some even, none at all—therefore, from this proceeds eternal sin, enmity and death for possession; hence the envy and ill - feeling between separate individuals and nations, hence wars and bloodshed, hence the luxury of some and the extreme poverty of others, the surfeiting of some and hunger of others, the seeking for conspicuous, advantageous places by some and the oppression of others, hence thefts, extortion, and every kind of evil. This is what the eating of the forbidden fruit has done; it has occasioned so much evil that it is impossible to escape from it. And if the Son of God had not been incarnated, and had not suffered and died for our salvation, then all mankind would have remained in endless, in - consolable, and unimaginable woe; for all would have been lost in their sins, and everlasting wailing and gnashing of teeth in hell, without any hope of salvation, would have been their lot, to which everlasting torments impenitent sinners are even now doomed. Why is long - continued prayer necessary? In order that by prolonged, fervent prayer we may warm our cold hearts, hardened in prolonged vanity. For it is strange to think, and still more so to require, that the heart, hardened in worldly vanity, could be speedily penetrated during prayer by the warmth of faith and the love of God. No; labour and labour, time and time are needed to attain this. "The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." The Kingdom of Heaven does not soon come into the heart when men themselves so assiduously flee from it. The Lord Himself expresses His will that our prayers should not be short, by giving us for an example the importunate widow who often came to the judge and troubled him with her requests. Our Lord, our Heavenly Father knows, even before we ask Him, what things we have need of, what we want; but we do not know Him as we ought, for we give ourselves up to worldly vanity, instead of committing ourselves into the hands of our Heavenly Father. Therefore in His wisdom and mercy He turns our needs into a pretext for our turning to Him. "Turn ye, My wandering children, even now unto Me, to your Father, with your whole hearts. If before you were far from Me, even now, at least, warm by faith and love to Me your hearts which were formerly cold." Man, they say, is free; he cannot compel himself, or ought not to force himself, to any religion or instruction. Lord, have mercy upon us! What a diabolical opinion! If they arc not forced, then what will become of men after this? What will become of you, the proclaimer of these newly - invented rules, if you do not force yourself to that which is good, and live as your vicious heart, your proud, short - sighted and blind intellect, your sinful flesh, incline you to live? Say, what will become of you? Do you not, then, force yourself, I do not say to good, but even to that which is your duty and is useful? How can one do without forcing oneself? How is it possible not to induce or force Christians, too, to fulfil the precepts of religion and piety? Is it not said in the Scripture that " the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth vi - olence, and the violent take it by force"? And, especially, how is it possible not to compel boys to instruction, to prayer? What will become of them? Will they not become idlers and good - for - nothing? Will they not learn every evil? When reading certain truths, do not say: "This is not new; this I know; I said this myself also." All this is diabolical pride. Such a frame of mind savours of the following sophistry: "I know everything, good and evil." It almost signifies: " I am omniscient." And many people do not read sermons and religious books because they think that they know all that all that is written there is a repetition of what has been known to them long ago; whilst worldly books, in which, indeed, there is always the one same empty worldly vanity, they read willingly, and sometimes several times over. O, impure flies that feed upon carrion! When you give alms to one who begs of you, and who, apparently, is not deserving of, does not require your charity— owing to which your heart grudges him the alms given—re - pent of this; for the Divine holy Love also bestows His blessings upon us, even when we have a sufficiency of them already. Love for your neighbour ought to say to you, "Even al - though he has something, still it will do not harm if I add to his prosperity (although, to tell the truth, a few pence will not greatly add to or amend his fortunes). God gives to me, why then should I not give to the needy?" I say to the needy, for who would hold out his hand without need ? Had you only received gifts from God in accordance with your merits, you would have been a beggar yourself. God is bountiful to you, not in accordance with your merits, and you yourself wish that He should be bountiful. Why then, having plenty, do you not wish to be generous yourself to your brethren? The mode of curing spiritual sicknesses (the passions) entirely differs from the mode of curing of bodily sicknesses. In the latter case, attention must be fixed upon the malady; the tender part must be treated by softening means—warm water, compresses, etc. But it is not so in the case of spiritual sicknesses; so if you have fallen spiritually sick, do not pay at - tention to it, but strike the malady, crucify it; do not in any wise indulge it, do not cherish it, do not warm it, do quite the reverse to that which it asks you to do. If you feel hatred for your neighbour, crucify this passion quickly, and immediately begin to love your neighbour; if you have fallen into avarice, try to quickly become generous; if you have grown" envious, try to quickly become benevolent; if you have fallen into pride, quickly humble yourself to the ground; if you have fallen into covetousness, praise those who are disinterested, and endeavour to become like them; if you are tormented by the spirit of enmity, strive after peace and love; if you are overcome by gluttony, quickly strive to be abstinent and keep fast. The whole art of curing the diseases of the spirit consists in not paying attention to them, and in not in the least indulging them, but in immediately cutting them off. I have seen and heard men relate maliciously and malevolently the dark spots in the life and activity of great and even holy men, and condemn, on account of such imaginary or real dark spots, the whole life of such men, calling them hypocrites and almost apostates. They will even present to you facts; only these facts are as dark and doubtful as their own suspicious, cunning souls, which would like to find an imaginary justification for their own vicious deeds in the spots, sins, and weaknesses of others. But such people do not justify themselves, but only increase their own condemnation by beholding the mote in their brother's eye and judging him, not considering the beam (truly a beam) in their own eye. You say: "There are such and such sins in this holy father, or in that pious man." What of that? He is a man, and no man is sinless. " If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Are you yourself sinless? If not, then why do you cast the stone of condemnation at your brother? If I were to examine your life, in accordance with the Word of God, I should convict you by your own words of innumerable and grievous sins: of pride, presumption, unbelief, love of money, adultery, and of the misinterpretation of the Word of God and of God's commandments, of coldness to your faith, and of what not besides. I should perhaps find that the whole of your body is dark, because the eye of your heart is evil. O, how revolting to me is this devilish rejoicing at the sins of your neighbour, these infernal endeavours to prove their real or imaginary weaknesses! And yet people who act thus dare to say that they respect and strive with all their might to fulfil the commandment concerning love for God and their neighbour! What sort of love is it, when they intentionally wish to see and find dark spots even in great and holy persons— - when they blacken the whole life of such persons for a single sin, and do not wish to hide their neighbour's sin, if, indeed, it really exists ? Have they forgotten that "charity endureth all things?" What an amount of evil these moral worms do themselves and others! They prejudice the lawful re - spect of others for a renowned person, darken his light for them, hinder them from imitating him, and trouble their minds with thoughts of condemnation; and harm themselves, too, by receiving from the Devil the poison of judging their neighbour. Brother! "Who art thou that judgest another man's servant ? To his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand." Having invoked the Holy Ghost upon the Holy gifts lying before you, and having sanctified them by the prayer of consecration (during the Liturgy), remember that heaven and earth shall pass away, but the words of the Lord shall not pass away; and that the bread and wine have absolutely changed into the Body and Blood of the Lord, by the will of the Lord Himself and by the operation of the Holy Ghost, even if the officiating priest should be unworthy through any infirmity. Remember that the celebration of the life - giving Mysteries is the unchangeable assent of the life - giving Trinity, predetermined from the creation of the world: it cannot but be. When you are celebrating the Mysteries, God the Father Himself, by His Holy Ghost, changes the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ—you are only an instrument. The Father Himself, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, cel - ebrates through you the Liturgy, and consecrates the Holy Gifts. " Thou art He that offerest, and art offered," it is said, " Christ our God." Remember, therefore, the immutability of God and the truth in all His words. When you doubt in the accomplishment or fulfilment of any word of prayer, remember that the nature of the word is accomplishment, realisation, and that the Holy Ghost, teaching us to pray for anything as we ought, is Himself called the Accomplisher. It is He also Who accomplishes our prayer (accomplished by the Spirit). Remember that the word is power. "With God," it is said, "nothing shall be impossible." The word of the Lord " shall not return unto Him void," but, like rain or snow, it shall water the earth of our hearts, and shall give seed (the fulfilment) to the sower. Even of men people say: " His word has extraordinary power." You see, therefore, that the word is power, spirit, life. The greater the number of persons for whom one asks blessings of the Lord, and the higher are these blessings, the more violently the Devil opposes the priest praying, in order that God should not grant these blessings at his earnest, fervent prayers; for, "According to your faith," it is said, " be it unto you," and "all things are possible to him that believeth." However, where the snares of the Devil abound, there also the grace of God abounds. During prayer, when the Devil violently tempts you, cast all your care upon the Lord, " for He careth for you." During prayer only have faith in the Lord, Who is at your right hand, and all things shall be possible unto you. When you sin for the fiftieth and hundredth time in the day, and are seized with the most devilish despondency, and despair in God's mercy, say, from the depths of your soul, with Metaphrastes: "I know well, O Lord, that mine iniquities have gone over my head; but I also know that without measure is the multitude of Thy bounties, and unspeakable is the mercy of Thy great goodness, and no sin is there that can overcome Thy loving - kindness. Therefore, O most wonderful King, O Lord most good, do Thou show Thy mercies in me, a sinner; manifest in me the power of Thy goodness and the might of Thy loving - kindness, and receive me who turn to Thee. Accept me as Thou didst the prodigal, the thief, and the sinful woman. Accept me, though in word and in deed, by my evil passions and unreasonable imaginations, I have sinned without measure against Thee. But, O Lord, O Lord, rebuke me not in Thy righteous wrath; neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure. Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for, though I am weak, I am also Thy creature. Thou, O Lord, hast established Thy fear in me, and yet I have done evil in Thy sight. O Lord my God, I have put my trust in Thee. If there is any hope of salvation for me, if Thy loving mercy can overcome the multitude of my transgressions, be Thou my Saviour, and, according to Thy goodness and mercy, loosen, remit, and forgive all wherein I have sinned; for my soul is full of trouble and there is no hope of salvation in me. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy loving - kindness; deal not with me according to my sins: but turn, preserve, and deliver my soul from the evils besetting it, and from all its wicked undertakings. Save me for Thy mercy's sake, that where sin abounded Thy grace may much more abound, and I will glorify Thee always, all the days of my life. For Thou art the God of the penitent, and the Saviour of siners." Remember that if you do not speak idly during prayer, but say the words of the prayer with feeling, then your words shall not return to you void, without power (like the husk without the grain), but shall unfailingly bring you those same fruits which are contained in the word, as the fruit is enclosed in the shell. This is a most natural thing, as natural and common as the fruit and its shell in nature. But if you scatter the words to no purpose, without faith, without feeling their power, like the shell without the kernel, then they will return to you empty, in the same way as if you were to scatter the shell, the shell would return to you; but if you scatter seed, the full ears of corn will return to you; and the better, the richer are your seeds, the fuller shall be the ears of corn. It is the same with our prayers: the more sincerely, the more heartily each word is pronounced, the greater will be the fruit of the prayer. Each word, like a grain, shall bring you spiritual fruit, like a ripe ear of corn. Which of those who pray has not experienced this? It was not without reason that the Saviour compared the seed with the word, and the human heart with the ground. The same applies to the words of the prayer. Also, who does not know that the rain moistens the ground and plants and waters them? Likewise, the word of God, and even our own word spoken with faith, shall not return to us without watering our own soul or the souls of others who are obedient and believing. This is just as natural as it is natural for rain to water and fructify the ground and plants, and to assist their growth. He who becomes irritated against another on account of something material, places a material object above his brother. But what can be higher than man ? Nothing on earth is higher. When you pray, endeavour to pray more for others than for yourself alone, and during prayer represent to yourself vividly all men as forming one body with yourself, and each separately as a member of the Body of Christ and your own member, "for we are members one of another." Pray for all as you would pray for yourself, with the same sincerity and fervour; look upon their infirmities and sicknesses as your own; their spiritual ignorance, their sins and passions, as your own; their temptations, misfortunes, and manifold afflictions as your own. Such prayer will be accepted with great favour by the Heavenly Father, that most gracious, common Father of all, with Whom "there is no respect of persons," "no variableness," that boundless Love that embraces and preserves all creatures. It is a wonderful thing! Our soul, upon coming into contact with one who is unbelieving and cold towards God, feels an aversion to him, and the Devil endeavours to turn this just dislike and indignation into a feeling of malice. In order not to cherish malice, and not to serve the Devil by it, we must say to ourselves: "I feel a dislike and coldness towards my brother for his aversion and coldness to God, but I do not feel hatred or malice against him, for I bear with him as my own sick member, and I wish to cure him in meekness, instructing him that opposes himself, 'if God peradventure will give them [him] repentance to the ac - knowledging of the truth.' If he turns to God, I shall turn to him, also, with heartfelt love; if he becomes compassionate towards others, and does not think of himself alone, of his own advantage and pleasures, then I, too, shall sympathise with him." Besides this, bear lovingly with everybody, and look more upon yourself, what you yourself are; are you not cold and indifferent to God and your neighbour yourself? If so, then there is no reason for you to cast a stone at your brother, when this stone should be directed against yourself. Try to turn your whole life into service to God; if you are reading anything at home, begin this work by a short fervent prayer that God may teach you and make you wise in faith and piety and in the careful accomplishment of your duties; never read idly, in order to pass the time; by thus doing you lower the word, which should serve entirely for our salvation, and not for idle words, nor as a means for pleasure and spending time agreeably. If you talk to your neighbour, speak reasonably, prudently, instructively, edifyingly; avoid idle speaking as the poison of a serpent, remembering that "every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment" ”that is, they shall hear the just sentence of the Judge. If you are teaching children, your own or those of others, turn this work into God's service, teaching them zealously, considering beforehand the best means of making the instruction clear, comprehensible, complete (as far as possible), and fruitful. Conquer by the name of the Lord and by the sign of the cross the snares of the enemy, who endeavours to disturb, darken, oppress, and weaken you. Even when you eat, drink, or do anything else lawful, "do all to the glory of God." In every word is God the Word, an incomplex Being. How carefully we must therefore pronounce the words, with what humility, how prudently, in order not to anger God the Word, together with the Father and the Holy Ghost! Do not believe your flesh when it grows weak and refuses to serve you on the pretence of not being sufficiently strengthened by food. This is a delusion. Overcome it; pray fervently, and you will see that the weakness of your body was false, imaginary, not real: you will see in truth that " men shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Do not put your trust in bread. Remember that the intellect is the servant of the heart, which is our life; if it leads the heart to truth, peace, joy, and life, then it fulfils its destination, it is the truth; but if it leads the heart to doubt, disturbance, torment, despondency, darkness, then it does not fulfil its destination and is absolutely false ("science falsely so called.") If the heart feels peace, joy, ease from faith in anything, this is quite sufficient; it is unnecessary, then, to require from the reason proofs of the truth of such an object; it is undoubtedly true the heart asserts it by its life, for the purpose of all investigations is truth and life. To doubt in the Divinity of the Holy Ghost means to doubt in our own life, for the Holy Ghost gives life, and spiritually feeds all—serves as a spiritual sun, as air, food, and drink to our souls; it means to reject prayer, for we pray through the Holy Ghost; to reject truth and holiness, for the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of truth and of all holiness; to reject every spiritual consolation and comfort in sorrows and sicknesses, for the Holy Ghost is the true and only Comforter, together with the Father and the Son; to reject faith, for faith is given by the Holy Ghost; to reject hope and love, for hope and love are likewise bestowed upon our hearts by the Holy Ghost: " The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us"to reject spiritual and bodily power, for the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of power and strength; to reject wisdom and understanding, the fear of God, our own breathing, for He is the breathing, the air of the soul; in a word, it means to doom ourselves to moral nothingness and destruction. Do not pay attention to doubts in the truth, for they are the breathing of the evil spirit, of the spirit of falsehood—the destroyer; " Ye shall know them by their fruits." Doubt in the truth is always destructive to the soul. Every truth is the breathing of the Holy Ghost: the Word of God, the writings of the Holy Fathers and of the teachers of the Church, the words and works of every pious person who loves the truth. God is eternally watchful; and therefore we must always pray to Him with a watchful and sober mind and heart: "Be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer," it is said, and drive away any self - forgetfulness and slothfulness from ourselves. Do not let your prayer evaporate and only dry words remain from it, but let it breathe with the warmth of the Spirit, like moist hot bread, just taken out of the oven. Concerning the Word. In the word there is an image of the most Holy Trinity, for in the word there is both thought, and word, and spirit. When praying truly with the whole heart, we feel that we are praying by the Holy Ghost: the words are penetrated by such hearty warmth, whilst sometimes we feel that we are praying not by the Holy Ghost, but by the spirit of falsehood: the lips say one thing, and the heart feels another, sometimes quite the contrary; for instance, we say the words with doubt, in the spirit of impatience, of resentment against someone, or in the spirit of pride, of self - exaltation, not acknowledging ourselves to be that which we really are. What air is to animal, bodies and vegetation the Holy Ghost is to spiritual beings, to angels and men. This is why the Lord said: " The Spirit bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof" (the breathing), "but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth." Believe, therefore, that your soul breathes by the Holy Ghost; know your Benefactor, your Life, reverence Him daily and honour Him by love and good works. Avoid the deadly breathing of the Devil, of the sins and passions, and especially enmity, discord, pride, and unbelief. Say to yourself oftener: My soul breathes by the Holy Ghost, may I ever glorify the Holy Ghost, together with the Father and the Son! From the essence of the thinking spirit is born the word, inherent to it, which discloses the thought, and is equal to it. From the thought, and with the thought, proceeds the spirit, resting in the word and communicating in the word to those who listen; this spirit is fully equal to the thought and to the word, and is inherent to them. For instance, in the words "I love," one sees both the loving origin and the words born from it, and one feels a kind of pleasant breathing of love. Do not indulge your slothful flesh during prayer; do not hurry. The flesh, growing weary and oppressed by the holy work, hastens to finish praying, in order to rest or to occupy itself with worldly or carnal matters. Every word of Holy Writ, every word of the Divine liturgy, of the morning and evening services, every word of the Sacramental prayers and of the other prayers, has in itself the power corresponding to it and contained in it, like the sign of the honourable and life - giving cross. Such grace is present in every word of the Church, on account of the Personal Incarnate Word of God, Who is the Head of the Church, dwelling in the Church. Besides this, every truly good word has in itself the power corresponding to it, owing to the all - filling simple Word of God. With what attention and reverence, with what faith, must we therefore pro - nounce each word! For the Word is the Creator Himself, God, and through the Word all things were brought into existence from non - existence. The Church is the sure way to the life eternal; walk in it undeviatingly, hold fast to it, and you will gain the kingdom of heaven; but if you turn aside at the crossways of your own sophistry and unbelief, then you have only yourself to blame, you will go astray and be lost. "I am the way, the truth, and the life." When you are praying to God, then do not represent to yourself His nearness otherwise than that you breathe every moment in Him, that you are enlightened, sanctified, rest, are comforted, and strengthened by Him—that, in a word, you live in Him, in accordance with the Scripture: " For in Him we live, and move, and have our being: He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things." "God [the Word] is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thine heart . . . that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." We have icons in our houses, and venerate them, in order to show, amongst other things, that the eyes of God and of all the heavenly dwellers are constantly fixed upon us, and see not only all our acts, but also our words, thoughts and desires. Watch yourself continually, in order that the spiritual life and spiritual wisdom should not be dried up within you. Meditate oftener upon what you read, or sing, or hear in church, or sometimes at home. Live as the saints lived: by their prayers, wisdom, and virtues; in meekness, humility, and gentleness, not sparing yourself, but renouncing yourself, your rest, ease and enjoyment, for the love of God and your neighbour, in patience, courage and struggle—have their faith, hope and love. " Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding." What is the false gratitude to God? Gratitude is false when, having received bountiful, undeserved spiritual and material gifts from God, people thank God for them with their tongue, and use them only for their own advantage, not sharing them with their neighbours; when they obtain them and conceal them in their treasuries, chests, libraries; thus depriving many of their brethren of spiritual enlightenment, instruction, and consolation; or of food, drink, clothing, dwelling; or of being cured of their maladies; or of the means of moving from one place to another for the purpose of acquiring means of subsistence. Such gratitude is false and impious. It means thanking God with the tongue, and meanwhile showing ex - treme ingratitude and ill - nature in deed. But how many such grateful—or, rather, ungratful—men there are! The passions spur us on like cruel drivers, daily urging us, through our love for earthly things, to act in opposition to the Lord and to our own true welfare, and to do that which is pleasing to the flatterer, Satan. In the temple, in its arrangements and parts, in the icons, in the Divine service, with the reading of the Holy Scriptures, the singing, the rites, the entire Old Testament, New Testament, and Church history, the whole Divine ordering of the salvation of mankind is emblematically traced, as upon a chart, in figures and in general outlines. Grand is the spectacle of the Divine service of our Orthodox Church for those who understand it, who penetrate into its essence, its spirit, its signification, its sense! It is natural for us to have images of Christ, of His Most Pure Mother, of the Angels and saints. Firstly, because it is a requirement of our nature: we always wish to have before us an image of the Beloved, an image of our Benefactor, in order that in gazing upon it we may oftener remember Him and His benefactions (worship Him), the same as we do with living persons, especially with those whom we love and respect. Secondly, we are created after the image and likeness of God, therefore it is natural for us to wish to have always before our eyes our own Prototype, our First Origin, the Lord God, in those images, in which He was pleased to manifest Himself to men, in order that we should oftener remember Him, His constant presence with us, His providence; in order to express our reverence, gratitude, and love to Him in visible signs or ceremonies; for we are corporal, and on account of our cor - porality we need material representations, material ceremonies. It was certainly because of this that the Lord Himself appeared to His saints—for instance, to Abraham, in the form of three strangers, under the tree upon the plains of Mamre; to Isaiah in the form of a great King, sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; to the prophet Daniel in the form of the Ancient of Days and in the form of the Son of Man, brought near before Him. Had not the visible image of the invisible God been necessary, He certainly would not have appeared in a visible manner; would not have appeared upon earth in our flesh; would not have taken the form of a servant. And David says: "Seek His face evermore." For this reason also we make, keep in our houses, and venerate, pictures of the Most Pure Mother of God, of the Angels and saints, because they are living images and likenesses of God, and, looking upon them, we remember more vividly their great deeds, virtues, their benefactions to us, their ardent love to God, and we ourselves thus become inspired to imitate them in their constant vigilance over themselves, in cleansing ourselves from every impurity of body and spirit, and we glorify their exploits, thus making them our intercessors and protectors before God, for God deigns to accept the intercession of His friends and faithful servants on behalf of those for whom they intercede before Him. As we are not bodiless spirits, but beings, covered with flesh, having material contours and a material image, it is natural that we should seek images of invisible beings; and it was indeed in condescension to our infirmity that the Lord gave the Angels power to take our form upon themselves and appear to us (when He pleases) in our image, as, for instance, when the Archangel appeared to Joshua, the son of Nun, to David, to Manoah and Hannah, to Zacharias, to the Most Pure Virgin Mary, and to other saints of the Old and New Testaments. Do we not ourselves prove in our daily life the re - quirement of our nature, its longing to have representations of the persons whom we love, when we express the desire to have their portraits and have our own portraits done, hang them up on the walls, or place them in albums, in order to look at them often, and to enjoy contemplating the respected and beloved faces? And this natural, right, and pious veneration of the holy icons many Lutherans and Anglicans regard as something unnatural, repugnant to God, as idolatry and heresy; they have not icons either in their houses or even in their temples, and consider it a sin to have and worship them. Through this they lose much in faith and piety, for by breaking the visible connection with the saints they likewise destroy the invisible one, whilst in reality, as the Church is heavenly and earthly, it forms one body. They have broken in the same way their connection with the departed, because they do not pray for them and do not offer sacrifices for their souls, sacrifices which are well - pleasing to the merciful God; and thus prove their unbelief in the power of the prayers of the Church for the departed. What kind of a Church is this that has unwisely and audaciously broken her ties with the heavenly, triumphant Church? has interrupted communion by means of prayers with the departed, and broken off communion with the Church that professes the faith in Christ in its primitive purity? Is it a living and holy body of the Church? Can a single trunk of the body, without head, without hands and feet, without eyes and ears, be called a living, organised body? And yet such a community proclaims its faith as the purified, true faith, and eschews the rites of our holy, spotless religion. Is that religion purified that has rejected the Sacrament of Orders and the other sacraments, excepting Baptism and Holy Communion, which last, however, is not valid; has rejected the veneration of the saints, of their relics, icons, fasting, monasticism, and prayers for the departed? Is this the faith of the Gospel? Is it the Church of Christ and the Apostolic Church? No; it is a self - made Church, constituted by the will of men, under the influence of human passions and pleasing human passions; it is " the truth in unrighteousness "it is the perverted Gospel of Christ; it is the perversion or turning away of Christ's people " unto another Gospel," of which the Apostle said: "But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." It is not a Church, but a soul - destroying dissection of the body of Christ. And thus the veneration of icons is nat - ural, righteous, pleasing to God, and profitable. One definite commandment was given to Adam and Eve, in order that by fulfilling this one commandment—which was, moreover, a very easy one—men might acquire the habit of fulfilling the will of God, the fulfilment of which constitutes the whole well - being of creatures, and might be strengthened in the love of God. If we turn our attention to the contrary— to the non - fulfilment of the will of the Creator and the fulfilment of our own will, in opposition to the Creator's—we observe that little by little a man changes for the worse and perverts his own high nature, created after the image and likeness of God, and becomes God's enemy. So important is the fulfilment of God's commandments, and so destructive is their non - fulfilment! By giving to the first men His definite commandment not to eat the fruits of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the Lord God revealed Himself as the Guide of the newly - created reasonable creatures, of His children by adoption. Whose fault was it that this guidance was rejected, and that man preferred to be governed by his own will? Even until now, notwithstanding all the progress in sciences and arts, notwith - standing all the treasures of human wisdom, neither the man of ancient nor of modern times can educate himself, because he rejected even from the beginning the guidance of God; for, say, who but God should be our guide? And both at present and in the past only those men successfully completed their mental and moral education who trusted in God and lived in accordance with His commandments, or who now live in accordance with the Gospel and the teaching of the Church, submitting themselves to her guidance. This is useful for all modern teachers to remember. We have many sciences, but the result obtained is small; our youths have much in their heads, whilst in their hearts they have but little—very little, and often, alas! even nothing. Life, then, does not correspond with education and science. But "though I understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." Grant unto me, Most Holy Virgin, purity of heart, simple heartfelt, and son - like trust, devotion and love to Thee, both now and for ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen It is as easy for a believer to attract the Holy Ghost to himself, as it is easy to draw air into one's self; like air, He fills everything and penetrates everything. "Who art everywhere present and fillest all things." He who prays fervently, draws the Holy Ghost into himself, and prays by the Holy Ghost. Prayer is the breathing of the soul, just as air is the natural breathing of the body. We breathe by the Holy Ghost. You cannot say a single word of prayer with the whole heart without the help of the Holy Ghost. When praying, you are conversing, mouth to mouth, with the Lord; and if the mouth of your heart is open by faith and love, then it is as though you breathed into yourself, from Him, the spiritual blessings you ask for by the Holy Ghost. What is the meaning of the exclamation so often sung in church: "Lord, have mercy upon us"? It is the lament of the guilty, condemned sinner, imploring forgiveness of an irrit - ated justice. We are all under the eternal curse and doomed to eternal fire for our innumerable sins, and it is only the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, interceding for us before the Heavenly Father, that saves us from eternal punishment. It is the lament of the repentant sinner, ex - pressing his firm intention to amend and begin a new life, becoming for a Christian. It is the lament of the repentant sinner, ready to forgive others, as he himself was and is immeas - urably forgiven by God, the Judge of his deeds. Do not fear the conflict, and do not flee from it: where there is no struggle, there is no virtue; where there are no temptations for faithfulness and love, it is uncertain whether there is really any faithfulness and love for the Lord. Our faith, trust, and love are proved and re - vealed in adversities, that is, in difficult and grievous outward and inward circumstances, during sickness, sorrow, and privations. The thoughts of a man have the most powerful influence upon the state and inclinations of his heart and actions; therefore, in order that the heart may be pure, good, tranquil, and that the inclinations of the will may be also good and pious, it is necessary to cleanse our thoughts by means of prayer, by reading the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Holy Fathers, as well as by meditations on the perishableness, transitoriness, and complete disap - pearance of earthly delights. Amongst Christians both the sciences and literature have now become almost wholly worldly. The Gospel and religion are neglected, the lives of the saints are scoffed at, in general there is everywhere a kind of feverish, worldly activity, whilst no one thinks of pleasing God and of the salvation of his soul. What a pitiable condition! Why has our sincere prayer for each other such great power over others? Because of the fact that by cleaving to God during prayer I become one spirit with Him, and unite with myself, by faith and love, those for whom I pray, for the Holy Ghost acting in me also acts at the same time in them, for He accomplishes all things. "We, being many, are one bread, and one body." "There is one Body and one Spirit" When owing to sickness, proceeding from various causes, you feel unwell and indisposed, and when in this condition your prayer is cold, heavy, filled with despondency and even despair, do not be disheartened or despairing, for the Lord knows your sick and painful condition. Struggle against your infirmity, pray as much as you have strength to, and the Lord will not despise the infirmity of your flesh and spirit. When a strange, proud, evil spirit disturbs you before or during the reading of the prayers to the Lord God, or to the Mother of God, then represent vividly to yourself that all those present in the temple are the children of the heavenly, almighty, unoriginate, infinite, most merciful Father, and that the Lord is their Father, and pray to Him boldly, peacefully, joyfully, freely, before the face of all men, fearing neither mockery nor contempt, nor the malice of the children of this world. Do not be crafty nor ashamed before the face of man; do not doubt, but pray sincerely to the Heavenly Father; especially say the Lord's Prayer, reverently, peacefully, not hurriedly: in general, read all the prayers quietly, evenly, with reverence, knowing before Whom you are saying them. How many Christians there are who say, "I believe in God," without in reality believing!How many mouths are dumb when in the company of men it is necessary to defend the glory of God and of His saints, which is blasphemed by the children of this world! Some remain silent when it is necessary to support the conversation concerning God, or to put a stop to any disrespect or insolence. Many say, "I believe in God"; but should any misfortune or temptation arise, they grow fainthearted and despondent. Sometimes they begin to murmur. And what becomes of all their faith? This should be the very time to show submis - sion to the will of God, and to say, "Let it be as the Lord wills." "Blessed be the name of the Lord." Otherwise it is evident that they only believe in God in the time of happiness, and renounce Him in the time of misfortune. Were it not for the Lord and Our Lady, were it not for the guardian angels and the saints, the Devil and his agents would have stopped the mouths of us all, and would not have let us praise the Name of the Lord; it would certainly have been so, for even now they endeavour to do so, and, sometimes, to a certain extent, succeed. Who is it that hinders priests during their service? The Devil. If you doubt whether any particular icon of the Mother of God before which you pray has been sanctified or not, know that Our Lady, the Prototype of this image, was already sanctified nineteen hundred years ago, even in the bosom of Her parents, Joakim and Anna, afterwards at Her birth, and in the temple of Jerusalem, and finally by the indescribable In - carnation of God the Word of Her; She is ever holy and eternally, immovably, unchangeably, most holy; She is in every place, and present in every icon of Hers; by the delineation of Her face and name alone, and of the face and name of the Saviour, the material object is already sanctified by the delineation of Her face and name. Gaze, then, upon every icon in simplicity of heart, for any doubt proceeds from the Devil in order to divert you from heartfelt prayer. Say to him: the whole earth is holy; the power of my Lord, and of His most pure Mother—the Queen of the whole world—is in every place; I gaze upon Her, the most pure One, with my spiritual eyes, and I do not worship a board: Her representation is only made to help my infirmity. The wonder - working icons of the Mother of God, and of other saints, teach us to look upon every icon as upon the saint himself or herself to whom we pray as living persons conversing with us, for they are as near, and still nearer to us than the icons, if only we pray to them with faith and sincerity. It is the same with the life - giving cross. Where the cross is, or the sign of the cross, there is Christ Himself, His power and His salvation only make the sign of the cross or worship the cross with faith. When you pray to God by means of prayers that you know, to which you have grown accustomed, say in your heart: Lord! Thou art ever the same. My heart changes and grows cold to the words of the prayer, but yet their power remains the same, Thou, too, art eternally The Same. What a close connection there is between the Church in heaven and the Church upon earth! What love the Church has! See: she unceasingly remembers, calls upon in prayer, and glorifies the Church in heaven for the great deeds accomplished on earth for God's sake; she unceasingly prays for the Church upon earth, and intercedes for the departed, in the hope of the resurrection, of the life eternal, and of union with God and the Saints. Her love is immense, grand, divine! Let us enter into the spirit of this love of our Mother, the orthodox Church, and let us be penetrated with the spirit of this love. Let us look upon all our brethren as our own members, upon ourselves and them as members of the one body of the Church, and let us love them actively, as ourselves; then we ourselves shall be living members of the Church in heaven, and she will be our active and speedy helper and intercessor. The sin, to which you do not consent, is not "imputed" to you, as, for instance: involuntary distraction during prayer, impure and blasphemous thoughts, involuntary malice, against which we zealously struggle, avarice, which we resist—all such are attacks of the spirit of evil. Our duty is to endure, to pray, to humble ourselves, and to love. Prayer is the constant feeling of our own spiritual poverty and infirmity, the contemplation in ourselves, in others, and in nature of the works of the great wisdom, mercy, and almighty power of God; prayer is—a continually grateful frame of mind. Icons are a requirement of our nature. Can our nature do without an image? Can we recall to mind an absent person without representing or imagining him to ourselves] Has not God Himself given us the capacity of representation and imagination] Icons are the Church's answer to a crying necessity of our nature. Icons in churches and houses are necessary, amongst other reasons, because they remind us of the immortality of the saints; "that they live unto Him," as the Lord said that in God they see, hear, and help us. When you pray to the heavenly Powers, do not represent them to yourself as very terrible, inaccessible, or unmerciful: no, they are the gentlest, humblest, most loving, accessible, friendly beings, ever ready to hear, and very near to those who call upon them in prayer with faith and love. Their attribute is love of union with all Christians, through the prayer of faith. Also, when you pray to the heavenly Powers, despise everything earthly as perishable, and love with all your heart the heavenly, spiritual life, and aspire to it. It is most pleasing to them to see our sincere love of wisdom, our desire to become their fellow - citizens, which we are indeed called to be by the grace of Jesus Christ and the Most - Divine Trinity. I sometimes pray in church for God's people thus: Here, Lord, many of these who are standing in Thy temple, stand before Thee with their souls idle, like empty vessels, and "know not what to pray for as they ought;" fill Thou their hearts now at this favourable time for them, in this day of salvation, by the grace of Thine All - holy Spirit, and give them to me at my prayer, to my love, filled with the knowledge of Thy goodness, and with heartfelt contrition and devotion, as full vessels; give to them Thy Holy Ghost, that "Maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered."I myself, their pastor, am sinful and impure above all men, but do not consider my sins, Lord, despise them according to Thy great mercy, and hear my prayer at this hour, for the sake of the grace of the priesthood resting on me and dwelling in me. Grant, Lord, that this grace may not be idle in me, but that it may ever burn in me with faith, hope, love, and son - like boldness in prayer for Thy people! Lord, accept my tearful prayer for my spiritual children, and for all orthodox Christians who seek to please Thee, and receive it as my care for their salvation, as my pastoral care!Be to them Thyself, in accordance with my prayer, both the voice and the trumpet, awakening them from their sinful sleep, the eye watching over their hearts, the hand guiding them on their journey to the heavenly country, and raising up those who fall through in - credulity, faint - heartedness, and despondency; be to them the motherly love—in which I myself am so deficient— tenderly caring for their true welfare; " be all things to all, that some may be saved." For Thou art, in truth, the one Pastor, invisibly and secretly pasturing the souls of men. Thou art the one, true, and most wise Teacher, speaking in the very hearts of Thy people. Thou art the one true Lover of Thy creatures and children by grace; Thou art an abyss of wisdom and omnipotence; Thou alone art ever - vigilant and unwearying, and teachest us Thy ways, even during our sleep. Be then Thyself, Lord, instead of me, the Pastor and Teacher of Thy sheep, which Thou hast intrusted to me; lead them Thyself to grassy pasture lands; guard them Thyself from spiritual and carnal wolves; guide Thou their feet into the way of truth, righteousness, and peace. Be unto them instead of me, light, eyes, mouth, hands, and wisdom; but, above all, be unto them the love in which I, a sinner, am so wanting! Know, once for all, that in the Church, in all her services, sacraments and prayers, breathes the spirit of holiness, the spirit of peace, the spirit of life and salvation; and that all these properties belong to the Holy Ghost alone. Holy thoughts, or words of life and truth, can be easily distinguished from thoughts and words of falsehood and death; the latter are anguish, disturbance, spiritual death. " For to be carnally - minded is death; but to be spiritually - minded is life and peace." When you forbid the Devil in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, then His name, the sweetest to us, and the most terrible and grievous to the demons, itself creates power, like a two - edged sword. Equally, if you ask anything of the Heavenly Father, or do anything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, then the heavenly Father, for the sake of the name of His beloved Son, shall give you all things in the Holy Ghost, in the sacraments, if you fulfil His commandments, and will in no wise consider your unworthiness; for wherever the name of God is made use of with faith, there it creates powers: for the very name of God is power. Some persons ask: What is the use of mentioning the names of the departed or living in prayer for them? God, being omniscient Himself, knows their names and the needs of each one. But those who speak thus forget, or do not know, the importance of prayer, do not know the importance of every word said from the whole heart; they forget that the justice and mercy of God are moved by our heartfelt prayer, which the Lord, in His goodness, im - putes to the merit of the living or the departed themselves, as to the members of the one body of the Church. They do not know that also the "Church of the first - born, which are written in heaven," in her love, continually prays to God for us, and expressly mentions before God the names of those who pray for them - - equal for equal. We make mention of their names, and they of ours. Whilst he who does not lovingly remember his brethren in prayer, will not himself be remembered, and does not deserve to be mentioned. Even one word of faith and love means much in prayer. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." When we pray for the living and for the departed, and mention them by name, we must pronounce these names lovingly, and from the whole heart, as though we carried in our souls the persons whose names we mention, "even as a nurse cherisheth her children," "remembering that they are our members, and members of the Lord's body."It is not right to stand before God and merely run over their names with the tongue without the heart's participation and love. We must remember that God sees into the heart; that the persons for whom we pray also require from us brotherly love and sympathy as a Christian duty. There is a great difference between the apathetic repetition of names and their hearty remembrance: the one is as far from the other as heaven from earth. But, above all, the name of the Lord Himself, that of His most pure Mother, and those of the holy angels and saints, must always be pronounced from a pure heart with burning faith and love; in general, the words of the prayer must not be merely run over with the tongue as if we were turning over the leaves of a book or counting money, the water must flow like a stream of living water from its source - - they should be the sincere voice of the heart, not a strange, borrowed garment. During prayer, it is necessary, in the first place, that the object of the prayer should be definitely expressed, or at least, that there should be a clear sense of it and desire for it in the heart; in the second place, it is necessary that this desire should be expressed with feeling and lively trust in the mercy of the Lord or in that of the Mother of God; in the third place, there must be a firm intention not to sin in future, and to fulfil God's will in everything. "Thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." When you pray for anything, either to the Lord or to the most pure Mother of God, or to the angels and saints, asking their intercession before God for yourself or for others, then consider the words, expressing your petitions, your needs, as the very things, the very matter, for which you ask the Lord, and believe that you have already a sure pledge of receiving the objects of your prayer, in the very words by which these objects are designated. For instance: when you pray for health for yourself or for someone else, look upon the word health as the very thing itself, as the very deed; believe that you already have it by the mercy and omnipo - tence of God, for the word itself, the name, may in an instant become deed with the Lord, and you will unfailingly receive that which you ask for in return for your unshaken faith. "Ask, and it shall be given you." "What things soever you desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them; and ye shall have them." Spiritual pride manifests itself by the fact that a proud man dares to make himself a judge of religion and of the Church, and says: " I do not believe in this, and I do not acknow - ledge this; this I find superfluous, that unnecessary, and this strange or absurd." Spiritual pride also manifests itself in boastfulness, in the proud man's pretended knowledge of everything, whilst in reality he knows very little or his spiritual eyes are entirely blind. "That is not worth reading," he says; " it is all well known; these sermons are not worth reading; they contain the one same thing which I already know.'' Human pride also manifests itself to a great extent when an ordinary mortal dares to compare himself with God's saints, and does not see their great and wonderful perfections acquired by their own exploits, with the assistance of the grace of God; perfections which God Himself has crowned and glorified in them. Such a man says: " Why should I reverence them, and especially why should I pray to them; they are men like me; I pray to God alone?" And he does not consider that God Himself commanded us to ask the prayers of the righteous for ourselves. " For him will I accept." Spiritual pride also manifests itself by insensibility to our sins, by the Pharisee's self - justification and self - praise, by insensibility to God's mercies, by ingratitude to God for all that is good, by not feeling the need of praising God's greatness. All those who do not pray to the Almighty God, "to the God of all spirits and of all flesh," to their Life, do not pray by the reason of their secret pride. Be zealous after love: all things shall pass away, but love shall eternally remain, as God Himself, who is Love. Lutherans say: "Why should we ask the prayers of the saints for ourselves? We pray to God Himself." But they contradict themselves, for why do they ask a pastor to pray for them?They might as well pray without a pastor if everyone has an equal access to God and we have no need of any sanctified suppliants. What blindness! They say that by praying to the saints we worship idols. This is untrue. We do not pray to any saint as we pray to God, we only ask his prayers for ourselves. Is there a shadow of idolatry in this? In the same manner as we ask God's living ministers and suppliants to pray to Him for us, so likewise we ask the heavenly suppliants, who, from their love to God, have great boldness before Him; besides this, very many of them, even when they lived here on earth, were already suppliants and intercessors before God for the world; there, in heaven, this activity of theirs is only contin - ued, has attained greater dimensions, and is especially powerful, because it is no longer hindered by the heavy and inert flesh. All the saints, though they have finished their earthly course, yet live: "For He is not a God of the dead, but of the living; for all live unto Him." "Hail, Thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with Thee!"418 Thus does the holy Church invoke the most holy Virgin, the Mother of God. But the Lord is also with every pious soul that believes in Him. The Lord's abiding with the Virgin Mary before she conceived the Saviour is not a particularity proper to the most pure Virgin alone. The Lord is with every believing soul: "The Lord is with thee." These words may be said to everyone who keeps the Lord's commandments. And the Lord is near unto all, only men themselves are far from Him by their hearts, by their thoughts, their intentions, and the inclinations of their hearts, as well as by their words and deeds, which are contrary to the law of God. " Lo, I am with you alway," says our Lord, Who was born of the most holy Virgin, " even unto the end of the world"; that is, with every one of us, at every time, throughout all generations, all ages, upon the whole space of the earth, unto the end of the world. The greatest continual error of our heart against which we ought unceasingly to struggle during our whole lifetime—at night, in the morning, and during the day—is the secret thought that we can be anywhere and at any time without God and outside Him even for a single moment. We must unceasingly strengthen our heart in God, from Whom it continually mentally turns away; and great progress in the Christian life would be attained by him who could sincerely exclaim with Hannah, the mother of Samuel, " My heart is strengthened [rejoiceth] in the Lord; mine horn is exalted in the Lord; my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; because I rejoice in Thy salvation." Those who touched the Saviour's garment were made whole. Why is it that those who employ holy water with faith are even now healed? Because the Cross, immersed in water, with the prayer of faith, is as though the life - giving Lord Himself. As the Saviour's garments were penetrated with His life, so also the water, in which the life - giving Cross is immersed, is itself penetrated with life, and thus becomes healing. Nothing is nearer to us than God. He is the God of hearts, of the very hearts, and the heart, in its turn, is nearer than anything to us. It is the whole man, " the hidden man of the heart,"as the Apostle says. In prayer there are petitions in opposition to our proud flesh, which ascribes everything to itself; thanksgiving in opposition to the insensibility of our flesh to God's innumerable benefits; praise in opposition to the carnal man, seeking praise for himself alone. When praying fervently, either standing or sitting, or lying down or walking, and being sometimes suddenly visited by the Spirit of God and hearing His voice, we notice that He penetrates into the soul, not through the mouth, not through the nose, neither through the ears (although the Saviour bestowed the Spirit through the word and breathing, and although "faith cometh by hearing"), but straight through the body into the heart, in the same manner as the Lord passed through the walls of the house when He came to the Apostles after the Resurrection, and acts suddenly, like electricity, and more rapidly than any electric current; then we feel unusually light, because we are suddenly freed from our burden of sins, the spirit of contrition for sins, the spirit of devotion, peace, and joy visits us. Remember how the angel appeared in the shut - up prison in order to deliver the Apostle Peter; the doors were shut, the keepers standing before the doors, but the angel suddenly came upon him, and at the same moment a light shined in the prison. Thus the Spirit of God suddenly visits the chamber of our soul, the body, and the light shines in it. How do the saints hear us? They hear us as being one in the Holy Ghost with us—" that they also may be one in us," as members of the one Church of God, having for her head the one Christ, and animated by the one Spirit of God. The saints see and hear us in the Holy Ghost in the same manner as we see and hear with our bodily eyes and ears by means of light and air; but our bodily sight and hearing are very imperfect in comparison to spir - itual sight and hearing. At a great distance we cannot see many objects and cannot hear many sounds, but spiritual sight and hearing are perfect; not a single movement of the heart, not a single thought, not a single word, intention, or desire escapes them, because the Spirit of God—in Whom the saints dwell, see, and hear us—is all - perfect, omniscient, all - seeing, and all - hearing, for He is omnipresent. Priest of God! believe with your whole heart, believe always in the grace given to you from God, to pray for God's people. Let not this gift of God be in vain in you, for by it you can save many souls. The Lord speedily hears your heartfelt prayer for His people, and is easily inclined to have mercy upon them, as He had at Moses', Aaron's, Samuel's, and the Apostles' prayers. Avail yourself of every opportunity for prayer— in church, when you celebrate Divine service or a sacrament, in private houses, at the ministering of the sacraments, during prayers and thanksgivings; everywhere and at all times think of the salvation of God's people, and you shall also obtain great grace of God for yourself. Be always as convinced that you live every moment by the life - giving Trinity as that you are lighted by the material light, are fed by meat and drink, and breathe by means of air—by these three things united in one for you. The Lord spoke the word of promise, and His word shall be fulfilled. He speaks, and shall it not be? The Lord points to the laws of nature, to their constancy and firmness, as a proof of the faithfulness of His promises. You have felt in your heart during prayer, or during the reading of the Word of God and other holy books (and sometimes even during the reading of worldly ones of well - inten - tioned contents, in which, for instance, some event representing the action of God's Providence upon men is described), or during edifying conversation, "a still small voice," as though a current of electricity was passing through your body. It is the Lord visiting you. "A still small voice" and the Lord is in it. By means of prayer we obtain remission of our sins. "I forgive thee all that debt, because thou desiredst Me." Experience proves the same. "All things are near to God," says the Russian proverb. Truly everything is near: all spiritual and sentient creatures, the Angels, the souls of the departed, all living men, all animals, all material worlds. The Spirit of God passes through all things, a reasoning, pure, most refined Spirit, dwelling in every believing, pious soul. " The wild beasts of the field are in My sight," says He. " I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." As an infinite Spirit, to God nothing is far away, but all things are before Him, as upon the palm of the hand. He is wholly everywhere, and all things are in Him. All things live and exist by Him. To the name of Jesus Christ, or to the sincere thought of Jesus Christ, is united great power, able to drive away the passions and give peace to the heart. The same may be applied to the name of the holy Angels and Saints, beginning with the Mother of God, down to the holy and righteous men and "Urodivoi" for Christ's sake. Only call upon their names sincerely, and by the grace of God they, too, will help you. For the sake of our faith alone, the spiritual mountains— that is, the heights and burdens of sins—are removed. This is why, when Christians release themselves from the burden of their sins by repentance and confession, they sometimes say, "Thank God, a mountain has fallen off my shoulders!" During prayer a sincere seeking after amendment is indispensable. O wonderful proof of the omnipresence of God! For instance, your heart is wounded by an attachment, even a momentary one, to silver, let us suppose, and it begins to ache; but as soon as you say to God from your whole heart, " Thou art my only treasure, Thou art my silver and gold, and food and raiment," you will immediately feel relieved. There are many people who pray in such a manner that they seem to worship God in vain. There are also some persons who pray, and they are so slothful and evil that when they feel an influx of impure and evil thoughts in their heart and head, they immediately leave off praying and flee from the church or from before the icon in their home. If you wish to pray with a life - giving prayer, first of all strengthen your heart in the Lord. "My heart is strengthened (rejoiceth) in the Lord, mine horn is exalted in the Lord." As a poor man does not believe that he may in future become a rich and very distinguished person, so many Christians do not believe that they shall possess a wealth of future blessings, - and shall freely be made to " sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." We may well wonder how, without any special merits on our part, we can expect such high honour and glory, such riches. We are self - loving, covetous, avaricious, and therefore we are unable to understand how such infinite love, such a wise and disinterested Father can exist; it is as though we still cannot believe that " God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." If at any time you doubt in God, or in the dogma of the most Holy Trinity, remember the short doxology, "Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, both now and ever, and to ages of ages," and think what little importance you yourself have in com - parison with the men of all ages, of whom there were an infinite number of great and divinely bright intellects, and who all heartily, unanimously ascribed glory to the one God in three persons. The Lord has full respect for nature, which He has created, and for her laws, as the production of His own infinite, most perfect wisdom; this is why He usually accomplishes His will through the medium of nature and her laws; for instance, when He punishes men or blesses them. Therefore, do not require miracles of Him without extreme necessity. It is good for me to pray for men when I partake worthily, that is consciously, of the Holy Communion: then the Father and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, my God, is within me, and I feel great boldness before Him. Then the King is within me, as in His abode: I may ask what I will. " We will come unto Him, and make our abode with Him." "Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." The foundation of prayer is the yearning of the image towards its prototype, as of like to like. During prayer, have the thought that you are a steward of the most precious prayerful inheritance of the Church, that you are an impure, unworthy steward, and that your work consists in reverently opening your heart and watering it with these pure streams of the words of prayer, but not in reasoning about them at your own free will. It is remarkable: to - day I felt a doubt—of course suggested by the evil one—on the subject of the turn of a phrase in a prayer, namely: "Thou, Who alone hast power to forgive sins by the prayers of Thy most holy Mother and of all the saints," and I was covered with shame in my reasoning: the enemy struck me, hindered me, disturbed me during public prayer. But in what respect was my thought false? I thought thus: how God has power to forgive sins by the prayers of His most pure Mother and those of the saints, and not inde - pendently of Himself? Of course He has the power without the prayers of others. He alone has the power, but in order to honour the exalted virtues of the saints, and especially those of His Mother, the saints, who are His friends, who pleased Him with all their might during their earthly life—He accepts their prayerful intercession for us, unworthy ones, for us who must often stop their mouths on account of our great and frequent transgressions. Remember Moses, who interceded for the Hebrew people and obtained life for them from God whom they had angered. Some may say that God might have spared His people even without Moses' prayers; but, then, God would have been, so to say, unjust in bestowing life upon those who were not worthy of life, after He Himself had decreed that they should die; but when Moses—a righteous, meek, and humble man—began to intercede for them, then the most just God was appeased at the sight of the righteous man, at his love for God and his people, and for the sake of Moses' merits, the Lord forgave the unworthy, that is, the unrighteous, for the sake of the righteous. So likewise now, at the prayers of His most pure Mother, He forgives us, who, of ourselves, through our great and frequent sins and iniquities, are un - worthy of His mercy. "Though Moses and Samuel stood before Me, yet my mind could not be toward this people," said the Lord to Jeremiah of the Jews. From this it is evident that the Lord accepts the intercession of the saints for the evil - doers when the sins of these last do not exceed the measure of God's forbearance. The sign of Lord's mercy or of that of His most pure Mother to us, after or during prayer, is peace of heart, especially after the action of some passion, whose property is the absence of spiritual peace. By this peace of heart and a kind of holy tenderness of heart we can also easily recognise that our prayer has been heard, and that the grace asked in it has been granted to us. The success of the prayer is also recognised by the spiritual power, which we inwardly obtain for the fulfilment of the duties of our calling, and by the inward light manifestly entering into our soul. You imagine that you pray, but you have long ago left off praying. What you call prayer are only vain sounds, without meaning to your heart. You say the words, but your heart does not feel them; you are deceiving God and yourself. When you pray, you must unfailingly watch over your heart and attend to the words of the prayers, you must feel their truth and power. Now we stand up and fall (in faith and virtue), but we hope for a time and condition when we shall no longer be able to fall, when we shall reach such a state of perfect safety from falling, as the angels have attained to, who are now inaccessible to evil, and when we shall become strengthened in holiness. In the meantime fight against sin, and hope that the time will at last come of perfect victory over sin and over death, which is its offspring. "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." What an honour it is to my nature that in the small chamber constituting my dwelling - place, or in my heart, I am able to converse with Him Who upholds heaven and earth in His right hand, Whom the powers of heaven serve in fear, with Him Who is infinite love! When you are very young, or leading the life of the sinful world, then you only know by name both Christ the Saviour, and the enemy of God and mankind, the most evil Satan, and you think that Christ is very far away from you in heaven, and that there is a Devil somewhere, but not in any way near and around you, and though you hear that he is evil, you think his wickedness does not concern you; but when you grow older and enter upon the devout life, when you serve God with a pure conscience, then you will experience in your heart the difference between the easy yoke of the Saviour and the heavy burden of Satan, who pitilessly injures us. Between God and myself, between my neighbour and myself, there often stands a dark, evil power. I know this by experience, surely, logically. By very small means the Devil attains important results. Christian! strengthen yourself, and believe in Christ with your whole heart; you will be the sure prey of the Devil if you are heedless and slothful. The Devil employs every means to prevent your believing heartily in Christ. And woe unto you if you lose faith! In the matter of God's providence for men, and in accordance with the requirements of reason, there must be mediators between men and God from the spiritual world (as men occupy the medium between the spiritual and material worlds), who may guide us to the heavenly kingdom—namely, the angels. There is an astonishing gradation and order with the Lord in all His works. Everywhere in His kingdom the lower are guided by the higher; hence the necessity of guardian - angels for Christians redeemed by the blood of the Lord. Besides this, the angels themselves are full of love for us, and rejoice over the conversion of one sinner; but love is active, and the Lord has given perfect freedom to their noble and useful activity, as we see from the Holy Scripture. Guardian - angels are indispensable for men, owing to the craftiness of the evil spirits. Men themselves do not see them, for men are very infirm in the spiritual life. Therefore, besides the grace of God, we require a person, or persons, full of this grace, wise, firm by their nature: and such are the angels. Besides this, after man departs this life, there must be witnesses of his deeds against the demons. The presence of a guardian - angel near every true Christian is indispensable, because the bodies of Christians, according to the witness of the Word of God, are temples of the Holy Ghost, and Christians themselves are members of the Body of Christ, sanctified by His sufferings on the cross and His death, and sealed by His sacraments, in which the grace of the Holy Ghost is communicated to them; especially so because they partake of the very Blood and Body of Christ in the sacrament of Holy Communion. The dignity of the Chris - tian man, as a member of Christ and a temple of the Holy Ghost, absolutely requires the presence near him of a guardian - angel, like an elder brother and friend, who guides him to the common Master in the kingdom of light and bliss. If there is "joy in heaven in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth," we may judge by this what a powerful part the angels of the Lord take in our salvation. He who comes to the Holy Cup with any passion in his heart, the same is a Judas, and comes to kiss the Son of Man flatteringly. The means for confirming and strengthening Christian hope in us are—prayer, especially frequent sincere prayer, the confession of our sins, the frequent reading of the Word of God, and, above all, the frequent communion of the Holy Life - giving Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ. Our guides in Christian hope are—the Lord Himself, His Most - pure Mother, all the saints, prophets, Apostles, martyrs, prelates, and venerable persons; they all turned to God with the hope of salvation, and not one of them was ashamed; all were saved. "Hope maketh not ashamed," says the Scripture, and it did not make them ashamed. Here is another subject for hope. The passions assault your heart, their attack is violent, it is difficult to withstand them, not to succumb to them; but have hope in Christ, and you shall conquer them. Say: "From my youth up many passions have afflicted me; but Thou, my Saviour, Thyself deliver me and save me." Hope presupposes the expectation of some kind of blessing which we do not possess. " But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it." But as our greatest blessing is sinlessness, and we do not possess this blessing, but daily suffer from the sins that can eternally ruin us, therefore Christian hope ought to be turned to Christ as to the Deliverer from sins and our Saviour. The obedience of her children to the Church should begin with perfect trust in her prayers, sacraments and rites, and end in the active fulfilment of her laws and regulations. With your spiritual eyes, you clearly see how the Lord keeps you in obedience to Him through the laws of conscience. If anyone would ask you why you pray to soulless icons, what profit you derive from them, say that we derive incomparably greater profit from our icons than we do from the kindest and most benevolent living persons; say that blessed power and help to our souls always comes to us from icons, saving us from sins, sorrows, and sicknesses; especially from the icons of the Saviour and of the Mother of God; that one single look with faith upon them, as upon the living and those who are near to us, saves us from cruel sorrows, passions, and spiritual darkness; that if touching the Saviour's garment, and the garments and li and kerchiefs of the Apostles could restore health to the sick, much more are the images of the Saviour and of the Mother of God powerful to heal believers of every affliction, in accordance with their faith in the Lord and in His Mother. Represent the Angel of God to yourself as the image of the human soul—that is, think that an angel is like your own soul. This is why angels appear in human form, because they have a nature similar to that of the human soul, only sinless, holy, and higher. The Holy Ghost is called the "Comforter,"571 in accordance with His nature, which is peace, joy, and infinite blessedness, and also on account of His action upon the souls of be - lievers, whom He comforts like a mother in their virtues, in their sufferings, sorrows, and sicknesses, and in their great deeds for the faith. He is also called the Comforter in contrast to the evil spirit of despondency that often attacks our souls. Every phenomenon has its cause. Thus having done any good action, you rejoice and find consolation in your soul. Wherefore? Because the Holy Ghost is in you, "Who is everywhere present and filleth all things, the Treasury of blessings," Who comforts us. On the contrary, if you have done anything wrong, or even sometimes when you have not done anything wrong, you feel a deadly despondency in your soul. Wherefore! Because you have allowed the evil spirit of despondency to take possession of you. For instance, you begin to pray and you are overcome with despondency, whilst before you began to pray you did not feel it; or else you begin to read some book of a spiritual character— for instance, the Holy Scripture—and you are also overpowered with despondency, slothfulness, doubt, incredulity, and unbelief. Wherefore?Because you are tempted by the evil spirits of despondency, doubt, and unbelief, who are using their craftiness against you. Or you are in church, attending Divine service; but you feel dull, heavy, and slothful—despondency has fallen upon you. Again wherefore? Because the evil spirits of sloth - fulness and despondency are using their craftiness against you. Or, again, you begin to write a religious work—a sermon, for instance—and you feel darkness and coldness in your heart, whilst your body is overcome with weakness. Wherefore? Because the invisible enemies are warring against you. Therefore the Holy Ghost is absolutely neces - sary to us all in all our good works. He is our power, strength, light, peace, and comfort. As the rivers flow into the sea, so the souls of men should flow towards God. How good it is to conquer the passions! After the victory one feels such lightness of heart, such peace and greatness of spirit! Do not believe your flesh when it threatens to you with weakness during prayer; it lies. As soon as you begin to pray you will find that the flesh will become your obedient slave. Your prayer will vivify it also. Always remember that the flesh is lying. Prayer breathes hope, and a prayer without hope is a sinful prayer. The Devil sometimes acts in the mind as a troublesome questioner concerning the in - comprehensible, as an audacious infringer upon the unapproachable mysteries of the three Persons of the Godhead and their mutual relations. It is necessary to think reverently and most cautiously concerning the Trinity of the Godhead. Learn to pray; force yourself to prayer. In the beginning it will be difficult; but afterwards the more you force yourself, the easier it will be for you to pray. But in the beginning it is always necessary to force oneself. "O most holy Bishop, Father Nicholas, pray to God for us!" What is the reason that we ask the prayers of the Saints for ourselves? Do they really pray for us? and is their prayer effective? God Himself plainly declared His will to some persons not having nearness to Him, chiefly to sinful men, that they should ask God's people to pray for them. For instance, Abimelech, who took Abraham's wife, was commanded to ask Abraham to pray for him; Job prayed for his friends, in accordance with the evident revelation of God's will; Moses, Samuel, Elijah, and all the prophets prayed; the Lord Himself, in accordance with His human nature, prayed to the Heavenly Father for Peter and for all the disciples. The Saints are worthy of being intercessors for us before God, by their virtues, by their merits, and as those who pleased Him. If earthly justice requires that a certain man nearer to God (for instance, a priest) should pray to God for others, then why should it not be the same in heaven? All the Saints live in God and for us; in God they see our needs, they sympathise with us, they are ready, in accordance with our prayers, to help us. Why in accordance with our prayers, and not otherwise? In order to strengthen us in faith and prayerfulness. Besides, why do even living men wish that others who need their help should ask them for it ? What does the daily invocation of the Saints signify—of different ones each day, during the whole year and during our whole lifetime? It signifies that God's Saints, as our brethren, only perfect, live and are near us; that they hear us and are ever ready to help us, by the grace of God. We live together with them in the one house of the Heavenly Father only on its different halves. We live on the earthly, they on the heavenly half; but we both have a means of communication with each other: for us the prayer of faith and love, for them their spir - itual nature, always ready for active help, owing to the love with which their souls are per - meated. I myself am all infirmity, misery. God is my strength. This conviction is my highest wisdom, making me blessed. As you breathe every minute by means of air, so every minute you are mentally either with God or with the Devil, according to your inward disposition. What air is to the body, the spirit of God is to the soul. As you breathe from the air the elements required to nourish your body, so likewise you breathe into yourself from the Spirit of God good inclinations and thoughts. "Thy kingdom come"—that is, Thy perfect reign in our hearts! A deep feeling of spiritual poverty, a lamentation at the existence of evil, a thirst after salvation, are to be found in every straightforward and humble soul. Speak and do everything right undoubtingly, boldly, firmly, and decidedly. Avoid doubts, timidity, languor, and indecision. "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love." Our Lord is the Lord of powers. Be especially meek and patient in sickness and in other various unfavourable circumstances; for, spoiled by health, plenty, happiness, and peace, we are then particularly apt to become irritable. Happy are those of us who do not passionately attach themselves to anything, for they are not bound by avarice. When you hear that God speaks, then represent to yourself His word as deed, either already accomplished, or being accomplished, or about to be accomplished. What is the meaning of the appearance of the three strangers to Abraham? It means that the Lord, in three Persons, as though continually, travels over the earth, and watches over everything that is done on it; and that He Himself comes to those of His servants who are watchful and attentive to themselves and their salvation, and who seek Him, staying with them and conversing with them as with His friends ("We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him" whilst He sends fire upon the ungodly, as He did upon Sodom and Gomorrah. The Lord is so merciful that He never disdains our prayer, but mercifully accepts it and corrects its imperfection, provided only that we turn to Him sincerely and do not entirely forget Him. We preachers have only to assist the action of God upon the hearts of men, to seize their inclination for repentance and to strengthen it. Jesus Christ, when distributing food, first looked up to heaven, gave thanks, blessed it, and only afterwards broke the bread and distributed it. The Apostle Paul did the same on board ship. So ought we also to thank God for our food and drink, as well as for all material blessings, but especially for all spiritual ones. The Holy Ghost is the Treasury of all blessings or of spiritual riches. Look, with what wonderful riches the souls in which the Holy Ghost dwelt were endowed, with what light of knowledge, with what fragrance of virtues! The soul of a righteous man is a most rich spiritual treasury; such were, for instance, the souls of the Apostles Paul, Peter, John; of the prelates St. John Chrysostom, St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian. "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good." This is where the true treasure is. It is not what the world values. If you wish to contemplate Christian hope in all its grandeur, read the Church prayers, follow closely the Christian Divine services, especially the Sunday and festival ones. There you will find the infinite riches of blessings promised to believers. A priest is the servant of God, invested with His authority and power (in the sacrament of penitence); the blessing of the priest is the power of the Cross. The most holy Spirit, by the grace of the Father, gives life to the entire and earthly creation. During the night our soul is free from worldly vanities, and therefore the spiritual world can act upon it more freely, and it - is free to receive spiritual impressions; so that if the man is a righteous one, his thoughts and the inclinations of his heart are the thoughts and inclinations of the Lord Himself, or of the Angels and Saints; whilst if he is an unrepentant sinner, they are the thoughts and inclinations of the Devil himself. The Devil is in the habit of attacking us when we are in straitened circumstances. If any thought is life to the heart, then it is truth; if, on the contrary, it is anguish and death to the heart, then it is a lie. Our Lord is peace and life, and He dwells in our hearts by peace and life. Contempt for creation touches the Creator; therefore do not dare to speak the following words or any similar to them, "I dislike that man's face, though he may, perhaps, be a good man;" for this is diabolical hatred of God's creature and odiousness. Remember that every man is an image of God, and that all his glory is within him, in his heart. Man looks upon the face, whilst God looks upon the heart. Do not bear malice in your heart against anyone on account of anything; do not despise anyone for any reason. " Have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins." If you meet with inattention or even disdain from strangers, do not be hurt or take of - fence at it, but say to yourself: "I am worthy of this. Glory to Thee, my Lord, that Thou hast granted unto me, an unworthy one, to receive dishonour from men like unto myself!" On your part always show love to all, especially to your relations, sincerely, zealously, heartily, loudly; not coldly and languidly, hypocritically, reluctantly, as if in a whisper. What a beautiful, tranquillising, and safe thing it is to forgive the sins of those who trespass against us or offend us! As soon as we forgive we feel at peace. You were offended?What of it? It is right that your old carnal man should be afflicted—he who is self - loving, proud, irritable, envious, lazy, avaricious, and who so greatly offends God. It is well that it should be measured to him, even a little, as he measures unto God. When you pray for the repose of the soul of the departed, force yourself to pray with your whole heart, remembering that to do so is your essential duty, mid not only that of a priest or ecclesiastic. Represent to yourself how necessary repose is to the departed one, and how greatly he (or she) needs the prayers for him (or her) of the living, being a member of the one body of the Church; how the demons are contesting his (or her) soul from the angels, and how it trembles, not knowing what its eternal destiny will be. Our prayer of faith and love for the departed means much in the Lord's sight. Represent to yourself, further, how necessary rest is for you when you are bound by the fetters of sin, and how fervently, with what sincerity, ardour, and power you then pray to the Lord and to the Most - pure Mother of the Lord, and how you rejoice and triumph when, after your fervent prayer, you obtain the remission of your sins and peace of heart. Apply all this to the soul of the departed. His (or her) soul also needs prayer—your prayer now—because it cannot pray fruitfully any longer itself; the soul of the departed also requires the rest which you can implore for it by means of your ardent prayer, joined to works of charity for the benefit of that soul, and es - pecially by the offering of the bloodless sacrifice on its behalf. When anyone, out of kindness, praises you to others, and they transmit these praises to you, do not consider them as a just tribute of esteem really due to you, but ascribe them solely to the kindness of heart of the person who thus spoke of you, and pray to God for him, that God may strengthen him in his kindness of heart and in every virtue; but acknow - ledge yourself to be the greatest of sinners, not out of humility, but truthfully, actually, knowing as you do your evil deeds. To those who do not read the Gospel. Are you pure, holy, and perfect without reading the Gospel, and is it not needful for you to look in this mirror? Or is it that your soul is so deformed that you are afraid of seeing your deformity? "They looked unto Him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed." The sacrament of unction with holy oil is spiritual honey, life - giving drink. What a wealth of hope! What prayers! It is an abstract of the whole Gospel. How little men really require, and how abundantly the Lord bestows His gifts upon us in order that we may supply our brethren with food and drink! We only give away a ladleful from the river, and even this is God's and not ours. And yet we are avaricious, stingy; we grudge every penny, and grow anxious, as though we were threatened with the loss of our life itself. O, how wanting Christians are! O, vain, blind trust in food and drink! O, wiles of the flesh! O, want of Christian simplicity! The malice of the enemy. The more piously a man lives, the more the Devil forces men to anger against him, as was the case with Saul against the pious David. The more holy a person is, the more such an one is blasphemed, as, for instance, the Holy Virgin, Who is more honourable than the cherubim, and incomparably more glorious than the seraphim. The Devil incites us to exalt ourselves before simple - hearted persons, and to despise the simplicity of their faith and the very objects of their faith and reverent worship. The Word of God says, "Be not drunk with wine " whilst you builders of public - houses say, " Get drunk with wine," and have built thousands of public - houses to tempt your brethren. And yet you go to church and pray in your homes. "They flatter with their tongues. Destroy Thou them, O God; let them perish through their own imaginations; cast them out in the multitude of their ungodliness; for they have rebelled against Thee." At confession do not spare yourself, do not hurry, do not grow agitated and angry with your spiritual children who come to you. Say to yourself: "It is my pleasure to confess my spiritual children in detail; they are the sheep of my Lord. I thus offer the most pleasing sacrifice to my Lord, Who laid down His own life for us, and afford great profit to my spir - itual children themselves, as well as to myself, by willingly fulfilling my important duty, and thus obtain peace of conscience." The characteristics of the men of the second half of the present nineteenth century are:—self - worship, self - government (autonomy), materialism in life, and spiritual scepticism (incredulity). I promised you the angelic life, Abraham's bosom, to shine forth like the sun, but you have set at nought My promises, the words of My mouth, in which there was never any falsehood. Believe and always steadfastly remember that in whatever place you appear with the Lord's cross—either at a thanksgiving service or upon any other occasion—it always sanctifies the air and all who touch it. Unwillingly, faint - heartedly, with murmurings and blasphemy against the Lord, we bear the cruel afflictions of our heart, not seeing the profit which should be derived from patiently and submissively bearing them. We do not wish to see that our heart has waxed gross and has become infected by various passions; that it is proud, adulterous, malicious, and cunning, and cleaves to earthly things; and that it cannot be cleansed and made humble, and become good and submissive to God otherwise than by cruel fiery afflictions and great oppression. Satiety drives away faith and the fear of God from the heart. A satiated man does not feel the presence of God in his heart; heartfelt, fervent prayer is far from him. The more the outward prosperity of a pious man increases the more furiously Satan rages against him, and fights against him by temptations (wiles), as he did against Job. Therefore, you who love God, when the prosperity of your house increases you must expect to meet with violent attacks from Satan; he will fall upon one or the other member of your family and torment him. When you feel in your heart that the Lord "makes as though He would go further" from your heart, from your thoughts, then constrain Him, the Merciful One, saying sincerely: "Abide with me: for it is toward evening and the day" of my spiritual life "is far spent; and He shall come in to tarry with thee" for He is merciful, and lets Himself be constrained. Do not sit down to table with a spirit disturbed by any passion, lest the enemy turn your food and drink to your harm, and not to your health; for he uses his craft through everything, and ever seeks to injure man. Always sit down to table in peace, thanking the Lord, and the food and drink will be for your good and health, because the blessing of God will rest both on the food and on you yourself. It is well to place candles before the icons. But it is still better if you bring as a sacrifice to God the lire of your love for Him and your neighbour. It is well that the one should be accompanied by the other. But if you place candles before the icons and have no love for God and your neighbour in your heart, if you are avaricious, if you do not live in peace with others—then your sacrifice to God is in vain. Do not be afraid of human talk and mockery about yourself. This is diabolical fear; think of what the Lord God says of you, what the angels and saints say of you. There is sometimes such hardened unfeelingness in the soul that you do not perceive and do not feel your sins. You do not fear either death or the Judge, or the terrible judgment - seat; you do not care a jot, as the saying is, about anything spiritual. O cunning, proud, evil flesh! It is not without reason that even the saints complain: " I am overcome by the slumber of sloth, and the sleep of sin oppresses my heart. Avail thyself, my soul, of the time for repentance; shake off the heavy sleep of sloth, and hasten to watch." Sometimes your soul is filled with such terrible slothfulness and hardened unfeelingness that you completely despair of being able to drive away this slothfulness and unfeelingness. It seems as if bodily sickness would be preferable to such spiritual slothfulness. Pray for the departed as though your own soul were in hell, in the flame, and as though you yourself were in torment; feel their torments with your whole heart and pray most fervently, most ardently that they may rest in peace in the place of light and green pastures, in the place of refreshing. A self - loving man spares himself for the good of others. He even grudges his throat for the instruction of others, if he is a teacher or a priest. He grudges his whole heart, because he, so to say, serves his neighbour only with half his heart, and sometimes even quite without any heart. He grudges his physical powers, too; he is as frightened as a hare, and, being afraid of falling ill from work, prefers to take rest. Pray to the Lord for the repose of the souls of your departed forefathers, fathers and brothers, daily in the morning and in the evening, in order that the remembrance of death may live in you, and that hope in the future life, after death, may not be extinguished in you, and that your spirit may be daily humbled by the thought of the transitoriness of your life. Also daily invoke the glorified saints, that they may enlighten your way by their prayers, and that they may intercede for the forgiveness of your sins; and that you yourself may remember that after death there is eternal glorification and bliss for good deeds, and eternal condemnation for evil ones. Sometimes during prayer you feel a kind of estrangement from God, and despair. Do not be carried away by such a feeling; it proceeds from the Devil. Say in your heart: "I despair not of salvation, reprobate as I am; and emboldened by Thine immeasurable compassion, I come unto Thee. If there is any hope of salvation for me, if Thy loving mercy can overcome the multitude of my transgressions, be Thou my Saviour." When during oral prayer the Devil gnaws at your words by a multitude of most subtle thoughts, say: "The power of the Saviour is in every word and in every sound." When, during the reading of the canons and Acathistos to the Saviour, to the Mother of God, and to the Guardian Angel, or during the reading of other prayers, the Devil whispers to your heart: "This is untrue, untrue this is—strained, forced," and thus robs your heart of the power (the truth) of the words of prayer, then be " like a deaf man . . . that heareth not; a fool, that he may be wise." Do not for a moment agree in your heart with the falsehood of the enemy, or reason with his infernal reasoning, but believe firmly in the truth of all the Church prayers and hymns of praise in all their fulness, knowing that they are the words of the Holy Ghost, proclaiming through the mouth of holy men the praises due to the Saviour, to the Mother of God, and to the saints. Bear in mind also our infirmities and ungodliness. Remember that " the Church of the living God is the pillar and ground of the truth." During times of slothfulness and hardness of heart, men, sometimes through their faintheartedness and impatience, become too familiar with God, and allow themselves various eccentricities in their voice and movements signifying impatience, dissatisfaction, murmuring, and even insolence towards God. Guard against this by every means, and endeavour to overcome your slothfulness. You must conquer the enemy and your passions. "We would have come unto you once and again, but Satan hindered us." From this we see that it is Satan who sometimes hinders our seeing each other or writing to our relations, friends, or acquaintances. How infirm is man of himself! How limited he is! It is not only God Who does not allow him to do what he wishes, but even Satan forbids him. When we read any prayers for the first time, or read them seldom, then, on account of their novelty, we read them willingly, with deep feeling, but afterwards the more often we repeat them, the less we care for them; they cease to interest us, and it is with difficulty that we constrain ourselves to read them with the previous feeling. In reference to prayer, the following are the measures to be taken against this:—We must represent to ourselves that we are for the first time saying these beautiful prayers to which we have grown accustomed, but which so deeply interested us when we first read them; we must think with our whole heart over every word of the prayer, and value every word. This phenomenon in our soul is the consequence of original sin—the consequence of our original instability in the truth. And until now we cannot be firmly stablished in the truth: as soon as we stand we begin to. waver again. As this often happens in regard to prayer, so it does also in regard to faith, to our friendship with other men, to our love for God and our neighbour, and in general to virtue: everywhere we show ourselves unstable in truth. Also it sometimes happens during prayer that our heart becomes impiously ashamed before men of the words of the prayer or of the Lord God Himself, and we pronounce the words of the prayer listlessly, not from the whole heart. We must vanquish this ungodly, man - pleasing, diabolical shame and fear, and say the prayers from our whole soul loudly, in all simplicity of heart, representing God alone before us, and counting all else as not existing. " Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when He cometh in the glory of His Father with the holy angels." If you consider anything visible to be important and great except the Lord God, and neglect Him, Who alone exists, Who alone is great, then you are most impiously arrogant. Reckon everything as nothing in comparison to the Lord, and cling to Him alone. The heart's attention and its understanding are gradually deadened in those who do not pray fervently, not from their whole heart; who, seeing, do not see, and, hearing, do not understand, the words of the prayer. "For a pretence, they make long prayers," and, poor creatures, do not think that for increasing the number of their words they "shall receive greater damnation." As Christ dwells wholly in every smallest particle of the Body and Blood, so also He dwells wholly in every good thought and word. If you truly wish to be humble, then long for every offence and persecution, as a hungry man longs for food; for by the justice of God you are worthy of this. If you wish to be truly humble, then consider yourself lower than all, worthy of being trampled on by all; for you yourself daily, hourly trample upon the law of the Lord, and therefore upon the Lord Himself. Our heart daily dies spiritually. Only ardent, tearful prayer quickens it, and makes it begin to breathe again. If we do not daily pray with sufficient spiritual fervour, we may easily and speedily die spiritually. Sometimes during prayer the intellect becomes puffed up and the words of the prayer do not find a place in it on account of its carnality and falsehood; but still the words of the prayer are spirit and truth, the molten silver, proceeding from the soul, burning with faith and love, "which from the earth is tried and purified seven times in the, fire." "The ungodly walk around them," not going into the depths of their meaning. The insensibility of the heart during prayer to the truth of the words of the prayer, proceeds from the heart's unbelief and insensibility, of its sinfulness, and these, in their turn, emanate from a secret feeling of pride. In accordance with the measure of his feelings during prayer a man recognises whether he is proud or humble; the more feeling the more ardent the prayer is, the more humble he is; whilst the more unfeeling and cold it is, the prouder he is. Be moderate in all religious works, for moderation, even in virtue, correspondingly to your powers, according to circumstances of time, place, and preceding labour, is prudent and wise. It is well, for instance, to pray with a pure heart, but as soon as there is no correspondence between the prayer and your powers (energy), with the various circumstances of place and time, with your preceding labours, then it ceases to be a virtue. Therefore the apostle Peter says, "Add to virtue knowledge" (that is, do not be carried away by the heart only); " and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience." " He that gathereth not with Me scattereth." It is necessary to advance in the spiritual life, and ascend higher and higher; to increase more and more the stores of our good works. If we remain stationary at one point of moral perfection, upon one step of the Christian ascent, it is equal to our going back; if we do not gather, it is equal to scattering. Do not grudge burning a wax taper before the icon of the Lord during prayer; remember that you burn it before the inaccessible Light and before Him Who enlightens you with His light. Your candle is as though a burnt offering to the Lord; let it be a gift to God from your whole heart; let it remind you that you yourself should also be a burning and shining light. "He was," it is said of John the Forerunner, "a burning and a shining light." I bring to the Lord, to Our Lady, or to an Angel or Saint, material light, in order that the Lord may bestow the light of grace, spiritual light, upon me through their prayers, that He may lead me out from the darkness of sin into the light of the knowledge of God and virtue; I bring material fire that the fire of the grace of the Holy Ghost may be kindled in my heart, and that it may extinguish the fire of the passions in my miserable heart; I bring a light with the desire that I may become a light myself, burning and shining to all that are in the temple. These are the reasons why I place candles before the icons; such are my thoughts when I put candles in the candlesticks. I acknowledge that I place these candles before the icons with the hope of receiving spiritual blessings from those holy and all - holy persons who are represented upon them; I acknowledge this spiritual love of gain. But it is the law of reciprocity to expect a gift for a gift. "With what measure ye mete," it is said, " it shall be measured to you again." I am an infirm, carnal, sinful man—they are welcome to all I have; not being always able to bring to my Lord, to His most pure Mother, to an Angel of God, or to a Saint, a heart burning with faith and love, I bring, at least, as a carnal, material man, a material gift as a gift to heaven, a lighted candle. May the Lord look down from heaven upon this little gift of my zeal, and may He give me more in return. He alone is rich, and enriches all, whilst I am poor and needy; He is surrounded with inaccessible light, I am in darkness; I am of little faith, may He grant me the gift of faith; I am poor in love, may He enrich my heart with this priceless heavenly treasure; I am powerless for all good, may He give me the power. On my part there is the desire for heavenly blessings, and there is a material pledge of this; may the all - endowing Lord grant to me, by the prayers of His most pure Mother and those of the Angels and Saints," all things that I ask that are profitable unto salvation." Great are our negligence and slothfulness in prayer: we are always inclined to pray, and often do pray; anyhow, in order to finish quickly, we hurry, we skip, and do not look into the depths of our hearts. Therefore our prayer is like the wind: it makes a noise, passes away, and that is all. "And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved; for he had great possessions." We, too, often become sad and weak in heart and body at a single word, asking a sacrifice of us for the sake of the heavenly kingdom, although we were brave enough before. Why is the Creed sung before the transubstantiation of the Holy Gifts? Why does the priest also say the Creed to himself inside the altar at the same time? In order that those present should believe and remember that the Holy Trinity takes part in the act of the transubstantiation of the Holy Gifts, and that the mystery of the Eucharist is the work of the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; in order also that the priest himself may celebrate the Holy Sacrament without condemnation and with undoubting faith in the mercy and omnipotence of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and after - wards, at the proper time, communicate of it; for at this time especially great faith is required of the priest, as then, above all, the enemy uses all his efforts to strike his mind and heart with coldness and unbelief, or to disturb him by doubt. Whomsoever you wish to pray to, before praying, first ask in your heart that you may be made worthy of offering Him your heartfelt prayer, praise, or thanksgiving, for we can only pray by the strengthening of the Holy Ghost, and by the strengthening of those saints, through whose intercession we wish to pray to the Saviour. Raise to Him before your prayer or praise a heartfelt voice, that He may grant you the grace of sincere prayer, that He may lay His easy yoke and His light burden on your heart, that they may destroy the diabolical pride and resistance of your mind and heart. If you wish to pray to Our Lady, call upon Her that She may make you worthy of offering Her your prayer, praise, or thanksgiving from the whole heart, unfeignedly. If you wish to pray to an angel, ask the Lord to make you deserving of worthily offering him your prayer, or of hymning the grace, brightness, and goodness of his nature; if to a saint, invoke the Holy Ghost, by Whose holiness the saints are sanctified, that you may worthily call upon him or ascribe praises and thanksgivings to him; for we all can only pray worthily and vivifyingly through the strengthening of the life - giving Holy Ghost. God's saints are the pure breathings of the Holy Ghost. "The wind (the Spirit) bloweth where it listeth." (That is, He breathes in any soul He pleases.) The Holy Virgin was superabundantly sanctified and purified by the Holy Ghost. The angels, too, are sanctified by the Holy Ghost, and live and breathe by Him, as we live by the flesh and breathe by means of air. Prayers, in their true aspect, are nothing else but the breathing of the Holy Ghost. "The Spirit Itself," it is said, "maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." In the present time learned men have erected, and are erecting, an enormous idol, and command all to worship it, worshipping it themselves also. This idol is the literature of denial, the impure spirit moving us, the proud, impious, unbelieving intellect. The Devil is cunning, O how cunning! He has invented even in Christianity a refined idolatry, corres - ponding with the direction and spirit of the age and with the degree of its mental develop - ment. What an evil, crafty being! How he perverts poor humanity that has withdrawn itself from hearty faith in Christ! How powerfully he draws men into hell by means of ropes woven by the men themselves! My God! my God! He destroys us by means of our own intellect, which ought to lead us to the eternal, living God! With our own ladles he draws for us the deadly water of worldly, elementary, and vain wisdom, and gives us and other men to drink of it, instead of the living water of the Word of God! And we drink and drink of it, without suspecting that it is the water of death.