What a holiday on January 18 according to the church calendar. Church Orthodox holiday of January

Just before the glorification of the Monk Seraphim, in 1903, Sergei Nilus discovered the records of a friend and admirer of the saint, Nikolai A. Motovilov, where there was a whole theological teaching of the Monk Seraphim about the Acquisition of the Holy Spirit (the meaning of human life) in full agreement with the teachings of the Holy Fathers of the Church. Until 1917, several editions of this conversation were published, from which all of its foreign editions were reprinted. But on the eve of the revolution, S. Nilus, having finally examined the manuscript, published the definitive text of 1917, from which we publish here unchanged, supplementing only with an introduction from a long-dispersed book published by our St. Germanic Brotherhood in 1968.

The conversation of our Reverend and God-bearing Father Seraphim of Sarov the Wonderworker about the goal of the Christian life is of great importance, it is almost the most important thing that exists about him.

As a theological teaching, it was delivered by one of the greatest saints Orthodox Church, equal to the holy fathers of antiquity. As something genuine, remaining in evidence of the holiness of the great righteous man of the Russian Church, it is clearly a revelation from above. It is quite unusual to find him just before the glorification of the great secret viewer. Absolutely amazing is the significance of this "from another world that came" teaching, as it were, intended for a Christian of the 20th century! It is also surprising who exactly was destined to acquire this wondrous treasure and under what conditions to make public the whole estate Great Russia, precisely on the eve of the historical disappearance of Holy Russia from the earth ... And we, Russia Abroad, was supposed to convey further, to people of the whole world who only "have ears to hear" and a heart ready to accept the fiery words of the Truth Itself emanating from the lips of the truly heavenly seraphim - our dear and dear Father Seraphim.

The miracle of this seraphim's appearance on our sinister land, in addition to the fact that it lives and breathes in our church life to this day, has not yet said its last word, it has not yet ended. The Monk Seraphim is the property of all Ecumenical Church Christ's, one and true. Concluding his Conversation, the Reverend says to Motovilov, his interlocutor: "... The Lord will help you to forever keep this (the teaching about the Holy Spirit) in your memory ... the more that it was not for you alone that it was given to you to understand this, but through you for the good of the world ... "The Monk did not appear to many ignorant and in darkness, the Seraphim did not yet burn their hearts with Divine love, in order to make them his final choice, and the last trumpet to roar ... , it can be seen, soon to be the end of it, for the news of the Monk Seraphim is spreading.

This Conversation was redirected by Sergei Alexandrovich Nilus. It was a wonderful person. It was not for nothing that the Reverend himself chose him to be, as it were, a new "servant of the poor Seraphim," and in fact he served the saint as a publication of the Conversation, and in general with his writings. Below is the full text from the third and last edition of the Beseda, which was corrected by Nilus and provided with a preface, an afterword, and notes never published yet. The conversation is one of the chapters of his first and in the highest degree interesting book "Great in Small", dedicated "with a sense of reverent gratitude" to his wonderful healer, the Holy Righteous Father John of Kronstadt.

Glab Podmoshensky Summer, 1967

"FOREWORD by S. A. NILUS"

During the stay of Apollos in Corinth, Paul, having passed the upper country, arrived in Ephesus and, finding some disciples there, said to them: Have you received the Holy Spirit by believing? But they said to him: we have not even heard if there is the Holy Spirit. He said to them: What were you baptized into? They answered: in the baptism of John. Paul said: John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling people to believe in the One who comes after him, that is, in Christ Jesus. Hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit descended on them, and they began to speak in other tongues and prophesy. All of them were about twelve people. (Acts XIX, 1-7).

And so, now I am going to Jerusalem, driven by the Spirit, not knowing what will meet me there; only the Holy Spirit in all cities testifies, saying that bonds and sorrows await me. (Acts XX, 22-23).

And my word and my sermon are not in convincing words of human wisdom, but in the manifestation of spirit and strength, so that your faith is not based on human wisdom, but on the power of God. (1 Cor. 11: 4-5).

And God revealed it to us by His Spirit; for the Spirit permeates everything, and the depths of God (1 Cor. II, 10).

The soulful man does not accept what is from the Spirit of God, because he considers it insanity; and cannot understand. (1 Cor. II, 14).

I was in the spirit on Sunday decks and heard a loud voice behind me, like a trumpet, which said: I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. (Rev. 1, 10).

A month before the Highest command to speed up the work being done in the Holy Synod about the glorification of the Holy Pleasant of God, Seraphim of Sarov, the Lord brought me back to Sarov and Diveev. Of the three contemporaries, Fr. Seraphim, whom I met on my first trip, I found only Elena Ivanovna Motovilova alive. Soon after my departure, in 1900, mother Hermionia departed to the villages of the righteous; on Easter, two years later, mother Evanthia also went after her.

Over the years, Elena Ivanovna has also surrendered greatly: her camp has bent, her light and penetrating eyes have begun to fade, so recently. Seraphim no longer needs earthly witnesses of his righteousness, he calls them to himself in a place of eternal rest, to see and share with him his glory, that incorruptible and eternal, unfading glory that the Lord has prepared from all eternity for all who love Him, “go to the face of the saints and the righteous ones shine like the sun! "

But the freshness of mind and memory has not left the dear old woman. The past will live and flourish in her memories, and time has no power over them! ..

At my request, with the permission of the abbess, Elena Ivanovna gave me a whole box of papers left after her late husband, Nikolai Alexandrovich. Anyone who was interested in the life of Father Seraphim should know this name, which is so closely connected with the name of Father and the Diveevskaya convent... This man lived incomprehensible, unappreciated and died, but during his lifetime he was a "servant of the Seraphims," as he himself liked to call himself, and remained so after death. In his papers, I happened to find such a treasure, which in fairness can be called the greatest testimony of faith. This preciousness, with the preservation of all the originality of the syllable of the forties of the last century, in which it was written, I wish to share with the Orthodox reader.

I. INVITATION

Sarov desert. The photo

"Truly, truly, I say to you: he who believes in Me, the work that I do, he will do, and he will do more than these ..." (John 14,12)

“Once,” Motovilov writes in his notes, “it was in the Sarov Hermitage soon after my healing, at the beginning of the winter of 1831, on Tuesday at the end of November, I stood during Vespers in the warm Cathedral of the Life-Giving Source on an ordinary one, as it always happened afterwards. , my place, right opposite miraculous icon Mother of God. Then one of the sisters of the Diveevskaya Mill Community came up to me. (Under the Diveyevo community, at the beginning of its existence, Father Seraphim ordered to build a windmill so that the sisters could feed on their labors in case of poverty. .) About the name and existence of this community, separate from the other ecclesiastical, also Diveyevo community, I had no idea then. This sister told me:

Are you, perhaps, a lame gentleman whom our father, Father Seraphim, healed just recently?

I replied that it was me who was.

Well, then, - she said, - go to Father; he ordered to call you to him. He is now in his cell in the monastery and said that he would be waiting for you.

People who, at least once during the life of the great Elder Seraphim, who were in the Sarov Hermitage and even though they only heard about him, can fully comprehend what inexplicable joy my soul was filled with at this unexpected call of him. Leaving the hearing of the Divine Service, I immediately ran to him in his cell. Father Seraphim met me at the very door of his vestibule and said to me:

I was waiting, your love of God. Just wait a little while I talk to my orphans. I have a lot to talk with you. Sit down here.

At these words, he pointed out to me a ladder with steps, made, probably, to close the chimneys of the stove and placed opposite the stove, with its mouth in the vestibule, as in all double cells of the Sarov dispensations. I was about to sit down on the bottom step, but he said to me:

No, sit higher.

I switched to the second one, but he told me:

No, your love of God. If you please sit on the very top step. - And, sitting me down, he added: - Well, sit there, wait, when I, having talked with my orphans, come out to you.

Father brought two sisters into his cell, one of whom was a girl from the nobility, the sister of the Nizhny Novgorod landowner Manturov, Elena Vasilievna, as the sisters who stayed with me in the senets told me in response to my request.

For a long time I sat waiting for the great Elder to open the doors for me too. I think I sat there for two hours. Pavel, the cell attendant of Father Seraphim, came out to me from another cell closest to the entrance to the vestibule of this cell, and, despite my excuses, persuaded me to visit his cell, and began to give me various instructions on spiritual life, which in fact had a goal, at the instigation of the enemy, weaken my love and faith in the merits of the great elder Seraphim before God.

I felt sad, and with sorrow I said to him:

I was stupid, Father Pavel, that, having obeyed your convictions, I entered your cell. Father Abbot Niphon is a great servant of God, but even here I did not come to the Sarov Monastery for him and I do come, although I respect him very much for his shrine, but only for Father Seraphim alone, about whom I think that even in antiquity there was not enough such holy saints of God, endowed with the power of Elijah and Moses. Who are you who are imposing yourself on me with your instructions, while, I guess, you do not even know the way of God yourself. Forgive me, I am sorry that I listened to you and went to your cell.

With that, I left him and sat down again on the top step of the ladder in the senses of my father's cell. Then I heard from the same Father Pavel that Father was threatening to reprimand him for this, telling him: “It is not your business to talk with those who long for the word of God Seraphim and come to Sarov. , but what the Lord has deigned to me to open for edification. Do not interfere with your own affairs. Know yourself, and never dare to teach: God did not give you this gift - after all, it is given not for free to people, but for their merits before the Lord our God and by His special mercy and Divine look on people and His Holy Providence. " I am writing this here for the memory and edification of those who value both a little speech and a barely noticeable character trait of the great Elder Seraphim.

When the Elder talked with his orphans at about two o'clock, then the door opened and Father Seraphim, seeing the sisters off, said to me:

I detained you for a long time, your love of God. Do not exact. Here are my orphans in need of many things: so I, the poor, and comforted them. Come to your cell.

In his monastic cell, he talked with me about various subjects related to the salvation of the soul and to worldly life, and ordered me and Father Gury, the Sarov hotel, to go to him in the nearby desert the next day, after early Mass.

II. DELIVERY OF THE LORD

The whole night Fr. Guriy and I talked about Fr. Seraphim, the whole night almost did not sleep for joy, and the next day we went to Father Seraphim in his nearby wilderness, without even drinking or eating anything, and all day until late at night, If you did not drink, you did not eat, we stayed at the door of this nearby wilderness. Thousands of people came to the great Elder, and all departed without receiving his blessing, and after standing a little in his senets, they returned back; about seven or eight people stayed with us to wait for the end of this day and the way out of the hermitage of Father Seraphim, including, as I remember now, there was the wife of the Balakhna treasurer from the county town of the Nizhny Novgorod province of Balakhny and some wanderer who was busy about the discovery of the holy relics of Paphnutius , it seems, in Balakhna resting incorruptibly. They decided to wait with us for the opening of the doors of the great Elder. Finally, they too were embarrassed in spirit, and even Father Gury himself, in the evening, when I was already instructed later, was very embarrassed and said to me:

It's already dark, father, and the horse is hungry, and the coachman boy is probably hungry. How would it be if we go later and the animals would not attack us. (You need to know the virgin Sarov forest, which surrounds the Sarov desert by tens of thousands of dessiatines, in order to appreciate the natural fear of Father Gury.

But I said:

No, father, Father Gury, go back alone if you are afraid of something, and even though the animals will tear me to pieces here, and I will not leave Father Seraphim's door, even if I had to die of starvation in their presence; I will still wait for him, as long as he opens the doors of his holy cell for me!

And Father Seraphim, quite a bit later, really opened the doors of his cell and, turning to me, said:

Your love for God, I called you, but do not demand that I did not open the whole day: today is Wednesday, and I am silent, but tomorrow - you are welcome, I will be glad to have a heart-to-heart talk with you. But it’s not so early, if you please, to come to me, otherwise, not eating all day, you are exhausted. And so after the late mass, and having supported yourself with enough food, please come with Fr. Guriy to me. Now come and refresh yourself with food - you are exhausted.

And he began to bless us, beginning with me, and said to Father Guriy:

So, friend, so, my joy, tomorrow with the master, please come to me on my next pazhninka

You will find me there, and now come in peace. Goodbye, your love of God!

With these words, Batiushka closed up again. No word can express the joy that I felt in my heart. I swam in bliss. The thought that, in spite of not long-suffering the whole day, at least in the end I was honored, however, not only to see the face of Father Seraphim, but also to hear the greetings of his inspired words, so comforted me. Yes, I was at the height of bliss, inconceivable by any earthly likeness! And, in spite of the fact that I did not drink or eat all day, I became so full that it was as if I had eaten to the point of satiety and drank to a reasonable intoxication. I speak the truth, although, perhaps, for some who have not experienced in practice what sweetness, satiety and intoxication mean, with which a person is filled during the influx of the Spirit of God, my words will seem exaggerated and the story is too enthusiastic. But I assure with my Orthodox Christian conscience that there is no exaggeration here, and everything that I have said now is not only a mere truth, but even a very weak idea of what I really felt in my heart.

But who will give me a verb that can express at least a little, at least partially, what my soul felt the next day?

III. THE PURPOSE OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. (MEANING OF LIFE)

It was on Thursday. The day was overcast. There was a quarter of snow on the ground, and a rather thick snow crumble was poured from above, when Father Seraphim began a conversation with me on his closest pazhninka, near the same nearby wilderness opposite the Sarovka river, near a mountain that came close to its banks.

He placed me on the stump of a tree he had just cut down, and he himself squatted against me.

The Lord revealed to me, - said the great Elder, - that in your childishness they zealously wanted to know what the purpose of our Christian life is, and you have repeatedly asked many great spiritual persons about this ...

I must say here that from the age of twelve I was constantly worried about this thought, and I, indeed, addressed many of the clergy with this question, but their answers did not satisfy me. The elder did not know this.

But no one, - continued Father Seraphim, - has definitely told you about this. They told you: go to church, pray to God, do the commandments of God, do good - this is the goal of Christian life for you. And some were even indignant at you because you were busy with unpleasant curiosity, and told you: do not seek yourself higher. But they didn’t speak as they should. Here I, poor Seraphim, will explain to you now what this goal really is.

So, the Lord uses all His Divine means to give such a person the opportunity for his good deeds not to lose the reward in the life of the Divine Life. But for this we need to start here with the right faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came to save sinful people, and by acquiring the grace of the Holy Spirit, who brings the Kingdom of God into our hearts and paves the way for us to acquire the blessedness of life in the age to come. But that is what limits this pleasing to God of good deeds that are not done for Christ's sake: our Creator provides the means for their implementation. It remains for a person to either implement them or not. That is why the Lord said to the Hebrews: "If they did not see it faster, they had no quicker sin. But now you speak, we see, and your sin remains upon you." If a person, like Cornelius, takes advantage of God's pleasure in his work that was not done for Christ's sake, and believes in His Son, then this kind of work will be imputed to him, as if done for Christ's sake and only for faith in Him. Otherwise, a person has no right to complain that his good did not go into business. This never happens only when doing some kind of good for Christ's sake, for good, for His sake, is done not only in the life of the next century, the crown of righteousness intercedes, but also in this life fills a person with the grace of the Holy Spirit, and moreover, as it is said: "Not in God gives the measure of the Holy Spirit. The Father loves the Son and gives everything in His hand. "

So it is, your love of God. Thus, the true goal consists in the acquisition of this Spirit of God. our Christian life, and prayer, vigil, fasting, alms and other virtues for Christ's sake are only means to acquire the Spirit of God.

What about acquisitions? - I asked Father Seraphim. - I do not understand something.

Acquisition is the same as acquiring, - he answered me, - do you understand what acquiring money means? So it is all the same the acquisition of the Spirit of God. After all, you, your Love for God, understand what acquisition is in the worldly sense? The purpose of the life of the mundane ordinary people is to acquire or make money, and among the nobles, in addition, to receive honors, distinctions and other awards for state services. The acquisition of the Spirit of God is also capital, but only gracious and eternal, and it, like money, bureaucratic and temporary, is acquired in the same ways, very similar to each other. God the Word, our God-man Jesus Christ likens our life to the marketplace and calls our work of life on earth a purchase, and says to all of us: "Bathe, until I come, redeeming time, as the days are deceiving the essence," that is, gain time to receive heavenly blessings through earthly goods. Earthly goods are virtues done for Christ's sake, giving us the grace of the All-Holy Spirit. In the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, when the foolish fools lacked oil, it is said: "Shedshi, buy it at the marketplace." But when they bought it, the doors to the bridal chamber were already closed, and they could not enter it. Some say that the lack of oil among the holy fools signifies a lack of good deeds in their lifetime. This understanding is not entirely correct. What was it they lacked in good deeds, when they, though fools, are still called virgins? After all, virginity is the highest virtue, as a state of equal angels, and could serve as a substitute in itself for all other virtues. I, poor man, think that it was precisely the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God that was lacking. Creating virtues, these virgins, by their spiritual foolishness, believed that this was just the Christian thing, so that some virtues could be done. We did a virtue, and so did the work of God, but before they received the grace of the Spirit of God, whether they achieved it, they did not care. About such and such ways of life, based only on one creation of virtues without careful testing, whether they bring and exactly how much they bring the grace of the Spirit of God, and it is said in the fatherly books: the bottom of hell. " (The essence of the path is the imaginary rule of being to the husband, both the latter see them in the bottom of hell (Proverbs 16:25). There are paths that seem straight to man, but their end is the path to death.) Anthony the Great in his letters to the monks speaks of such virgins : "Many monks and virgins do not have any idea about the differences in the wills acting in a person, and do not know that three wills operate in us: the first of God, the all-perfect and all-saving; the second is our own, human, that is, if not harmful, then and not saving, and the third demonic - completely pernicious. " And it is this third enemy will that teaches a person either not to do any virtues, or to do them out of vanity, or for one good, and not for the sake of Christ. The second - our own will - teaches us to do everything to please our lusts, otherwise, as the enemy teaches, to do good for the sake of good, not paying attention to the grace they acquire. The first - the will of God and all-saving - consists only in doing good only for the acquisition of the Holy Spirit as an eternal treasure, inexhaustible and fully and worthy of being appreciated by one who cannot. It is this, this acquisition of the Holy Spirit, in fact, is called that oil, which was lacking among the holy fools. That is why they are called holy fools, for they have forgotten about the necessary fruit of virtue, about the grace of the Holy Spirit, without which there is no salvation and no one can be, for "by the Holy Spirit, every soul lives and rises in purity, brightens the Trinity Unity in sacred secrecy." The Holy Spirit Himself; settles in our souls, and this is the very introduction into our souls of His, the Almighty, and coexistence with our spirit of His Trinity Unity and is given to us only through the all-round acquisition of the Holy Spirit from our side, which prepares in our soul and flesh the throne for the All-creative Divine with our spirit of abiding, according to the immutable word of God: "I will dwell in them and I am like them, and I will be with them in God, and they will be in My people." This is the very oil in the lamps of the wise virgins, which could burn lightly and for a long time, and those virgins with these burning lamps could wait for the Bridegroom, who came in midnight, and enter with Him into the palace of joy. The holy fools, seeing that their lamps were extinguished, although they went to the marketplace, and buy oil, did not have time to return in time, for the doors were already closed. Marketplace is our life; the doors of the bridal chamber, closed and not admitting to the Bridegroom, is human death; the wise and foolish virgins are Christian souls; oil is not deeds, but the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God received through them inside our nature, transforming it from this into this, that is, from corruption to incorruption, from spiritual death to spiritual life, from darkness to light, from the den of our life, where passion tied like cattle and beasts - to the temple of the Divine, to the luminous palace of eternal joy in Christ Jesus our Lord, Creator and Deliverer and Eternal Bridegroom of our souls.

How great is God's compassion for our misfortune, that is, inattention to His care for us, when God says: "Behold, I stand at the door and to the point," meaning by the door the course of our life, not yet closed by death. Oh, how I wish, your Love for God, that in this life you would always be in the Spirit of God! "Wherever I find, in that I judge," says the Lord. Woe, great woe, if He finds us burdened with cares and sorrows of life, for whoever can endure His anger and stand against the face of His anger! That is why it is said: "Watch and pray, lest you enter into an attack," that is, do not be deprived of the Spirit of God, for vigilance and prayer bring us His grace. Of course, every virtue done for Christ's sake gives the grace of the Holy Spirit, but most of all it gives prayer, because it is, as it were, always in our hands as an instrument for gaining the grace of the Spirit. Would you like, for example, to go to church, but either there is no church, or the service has ceased; they would like to give to a beggar, but there is no beggar, or there is nothing to give; you would want to keep your virginity, but you do not have the strength to fulfill it according to your addition or according to the efforts of the enemy's intrigues, which you cannot resist due to human weakness; they would want to do some other virtue for Christ's sake, but they also have no strength, or it is impossible to find an opportunity. And before prayer, this does not apply in any way: everyone always has an opportunity for it - both the rich and the poor, and the noble and the simple, and the strong and the weak, and the healthy and the sick, and the righteous and sinner. How great is the power of prayer, even of a sinful person, when it rises from the bottom of your heart, judge by the following example of Holy Tradition: when, at the request of a desperate mother who has lost her only-begotten son, abducted by death, a whore wife, caught on her way and even from just She was not cleansed of her former sin, touched by the desperate sorrow of her mother, cried out to the Lord: "Not for the sake of the accursed sinner, but tears for the sake of a mother grieving for her son and firmly convinced of Your mercy and omnipotence, Christ God, resurrect, Lord, her son!" - the Lord resurrected him. So, your love for God, the power of prayer is great, and it most of all brings the Spirit of God, and it is most convenient for everyone to correct it. We will be blessed when the Lord finds us vigilant, in the fullness of the gifts of His Holy Spirit. Then we can boldly hope to be caught up in the clouds at the meeting of the Lord in the air, Coming with glory and power to judge the living and the dead with much, and reward others according to his deeds.

Behold, your love for God, for great happiness, please, be willing to talk with God Seraphim, being sure that he is not deprived of the grace of the Lord. What are we talking about the Lord Himself, the source of the ever-scarce source of all goodness, both heavenly and earthly? But by prayer, we are worthy to talk with Him, the All-Merciful and Life-giving God and our Savior. But even here it is necessary to pray only until God the Holy Spirit descends on us in the measures of His heavenly grace known to Him. And when He delights in visiting us, then we must already stop praying. Why then pray to Him: "Come and dwell in us and cleanse us from all defilement and save, O God, our souls," when He has already come to us in a hedgehog to save us, who trust in Him and call on His holy name in truth, that is, in order to humbly and lovingly meet Him, the Comforter, inside the temple of our souls, hungry and thirsty for His coming. I will explain this to your Godliness with an example: if only you would invite me to visit you, and at your call I would come to you and would like to talk with you. And you would all begin to invite me: you are welcome, de we ask, please, they say, to me. Then I should against my will have to say: what is it, out of the mind, or what, came out? I came to him, but he still calls me! This is how the Holy Spirit relates to the Lord God. That is why it is said: "Abolish and understand that I am God; paradise, with Abraham and Jacob and with my other servants, with Moses, Job and the like. Many people interpret that this abolition applies only to the affairs of the world, that is, during a prayer conversation with God, one must abolish from the affairs of the world. But I will tell you according to Bose that although it is necessary to abolish from them during prayer, but when, with the almighty power of faith and prayer, the Lord God the Holy Spirit deigns to visit us and come to us in the fullness of His ineffable goodness, then it is necessary to abolish from prayer. The soul speaks and is in the rumor when you pray, and with the invasion of the Holy Spirit you must be in complete silence, hear clearly and intelligibly everything, the verbs of the eternal life, which He then deigns to proclaim. Moreover, one must be in complete sobriety of both soul and spirit and in the chaste purity of the flesh. So it was at Mount Horeb, when the Israelites were told that they would not touch their wives in three days before the appearance of God in Sinai, for our God is "consuming fire all that is unclean," and no one from defilements of flesh and spirit.

IV. ACQUISITION OF GRACE

Well, but what about, Father, to be with other virtues, done for Christ's sake, in order to acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit? After all, you only wish to speak to me about prayer.

Acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit and all others of Christ for the sake of virtues, trade them spiritually, trade those of them that give you the greatest profit. Collect the capital of the blessed excess of the goodness of God, put them in the eternal pawnshop of God from the percentage of immaterial and not four or six per hundred, but one hundred per one spiritual ruble, but even that many times more. For example: prayer and vigilance gives you more of the grace of God - watch and pray; fast gives much of the Spirit of God - fast; more alms gives - do alms, and thus reason about every virtue done for Christ's sake.

Here I will tell you about myself, poor Seraphim. I come from Kursk merchants. So, when I was not yet in the monastery, we used to trade in goods that give us more profit. Do the same you, father, do, and just as in the trade business is not the power to just trade, but to get more profit, so in the Christian life is not the power to just pray or whatever. -or a good deed to do. Although the apostle says: "Pray incessantly," but why, as you remember, he adds: "I would rather say five words with my mind than a thousand tongues." And the Lord says: "Not everyone say to Mi: Lord, Lord, it will be saved, but do the will of My Father," that is, he who does the work of God and, moreover, with reverence, for everyone is cursed who does the work of God with negligence. And the work of God is: let you believe in God and He also sent Jesus Christ. If you judge correctly about the commandments of Christ and the apostolic, so our Christian work is not to increase the count of good deeds that serve the goal of our Christian life only by means, but in extracting from them greater benefit, that is, in the acquisition of the richest gifts of the Holy Spirit.

So I wish, your love for God, that you yourself would acquire this ever-inexhaustible source of God's grace and always reason to yourself whether you are found in the Spirit of God or not; and if in the Spirit of God, then, blessed be God, there is nothing to grieve about, even now - at the Last Judgment of Christ. For in what I find, in that I judge. If not, then it is necessary to understand why and for what reason the Lord God the Holy Spirit has deigned to leave us, and again seek and seek Him, and not lag behind until the sought-after Lord God the Holy Spirit is found and will be with us again By your grace. Our enemies who drive us away from Him must be attacked so long as their ashes are swept away, as the Prophet David said: "I will marry my enemies and I will comprehend, and I will not return, until they die, I will insult them, and they will not be able to fall under my feet. ".

That's it, father. So, if you please, trade spiritually virtuous. Distribute the gifts of the grace of the Holy Spirit to those who demand, following the example of a kindled light, which itself shines, burning with earthly fire, and other lights, without diminishing its own fire, kindles into light to everyone in other places. And if this is so in relation to the earthly fire, then what can we say about the fire of the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God? For, for example, the wealth of the earth when it is distributed becomes scarce, while the wealth of heavenly grace of God is distributed the more, the more it multiplies in the one who distributes it. So the Lord Himself deigned to say to the Samaritans: "Drink from this water he will thirst again, but drink from water, from the south I will give it, it will not thirst forever, but the water from the south I will give him, there will be a source in him ever flowing into the eternal belly."

V. THE MOTHER OF GOD - THE PLOUS OF THE IMPAIRS

Father, - I said, - so you all deign to speak about the acquisition of the grace of the Holy Spirit as the goal of the Christian life, but how and where can I see it? Good deeds are visible, but can the Holy Spirit be seen? How will I know if He is with me or not?

At the present time, - so answered the Elder, - due to our almost universal coldness towards the holy faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and due to our inattention to the actions of His Divine Providence for us and the communication of man with God, we have reached the point that, one might say, almost completely retired from the truly Christian life. Now the words of Holy Scripture seem strange to us, when the Spirit of God through the mouth of Moses says: "And in the sight of Adam the Lord going to Paradise," or when we read from the Apostle Paul: "I go to Achaia, and the Spirit of God does not go with us, we will turn to Macedonia, and the Spirit of God is with us. " (In the Apostolic Acts, having passed through Phrygia and the Galatian country, they were not allowed by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. Having reached Mysia, they attempted to go to Bithynia, but the Spirit did not allow them (16, 6-7.) Repeatedly in other places of the Holy Scripture speaks of the manifestation of God to men.

Here are some who say: "These places are incomprehensible: could people really see God so clearly?" And there is nothing incomprehensible here. This misunderstanding occurred because we moved away from the simplicity of the original Christian knowledge and, under the pretext of enlightenment, entered such darkness of ignorance that it already seems inconceivable to us what the ancients had so clearly understood, that even in ordinary conversations they had the concept of the manifestation of God between people. didn't seem strange. So Job, when his friends reproached him for blaspheming God, answered them: "How can it be when I feel the breath of the Almighty in my nostrils?" That is, how can I blaspheme God when the Holy Spirit is with me? If I blasphemed God, the Holy Spirit would depart from me, but I feel His breath in my nostrils. In exactly the same way it is said about Abraham and about Jacob that they saw the Lord and talked with Him, and Jacob even fought with Him. Moses saw God and all the people with him when he was vouchsafed to receive from God the tablets of the law on Mount Sinai. The pillar of cloud and fire, or, what is the same, the obvious grace of the Holy Spirit, served as guides to the people of God in the wilderness. People did not see God and the grace of His Holy Spirit in a dream, and not in a dream, and not in a frenzy of upset imagination, but truly manifest. We have become very much inattentive to the work of our salvation, which is why it turns out that we and many other words of Holy Scripture are not acceptable in the sense that they should be. And all because we do not seek the grace of God, we do not allow it, due to the pride of our mind, to dwell in our souls and therefore we do not have true enlightenment from the Lord, sent to the hearts of people who are hungry and thirsty for the righteousness of God with all their hearts.

For example, many interpret that when the Bible says, "God breathes the breath of life in the person of the primordial Adam and created by Him from the dust of the earth," as if only one flesh, created from the dust of the earth. This interpretation is incorrect, for the Lord God created Adam from the dust of the earth in the same composition as, father, the holy Apostle Paul asserts: "May your spirit, soul and flesh be all-perfect in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." And all these three parts of our nature were created from the dust of the earth, and Adam was not created dead, but an active animal being, like other animate creatures of God living on earth. But this is the strength that if the Lord God had not breathed into this breath of life later in his face, that is, the grace of the Lord God the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and rests in the Son and for the sake of the Son sent into the world, then Adam, no matter how he was absolutely superbly created over other God's creatures, as the crown of creation on earth, nevertheless, it would remain without the Holy Spirit, which elevates him to a God-like dignity, and would be similar to all other creatures, although they have flesh, soul, and spirit , belonging to each according to their kind, but not having the Holy Spirit within themselves. When the Lord breathed in the breath of life in the face of Adam, then, as Moses put it, “Adam will live into the soul,” that is, completely similar to God in everything and such as He is, forever and ever immortal. Adam was created so that he was not subject to the action of any of the elements created by God, that he was not drowned by water, nor fire burned, nor the earth could devour in its chasms, nor the air could damage by any of its actions. Everything was subdued to him, as a favorite of God, as a king and owner of creation. And everyone admired him as the all-perfect crown of God's creations. From this breath of life, breathed in the face of Adam from the All-Creative Mouth of the All-Creator and Almighty God, Adam became so delusional that there has never been a century ago, no, and indeed there will hardly ever be a man on earth wiser and more knowledgeable than him. When the Lord commanded him to bap the names of every creature, then he gave each creature in the language such names that completely signify all the qualities, all the power and all the properties of a creature that it has according to the gift of God given to it during its creation. It was by this gift of the divine grace of God, sent down to him from the breath of life, that Adam could see and understand the Lord going to paradise, and comprehend His verbs, and the conversation of the holy Angels, and the language of all animals and birds and creeping things that live on earth , and everything that is now hidden from us, as from the fallen and sinful, and that was so clear to Adam before his fall.

The same wisdom and power, and omnipotence, and all the other good and holy qualities, the Lord God gave to Eve, having created her not from the dust of the earth, but from the rib of Adam in Eden of sweetness - to the paradise planted by Him in the middle of the earth. In order for them to comfortably and always maintain in themselves the immortal, God-gracious and all-perfect properties of this breath of life, God planted in the middle of paradise a tree of life, in the fruits of which he enclosed all the essence and fullness of the gifts of this Divine breath of His. If they had not sinned, then Adam and Eve themselves and all their offspring could always, using the eating of the fruit of the tree of life, maintain in themselves the eternally life-giving power of God's grace and the immortal, eternally youthful fullness of the forces of the flesh, soul and spirit and the incessant agelessness of the infinitely immortal of his all-blissful state, even incomprehensible to our imagination at the present time.

When, by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil - prematurely and contrary to the commandment of God - they learned the difference between good and evil and underwent all the disasters that followed the transgression of the commandment of God, they were deprived of this priceless gift of the grace of the Spirit of God, so that until the very advent of the God-man into the world Jesus Christ the Spirit of God "is not in the world, because Jesus is not glorified." However, this does not mean that the Spirit did not exist in the world at all, but His stay was not as full as in Adam or in us, Orthodox Christians, but manifested itself only outside, and the signs of His stay in the world were known to the human race. So, for example, Adam after the fall, as well as Eve with him, were revealed many secrets related to the future salvation of the human race. And Cain, in spite of his wickedness and his crime, understood the voice of the grace-filled Divine, albeit accusatory, conversation with him. Noah talked to God. Abraham, seeing God and His day, rejoiced. The grace of the Holy Spirit, acting from the outside, was reflected in all the Old Testament prophets and saints of Israel. The Jews later established special prophetic schools, where they taught to recognize the signs of the manifestation of God or Angels and to distinguish the actions of the Holy Spirit from ordinary phenomena that occur in the nature of unfavorable earthly life. Simeon the God-Receiver, the Godfathers Joachim and Anna and many countless servants of God experienced constant, varied manifestations of Divine manifestations, voices, revelations justified by obvious miraculous events. Not with such power as in the people of God, but the manifestation of the Spirit of God also acted in the pagans, who did not know the True God, because from among them God also found people chosen for Himself. Such, for example, were the virgin prophetesses, the Sibyls, who doomed their virginity, although for the Unknown God, but nevertheless for God, the Creator of the universe, and the Almighty, and the Ruler of the World, as whom the pagans also recognized. Likewise, the pagan philosophers, who, although in the darkness of the ignorance of the Divine, wandered, but, seeking the truth beloved of God, could be, by this very God-loving search for it, partakers of the Spirit of God, for it is said: pleasing to God make. "And the Lord so pleased the truth that He Himself proclaims about it by the Holy Spirit:" The true ascended from the earth, and the truth is prince from heaven. "

So, your love of God, both in the Jewish sacred, God-kind people, and in the pagans who do not know God, but still the knowledge of God was preserved, that is, father, a clear and reasonable understanding of how the Lord God the Holy Spirit acts in a person and how exactly and by what external and internal sensations one can make sure that it is the Lord God the Holy Spirit, and not the enemy's delusion, that acts. This is how it was all from the fall of Adam to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh into the world.

Without this, your Love for God, which has always been preserved in the human race, is perceptible about the actions of the Holy Spirit of understanding, there would be no way for people to know exactly whether the Fruit of the Seed of the Woman, which has to erase the head of the serpent, came into the world, promised to Adam and Eve.

But here is Simeon the God-Receiver, saved by the Holy Spirit after he was foretelling to him in the 65th year of his life the secrets of his ever-virgin from the Most Pure Virgin Mary of His conception and birth, having lived by the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God for 300 years, then at the 365th year of his life he said clearly in the church The Lord, that he had perceptibly learned by the gift of the Holy Spirit that this is He Himself, that Christ, the Savior of the world, about whose natural conception and birth from the Holy Spirit was foretold to him three hundred years ago from an angel.

Here is Saint Anna the prophetess, the daughter of Fanuil, who served eighty years from her widowhood to the Lord God in the temple of God and known for the special gifts of God's grace for a righteous widow, a pure servant of God, announced that this really is He, the promised Messiah, the true Christ , God and man, the King of Israel, who came to save Adam and the human race.

When He, our Lord Jesus Christ, deigned to complete the whole work of salvation, then after His resurrection, He breathed on the apostles, resuming the breath of life lost by Adam, and bestowed upon them the same Adam's grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God. But this is not enough - after all, He told them: "They have no food, but He goes to the Father; if He does not go, then the Spirit of God will not come into the world; if He, Christ, goes to the Father, then He will send him into the world, and He, the Comforter, will instruct them and all those who follow their teachings into all truth and will remember them all, even He spoke to them that still exists in peace with them. " This has already been promised by Him grace-grace. And on the day of Pentecost He solemnly sent down the Holy Spirit to them in a stormy breath, in the form of fiery tongues, on each of them that sat down and entered them and filled them with the power of fiery Divine grace, breathing dewy and joyfully acting in the souls who partake of its power and actions. And this very fiery-spiritual grace of the Holy Spirit, when it is given to us all, faithful of Christ, in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, is sacredly sealed by chrismation in the most important places of our flesh indicated by the Holy Church, as the eternal guardian of this grace. It says: "The seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit." And on what, father, your love of God, do we, God, put our seals, if not on vessels that store some precious precious thing for us? What can be higher than everything in the world and what is more precious than the gifts of the Holy Spirit, sent down to us from above in the Sacrament of Baptism, for this baptismal grace is so great that even a heretic person will not be taken away from him until his death, that is, until the time indicated from above according to the providence of God for a lifelong probation of man on earth - what will he be good for, and what will he be able to accomplish in this God-given period, through the mediation of the power of grace given to him from above? And if we had never sinned after our Baptism, we would have remained holy, blameless, and saints of God, taken away from all defilement of the flesh and spirit. But the trouble is that, when we succeed in age, we do not succeed in grace and in the mind of God, as our Lord Christ Jesus did, but on the contrary, being corrupted little by little, we are deprived of the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God and we become in many different ways by sinful and sinful people. But when someone, being agitated by the wisdom of God seeking our salvation, bypassing every kind, decides for her sake to matins to God and vigil for the sake of gaining his eternal salvation, then he, obedient to her voice, must resort to the true repentance in all his sins and to the creation of the opposite. committed sins of virtues, and through the virtues of Christ for the sake of the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, acting within us and within us establishing the Kingdom of God. It is not for nothing that the Word of God says: "Within you is the Kingdom of God, and it is needed, and the needy do not delight." That is, those people who, in spite of the sinful bonds that bound them and do not allow their violence and excitement to new sins, come to Him, our Savior, with perfect repentance for torturing Him, despising the entire strength of these sinful bonds, are forced to break their - such people then really appear before the face of God more than snow, whitened by His grace. "Come," says the Lord, "and if your sins are like crimson, then as if the snow will make them white." So once the holy seer John the Theologian saw such people in white clothes, that is, clothes of justification, and "dates in their hands" as a sign of victory, and they sang to God the wondrous song "Alleluia". "No one can imitate the beauty of their singing." About them the Angel of God said: "These are the essence, who came from great sorrow, who asked for his robe and made his garments whitened in the Blood of the Lamb," - asking with suffering and making them ready in communion of the Most Pure and Life-giving Mysteries of the Flesh and Blood of the Immaculate and Most Pure Christ, before all the ages of the world that was slain by His own will for the salvation of the world, ever and to this day tempered and fragmented, but never dependent, giving us our eternal and inexhaustible salvation to the path of eternal life in response, favorable to His Terrible Judgment and the replacement of the dearest and every mind surpassing that the fruit of the tree of life, which our human race wanted to deprive of, the enemy of men, who fell from heaven Dennitsa.

Although the enemy, the devil, deceived Eve, and Adam fell with her, but the Lord not only gave them the Redeemer in the fruit of the Seed of the Woman, who had corrected death by death, but also gave all of us in the Woman, the Ever-Virgin Mary of the Mother of God, who erased in herself and erased in everything to the human race, the head of the serpent, the persistent Intercessor to His Son and our God, the unashamed and invincible Representative even for the most desperate sinners. For this very reason, the Mother of God is called the "Plague of demons", for there is no way for a demon to destroy a person, as long as the person himself does not retreat from resorting to the help of the Mother of God.

Vi. GRACE IS LIGHT

Also, your love for God, I must, poor Seraphim, explain the difference between the actions of the Holy Spirit, who sacredly dwells in the hearts of believers in the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ, and the actions of sinful darkness, at the instigation and incitement of demonic thieves in us. ... The Spirit of God remembers to us the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and acts in one with Him, always solemnly, joyfully making our hearts and guiding our feet on the path of peace, but the flattering, demonic spirit, contrary to Christ, is wise, and his actions in us are rebellious, obstinate and full of lust fleshly, lust of hair and pride of life. "Amen, amen I say to you, everyone living and believing in Me will never die." He who has the grace of the Holy Spirit for the rightful faith in Christ, if through human weakness and died mentally from any sin, he will not die forever, but will be resurrected by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who takes away the sins of the world and gives grace to the tune. About this grace, manifested to the whole world and our human race in the God-man, is said in the Gospel: "In that belly is the light of man," and it is added: "And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not embrace it." This means that the grace of the Holy Spirit, given at Baptism in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, despite the human falls, despite the darkness around our soul, still shines in the heart with the former Divine light of the priceless merits of Christ. This light of Christ, with the sinner's unrepentant repentance, speaks to the Father: "Abba, father, do not be completely angry at this unrepentance!" And then, when the sinner turns to the path of repentance, he completely obliterates the traces of the crimes committed, dressing the former criminal again with clothes of incorruption, woven from the grace of the Holy Spirit, about the acquisition of which as the goal of Christian life, I have been talking for so long to your love of God.

I will also tell you, so that you understand even more clearly what to understand by the grace of God, and how to recognize it, and in what its effect is especially manifested in people enlightened by it. The grace of the Holy Spirit is the Light that enlightens a person. All the Holy Scripture speaks about this.

So the Godfather David said: "The lamp of my feet is Thy law and light to my paths, and if Thy law was not teaching me, then I would have perished in my humility." That is, the grace of the Holy Spirit, expressed in the law by the words of the commandments of the Lord, is my lamp and light, and if it were not for this grace of the Holy Spirit, which I am so thoroughly and diligently acquiring that seven days a day I learn about the fate of Thy righteousness, would enlighten me in darkness of worries associated with the great title of my royal dignity, then where would I get at least a spark of light to illuminate my path along the road of life, dark from the hostility of my enemies! And in fact, the Lord repeatedly manifested for many witnesses the effect of the grace of the Holy Spirit on those people whom He sanctified and enlightened with His great influences. Remember Moses after his conversation with God on Mount Sinai. People could not look at him - so he shone with an extraordinary light that surrounded his face. He was even forced to appear to the people only under a veil. Remember the Transfiguration of the Lord on Mount Tabor. A great light embraced Him, and "there was His garment, shining like snow, and His disciples from fear of falling prostrate." When Moses and Elijah appeared to Him in the same light, then, in order to hide the radiance of the light of Divine grace, which blinded the eyes of the disciples, "clouds, it is said, overshadow them." And in this way the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God appears in an ineffable light for all to whom God manifests its action.

Vii. PEACE AND HEAT OF GRACE

How, then, - I asked Father Seraphim, father, - should I know that I am in the grace of the Holy Spirit?

This, your love for God, is very simple, - he answered me, - that is why the Lord says: "The whole essence is simple for those who acquire reason." Yes, our whole trouble is that we ourselves do not have this Divine reason, which does not boast (is not proud), for it is not of this world. This mind, filled with love for God and neighbor, builds up every person for his salvation. The Lord said about this mind: "God wants everyone to be saved and come to the mind of truth." But to His apostles about the lack of this reason, He said: "Do not you be foolish of nature and do not read the Scriptures, and do you not understand these parables? .." Again about this reason, the Gospel says about the apostles, Scriptures ". Being in this mind, the apostles always saw whether the Spirit of God abides in them or not, and those who were imbued with Him and seeing the Spirit of God abiding with them, affirmatively said that their work was holy and completely pleasing to the Lord God. This explains why they wrote in their epistles: "Be pleased with the Holy Spirit and us" and only on these grounds and offered their messages as an immutable truth, for the benefit of all the faithful - this is how the holy apostles felt the presence of the Spirit of God in themselves. So, your love of God, do you see how simple it is?

I answered:

Still, I do not understand why I can be firmly convinced that I am in the Spirit of God? How can I recognize His true manifestation in myself?

Father Seraphim answered:

I have already, your love for God, told you that it is very simple, and I told you in detail how people are in the Spirit of God and how one should understand His appearance in us ... What do you want, father?

It is necessary, - I said, - so that I understand this well! ..

Then Father Seraphim took me very tightly by the shoulders and said to me:

We are both now, father, in the Spirit of God with you! Why aren't you looking at me?

I answered:

I cannot, father, look, because lightning is pouring out of your eyes. Your face has become brighter than the sun, and my eyes ache with pain ...

Father Seraphim said:

Do not be afraid, your love of God! And now you yourself have become as bright as I myself. You are now in the fullness of the Spirit of God, otherwise you would not have been able to see me like that.

And bowing his head to me, he quietly, in my ear, said to me:

Thank the Lord God for His ineffable mercy to you. You saw that I did not even cross myself, but only in my heart I mentally prayed to the Lord God and said within myself: "Lord, grant him clearly and with bodily eyes to see that Descent of Thy Spirit, with which Thou dost honor Thy servants, when You deign to appear in the light Your splendid glory! " And so, father, the Lord instantly fulfilled the humble request of God Seraphim ... How can we not thank Him for this ineffable gift to both of us? That is how, father, the Lord God does not always show His mercy to the great hermits. This grace of God has deigned to comfort your contrite heart, like a loving mother, through the intercession of the Mother of God Herself ... Well, father, don't look me in the eyes? Look simply and do not be afraid - the Lord is with us!

After these words I looked into his face, and an even greater reverential horror attacked me. Imagine: in the middle of the sun, in the brightest brightness of its midday rays, the face of a person talking to you. You see the movement of his lips, the changing expression of his eyes, hear his voice, feel that someone is holding you by the shoulders, but not only you don’t see these hands, you don’t see either yourself or his figure, but only one blinding light , stretching far away, several yards in a circle, and illuminating with its bright shine both the snow veil covering the clearing, and the snow pellet, which showered me and the great Elder from above. Is it possible to imagine the position in which I was then?

How do you feel now? - Father Seraphim asked me.

Unusually good! - I said.

How good is it? What exactly?

I answered:

I feel such silence and peace in my soul that I cannot express it in any words!

This, your love for God, - Father Seraphim said, - is the peace about which the Lord told His disciples: “I give you my peace, I don’t give you peace, I give you. as if you were elected from the world, for this sake the world hates you. Dare, as I have conquered the world. " It is to these people, who are hated from this world, who are chosen by the Lord, and the Lord gives the peace that you now feel in yourself: "Peace, according to the word of the Apostles, all mind prevails." The apostle calls him that, because no word can express the well-being of the soul that he produces in those people in whose hearts the Lord God instills him. Christ the Savior calls it the world from His own bounty, and not from this world, for no temporary earthly prosperity can give it to the human heart; it is given from above from the Lord God Himself, which is why it is called the peace of God. What else do you feel? - Father Seraphim asked me.

Unusual sweetness! - I answered. And he continued:

This is the sweetness that is said in Holy Scripture: "From fatness to Thy house they will be drunk, and I will fill with a stream of Thy sweetness." It is this sweetness that now fills our hearts and spreads through all our veins with our ineffable delight. From this sweetness our hearts seem to melt and we are both filled with such bliss that no language can express ... What else do you feel?

An extraordinary joy in all my heart!

And Father Seraphim continued:

When the Spirit of God descends on a person and overshadows him with the fullness of His inspiration, then the human soul is filled with inexpressible joy, for the Spirit of God gladdens everything, no matter what He touches. This is the very joy about which the Lord speaks in His Gospel: "... A wife always rejoices, she has grief, as if her year is coming; when she gives birth to a child, she does not remember the sorrow for joy, as a man was born into the world. In the world. You will be sorrowful, but when I see you, your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. " But no matter how comforting this joy that you now feel in your heart, it is nevertheless insignificant in comparison with that about which the Lord Himself through the mouth of His Apostle said that that joy “is neither an eye, nor an ear, neither in a man's heart has a good ascent, God has prepared even more for those who love Him. " The preconditions of this joy are given to us now, and if they make it so sweet, good and cheerful in our souls, then what can we say about the joy that is prepared there, in heaven, crying here on earth ?! Here you too, father, have wept quite enough in your life on earth, and look, with what joy the Lord consoles you even in this life. Now it is up to us, father, the task so that, applying labor to labor, we ascend from strength to strength and reach the measure of the age of fulfillment of Christ, may the words of the Lord come true on us: the eagles, they will flow and will not bother, they will go and will not groan, they will go from strength to strength, and the God of the Gods will appear to them in the Zion of understanding and heavenly visions ... its fullness, and no one will take it from us, who are filled with inexhaustible, heavenly pleasures ... What do you feel, your love of God?

I answered:

Extraordinary warmth!

How, father, warmth? Why, we are sitting in the forest. Now it's winter in the yard, and there is snow under our feet, and there is more snow on top of us, and the croup from above is falling ... What kind of warmth can there be?

I answered:

And the kind that happens in the bath, when they put it on the stove and when steam is pouring out of it in a column ...

And the smell, - he asked me, - is the same as from the bath?

No, I replied, there is nothing on earth like this fragrance. When, during my mother's life, I loved to dance and went to balls and dance evenings, my mother used to sprinkle me with perfume that she bought in the best fashion stores in Kazan, but those perfumes do not emit such a fragrance ...

And Father Seraphim, smiling pleasantly, said:

And I myself, father, know this in the same way as you, but on purpose I ask you if you feel it this way? The absolute truth, your love of God! No sweetness of an earthly fragrance can be compared with the fragrance that we now feel, because we are now surrounded by the fragrance of the Holy Spirit of God. What can the earthly be like him? .. Notice, your love for God, because you told me that it is warm around us, like in a bathhouse, but look, because neither you nor me the snow melts and under us too ... Therefore, this warmth is not in the air, but in ourselves. It is precisely that warmth about which the Holy Spirit with the words of prayer makes us cry out to the Lord: "Warm me with the warmth of the Holy Spirit!" She-warmed hermits and hermits were not afraid of winter filth, being dressed, as in warm fur coats, in grace-filled clothing, woven from the Holy Spirit. This is how it should be in reality, because the grace of God must dwell within us, in our hearts, for the Lord said: "The kingdom of God is within you." By the Kingdom of God, the Lord meant the grace of the Holy Spirit. It is this Kingdom of God that is now within us, and the grace of the Holy Spirit shines and warms us from the outside and, filling the air around us with a varied fragrance, delights our senses with pre-heavenly delight, filling our hearts with inexpressible joy. Our present situation is the one about which the Apostle says: "The kingdom of God is not food and drink, but truth and peace about Holy Dus." Our faith consists "not in words that are awkward to earthly wisdom, but in the manifestation of strength and spirit." It is in this state that we are with you now. It was about this state that the Lord said: “The essence of non-citizens is from those who are standing here, who do not have a taste of death, they still see the Kingdom of God, which has come in power ...” Behold, father, your Love for God, what inexpressible joy the Lord God has given us now !. This is what it means to be in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, about which Saint Macarius of Egypt writes: "I myself was in the fullness of the Holy Spirit ..." With this fullness of His Holy Spirit and us, with God, the Lord has now filled ... Well, now there is nothing more, it seems, to ask, your love for God, how people are in the grace of the Holy Spirit! .. Will you remember the present manifestation of the ineffable mercy of God that has visited us?

I don't know, Father, - I said, - whether the Lord will deign me forever to remember so vividly and clearly, as I now feel, this mercy of God.

And I think, - Father Seraphim answered me, - that the Lord will help you to keep this in your memory forever, for otherwise His goodness would not have bowed so instantly to my humble prayer and would not have preceded to listen to God Seraphim so soon, all the more so as not for you alone it was given to you to understand this, and through you for the whole world, so that you yourself, having been established in the work of God, and others could be useful. As for the fact, father, that I am a monk, and you are a worldly person, there is nothing to think about: God is required to have the right faith in Him and His Only Begotten Son. For this, the grace of the Holy Spirit is abundantly given from above. The Lord seeks hearts filled with love for God and neighbor - this is the throne on which He loves to sit and on which He appears in the fullness of His heavenly glory. “Son, give Me your heart! - He says. - And all the rest I myself will apply to you,” for the Kingdom of God can be contained in the human heart. The Lord commands his disciples: "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all this will be added to you. The message is that your Heavenly Father, as you require all of these." The Lord God does not reproach for the use of earthly goods, for He Himself says that according to our position in earthly life we demand all of these, that is, everything that calms our earth human life and makes our way to the Heavenly Fatherland convenient and easier. Based on this, the holy Apostle Peter said that, in his opinion, there is nothing better in the world than piety combined with contentment. And the Holy Church prays that this will be given to us by the Lord God; and although sorrows, misfortunes and various needs are inseparable from our life on earth, yet the Lord God did not want and does not want us to be only sorrows and misfortunes, which is why he commands us through the apostles to bear each other's burdens and thus fulfill the law of Christ ... The Lord Jesus personally gives us a commandment that we love each other and, consoling with this mutual love, make it easier for ourselves the sad and close path of our march to the Heavenly Fatherland. Why did He come down to us from heaven, if not in order to take on our poverty upon Himself, to enrich us with the Wealth of His goodness and His ineffable bounties. After all, He did not come to serve Him, but let Himself serve others and give His soul for the deliverance of many. Likewise, you, your love for God, do and, having seen the mercy of God clearly shown to you, communicate this to everyone who desires salvation for himself. "The harvest is plentiful," says the Lord, "but the laborers are few." So the Lord God brought us to work and gave the gifts of His grace, so that, reaping the classes of salvation of our neighbors through the multiplying number of those brought by us into the Kingdom of God, they would bring Him fruits ovo thirty, ovo sixty, ovo one hundred. Let us look after ourselves, father, so as not to be condemned to us with that crafty and lazy slave who buried his talent in the ground, but we will try to imitate those good and faithful servants of the Lord who brought their Lord one instead of two - four, the other instead of five - ten. There is nothing to doubt about the mercy of the Lord God: yourselves, your love for God, you see how the words of the Lord, spoken through the prophet, came true on us. "I am God from afar, but God beat me down, and at your mouth is your salvation." No sooner had I, poor man, been baptized, but only in my heart I wished that the Lord would deign to see His benevolence in all its fullness, as He immediately and in fact, by fulfilling my wish, has deigned to hurry. I say this without boasting, and not in order to show you my significance and make you envious, and not so that you think that I am a monk, but you are a layman, no, your love of God, no! "The Lord is near to all who call on Him in truth, and He has no sight on faces, the Father loves the Son and gives everything in His hand," if only we ourselves loved Him, our Heavenly Father, truly, in a filial way. The Lord listens equally to a monk and a layman, a simple Christian, as long as both are Orthodox, and both love God from the depths of their souls, and both have faith in Him, even if "like a grain of mountains," and both will move mountains. "One moves a thousand, two darkness." The Lord Himself says: "Everything is possible for the believer," and Father the Holy Apostle Paul exclaims in a loud voice: "I can all about Christ who strengthens me." Isn't our Lord Jesus Christ even more marvelous than this about those who believe in Him: "Believe in Me, I do not do the same things, but He will do more than these, as I am going to My Father and I will ask Him for you, so that your joy will be filled Hitherto you have not squandered anything in My name, now ask and receive ... "So, your Love for God, whatever you ask the Lord God for, you will accept everything, if only it was for the glory of God or for the benefit of a neighbor, because He also attributes the benefit of a neighbor to His glory, which is why He says: "All, even to the one who is one of the least of these who have created, I have created." So do not have any doubts that the Lord God will not fulfill your requests, as long as they only relate to the glory of God, or to the benefits and edification of neighbors. But even if for your own need, or benefit, or benefit you needed something, and even so quickly and obediently the Lord God will send you, if only an extreme need and necessity insisted on that, for the Lord loves Those who love Him: the Lord is good to all, but He gives and gives to those who do not call His name and His mercies in all His works, but He will do the will of those who fear Him, and he will hear their prayer, and all their counsel will fulfill, the Lord will fulfill all your requests. Beware of one thing, your Love for God, so as not to ask the Lord for what you will not have an urgent need. The Lord will not deny you even that for your Orthodox faith in Christ the Savior, for the Lord will not betray the rod of the righteous to the lot of sinners and will unswervingly do the will of His servant David, however, he will exact from him why he disturbed Him unnecessarily, asked Him for that, which could be very convenient to do without.

So, your love for God, I have told you everything now and have shown in practice that the Lord and the Mother of God through me, with God Seraphim, deigned to tell and show you. Come in peace. May the Lord and the Mother of God be with you always, now and forever and forever and ever. Amen. Come in peace! ..

And throughout this conversation, from the very time when Father Seraphim's face brightened up, this vision did not stop, and everything from the beginning of the story and until now he spoke to me, being in the same position. The ineffable shining of light emanating from him I saw myself, with my own eyes, which I am ready to confirm with my oath.

THE AFTERWORD

This is where the Motovilov manuscript ends. The depth of the meaning of this act of the triumph of Orthodoxy is not my pen to begin to clarify and emphasize, and it does not require a testimony about itself, for it testifies to itself with such indestructible power that its significance cannot be belittled by the gossip of this world.

But if anyone could see the form in which I got the papers of Motovilov, which kept in their hiding places this precious testimony of the God-pleasing life of the holy Elder! Dust, jackdaws and pigeon feathers bird droppings, scraps of completely uninteresting accounts, accounting, agricultural statements, copies of petitions, letters from outsiders - all in one heap, mixed with one another, and only weighs 4 pounds 25 pounds. All the papers are dilapidated, scribbled in a fluent and so illegible handwriting that I was simply horrified: where can I figure it out ?!

Sorting out this chaos, bumping into all sorts of obstacles - especially handwriting was a stumbling block for me - I remember almost succumbing to despair. And here, in the midst of all this waste paper, no, no, and a spark in the darkness, a hardly disassembled phrase will flash: "Father Seraphim told me ..." What did you say? What do these unsolved hieroglyphs hide in themselves? I was desperate.

I remember that in the evening of a whole day of stubborn and fruitless work, I could not bear it and prayed: "Father Seraphim! Is that why you gave me the opportunity to receive the manuscripts of your" servant "from such a distance as Diveyev, so that they could be returned to oblivion without being analyzed?"

From the heart, it must have been my exclamation. The next morning, starting to sort out the papers, I immediately found this manuscript and immediately got the ability to parse Motovilov's handwriting. It is not difficult to imagine my joy, and how significant the words of this manuscript seemed to me: "But I think," Father Seraphim answered me, "that the Lord will help you to keep this in your memory forever, for otherwise His goodness would not have bowed so instantly to my humble prayer. and would not have anticipated listening to God Seraphim so soon, especially since it was not for you alone it was given to you to understand this, but through you for the whole world ... "

For seventy long years this treasure lay hidden in attics among various forgotten rubbish. He should have gotten into print, and when? Just before the glorification of the holy relics of the one whom the Orthodox is, the Church begins to ask:

"Reverend Father Seraphim! Pray to God for us!"

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Conversation Venerable Seraphim with Nikolai Alexandrovich Motovilov (1809-1879) about the goal of Christian life took place in November 1831 in the forest, not far from the Sarov monastery, and was recorded by Motovilov. The manuscript was discovered 70 years later in the papers of Nikolai Alexandrovich's wife, Elena Ivanovna Motovilova. We publish the text of the conversation in the 1903 edition with some abbreviations. The apparent simplicity of the conversation is deceiving: the teachings are delivered by one of the greatest saints of the Russian Church, and the listener is the future ascetic of the faith, healed through the prayer of Seraphim from incurable disease... It was N.A. Before his death, the Monk Seraphim bequeathed to Motovilov material care for his Diveyevo orphans, about the founding of the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery.

"It was on Thursday. The day was cloudy. There was a quarter of snow on the ground, and a rather thick snow pellet was poured from above, when Father Seraphim began a conversation with me on a nearby hayfield, near his nearest desert, opposite the Sarovka river, by the mountain, coming close to its shores.

He placed me on the stump of a tree he had just cut down, and he himself squatted against me.

The Lord revealed to me, - said great old man- that in your childishness you zealously wanted to know what the purpose of our Christian life is, and you have repeatedly asked many great spiritual persons about this ...

I must say here that since the age of 12 this thought has persistently disturbed me, and I really addressed many of the clergy with this question, but the answers did not satisfy me. The elder did not know this.

But no one, - continued Father Seraphim, - has definitely told you about this. They told you: go to church, pray to God, do the commandments of God, do good - this is the goal of Christian life for you. And some were even indignant at you because you were busy with not godly curiosity, and told you: do not seek higher yourself. But they didn’t speak as they should. Here I, poor Seraphim, will explain to you now what this goal really is.

Prayer, fasting, vigilance and all other Christian deeds, no matter how good they are in themselves, but doing only them is the goal of our Christian life, although they serve as the necessary means to achieve it. The true goal of our Christian life is to acquire the Holy Spirit of God. Fasting, and vigilance and prayer, and charity, and every good deed done for Christ's sake are the means for acquiring the Holy Spirit of God. Note, father, that a good deed done only for Christ's sake brings us the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Yet, for the sake of Christ, what is done, although good, does not represent a reward in the life of the century to come, and in this life it does not give the grace of God either. That is why the Lord Jesus Christ said: everyone who does not gather with Me, he scatters. A good deed cannot be called otherwise than gathering, for although it is not done for Christ's sake, it is nevertheless good. Scripture says: fear God in every tongue and do righteousness, it is pleasing to Him. And, as we see from the sacred narrative, this do the righteousness is so pleasing to God that to Cornelius the centurion, who feared God and did righteousness, an angel of the Lord appeared during his prayer and said: send to Joppa to Simon Usmar, there you have found Peter and that one speaks the verbs of the eternal life, in them you and your whole house will be saved. So, the Lord uses all his divine means to provide such a person with an opportunity for his good deeds, and he will not lose the reward in the life of the Divine Life. But for this it is necessary to begin here with the right faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came to the world of sinners to save ... But this is what limits this pleasure to God of good deeds that are not done for Christ's sake: our Creator provides the means for their implementation. It remains for a person to either implement them or not. That is why the Lord said to the Jews: if they had not seen it faster, they had no quicker sin. Now speak, we see, and your sin remains on you. Take advantage of a man, like Cornelius, the pleasure of God of his work, not done for Christ's sake, and believing in His Son, then this kind of work will be imputed to him, as if done for Christ's sake and only for faith in Him. Otherwise, a person has no right to complain that his good did not go into business. This never happens only when doing some kind of good for Christ's sake, for the good that was done for His sake, not only in the life of the next century, the crown of righteousness intercedes, but also in this life fills a person with the grace of the Holy Spirit, and moreover, as it is said: not in God gives the Holy Spirit, the Father loves the Son and gives everything in His hand.

So it is, your love of God! Thus, the true goal of our Christian life consists in the acquisition of this Spirit of God, and prayer, vigil, fasting, alms and other virtues for Christ's sake are only means to acquire the Spirit of God.

What about acquisition? - I asked Father Seraphim. “I don’t understand this.

Acquisition is the same as acquisition, - he answered me, - after all, you understand what acquiring money means. So it is all the same the acquisition of the Spirit of God. After all, you, your Love for God, understand what acquisition is in the worldly sense? The purpose of the mundane life of ordinary people is to acquire, or profit, money, and among the nobles, in addition, to receive honors, distinctions and other awards for state services. The acquisition of the Spirit of God is also capital, but only gracious and eternal ... "

All texts are taken from the book:

NOTES of Nikolai Alexandrovich MOTOVILOV,
attendants Mother of God and the reverend Seraphim

By the blessing Holy Patriarch Moscow and All Russia ALEXIA II

Editorial board of the series: Father Superior Peter (Pigol), Priest Georgy Pavlovich, Stepashkin V.A., Shkatov M.E.
Reviewer Hegumen Peter (Pigol)
Editor Astafieva G.P.
The publishers thank the slaves of God Alexei and Galina for their invaluable help in publishing this book.

"Father's house"
Moscow 2005

Conversation of the Monk Seraphim of Sarov with N. A. Motovilov "On the purpose of Christian life" (after the latter is lengthy).

Text of the Conversation - by edition : On the purpose of the Christian life. Conversation of St. Seraphim of Sarovsky with Nikolai Alexandrovich Motovilov. Sergiev Posad, 1914. Processing of the manuscript and notes: priest. N.P<отапов>.

From the Preface of priest. N. Potapova:
In the papers that Elena Ivanovna inherited after her deceased husband, The Conversation was preserved in two editions, somewhat in the completeness of the content and in some individual expressions differing from each other, although in essence they are completely consonant ... by indicating only in parentheses some of those verses and chapters of the holy books of the Bible, the words of which are quoted by the Monk Seraphim, not always, we note by the way. Literally, and sometimes in aggregate from different places Bible.

NS it was in the last days of November 1831, during Tuesday, when I, N. A. Motovilov, stood at the Vespers in the Cathedral of the Life-Giving Source in the Sarov Hermitage. One of the orphans of Father Seraphim Melnichnaya of his maiden community (about which I still did not know what kind of community it was) came up to me - it was Evdokia Efremovna Lomasovskaya, and asked me: “Is it you, father, will you be a lame master, whose father is our Father Seraphim healed from illnesses about two months ago? " (That healing was on the 5th day of September 1831). I answered: “I; what do you want? " - "Yes, Father Seraphim sent me for you and told me to bring you to him."

I left Vespers and immediately went to Father Seraphim, and he, meeting me on the porch of his cell in the Sarov Monastery and leading me into the vestibule, said to me: Diveeva. So do not be upset, father, that at first I will deal with them a little, and then I will talk to you; and meanwhile you will sit here as long as you sit. " Having said this, he pushed me a three-step ladder, onto which, when they stand, they open views by the stoves in each cells, according to the Sarov custom, they go out into the vestibule in front of two cells.

I was about to sit down on the lower step, but the priest said to me: "No, sit up higher." I moved to the second one, but he said to me: “No, your Godliness, if you please, sit on the very top step,” and, having made me sit down, he added: “Well, sit here and wait, when I, having talked with the orphans, will go out to you".

A little later, when Father Seraphim took his orphans into his cell (and there was their Praskovia Stepanovna, the then senior of the Melnichnaya Diveevskaya community, Elena Vasilievna Manturova and Irina Semyonovna), came out to me from another cell closest to the entrance of the cell, Father Pavel * and, despite my excuses, persuaded me to visit his cell, and began to give me various instructions that seemed to relate to spiritual life, but in fact had the goal, by teaching the enemy, to weaken my love and faith in the merits of the great elder Seraphim before God.

* Father Seraphim's cell attendant

I felt sad, and with sorrow I said: “I was stupid, Father Pavel, that, having obeyed your convictions, I entered your cell. Father Abbot Niphont, the great servant of God and the gift of insight from God, is vouchsafed, but even here I do not come to the Sarov desert for him, although I respect him very much for his shrine, which is tangibly visible to me as a sinner, but only for one Father Seraphim, of whom I think that even in antiquity there were few such holy saints of God! Who are you that impose on me with your instructions, while I guess you don't even know the way of God yourself. Forgive me, I am sorry that I obeyed you and went to your cell. " With that, I left him and sat down again on the top step of the stairs.

As I later heard from Father Pavel, Father Seraphim menacingly and for a long time reprimanded him how he dared to call me to him and how he dared to instruct me. And here are the exact words of the great elder, according to the story of Father Paul himself:

“Look here; he was a worldly man and did not learn spiritual wisdom from anyone, but how reasonably he replied that he was not coming here to Sarov for Abbot Niphont (although he is a holy man and a great righteous man), but only for one poor Seraphim. How are you
can you tell him that you, too, can say a word to him for his benefit? Never again dare to call anyone to you; it's none of your business to talk with those who expect the wretched Seraphim to speak and come to Sarov. And I myself, poor Seraphim, do not tell them my own thing, but what the Lord will please me to open for their edification. And you're here with your speeches! After all, for every idle word we will repay the Lord! Know yourself, and never dare to teach anyone. The Lord did not give you this gift; after all, it is not given to people for nothing, but for their merits before our Lord our God and according to His special mercy and Divine look on people and His Holy Providence. "

I wrote it in here for the memory and edification of those who cherish both a little speech and a barely noticeable character trait of the great Elder Seraphim.

When Father Seraphim talked with his orphans from Diveyevo, he introduced me to his cell and talked with me about different subjects before the salvation of the soul and before the life of the world (but filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit) subjects.
Everything now does not come to my mind at the present time, but this is what in particular has never left my memory.

During the conversation with me the great elder in his cell, I saw many lamps in his cell, and especially numerous heaps of lighted wax and large and small candles in front of the images on different round trays, on which from the wax that had melted and dripped from the candles for many years, like mounds of wax were formed ... I also think: why is Father Seraphim lighting up such a huge number of candles and lamps, so that from the warmth of the fiery he had an intolerable heat in his cell? Although I did not say a single word to him about that, but only thought so as he immediately, as if suppressing my thoughts, began to say to me:

“And why do I light so many lamps and candles in front of the holy icons of God, you want to know. This is why: I have many people who are zealous towards me and who do good to me and my orphans. Here they bring oil and candles to me and ask me to pray for them, then when I begin my rule, I remember them once from the beginning, and since I am in many names in every place during my rule, where I should, they are still repeated I can no longer, because I would not have had enough time to complete my rule; then I put all these lights for them as a sacrifice to the Lord - for some one light, and for others I put one more light for a few people, for others I keep the constant lamps warm before the Lord, and where it should be remembered according to the rule, so I say: " Lord, remember all those people of Thy servants, for their souls I kindled You poor these candles and candils. "

And that this is not my, poor Seraphim, a human invention or so simple, not based on anything Divine, my own zeal, then I will give you the words of Divine Scripture for your support. The Bible says that Moses heard the voice of the Lord saying to him: Moses, Moses, call your brother Aaron, let him kindle a censer before Me in days and nights. – this is more pleasing to me before me and the sacrifice is favorable to me is. So, your love for God, for which the Holy Church of God has accepted there is in the custom to kindle both in churches and in the houses of faithful Christians a kandil, or lamps, in front of the holy icons of the Lord and the Mother of God, and the holy angels of God, and the holy people of God, who pleased the Lord To God. And this is why the lights are kindled, and what do these lights mean? Then, in this case, the firewoods are marked with lights, with which the priests were obliged at the tabernacle and in the temple of God to maintain an eternally unquenchable fire, constantly putting firewood to it. So and so, your Bogolyu bie, remembering the wretched Seraphim, you yourself create. "

After talking about various subjects for a long time, Father Seraphim told me and Father Gury, the Sarov hotel, the next day, after early Mass, to go to him in a nearby desert.

I also remember the following. I often thought that monks in monasteries were taking too much sleep, but I never told anyone this. When I was with Fr. Seraphim, he suddenly asked me: "What do you think, your love of God, is it enough for a monk to sleep six hours a day?" I answered: “Why then did they go to the monastery if they would sleep so much? Enough for them to sleep and four hours! " “But, your love for God, if a monk who has weak powers by nature, forgive me, as you will say, will sleep for four hours, and on the next day he will be weak, irritable with the brethren and is not capable of any spiritual work, then will it be good? I think that it is better to let such a monk sleep for six or seven hours, so that he will get up vigorous and be able to do the work of God. I say it this way, your love of God; the powers of the monks are different, so I say so that you have an accurate spiritual reasoning. "

The whole night we talked about him, Father Seraphim, almost not sleeping for joy, with this friend of mine (now Hieromonk Georgy from Nikolayevskaya Berkovskaya, which is the Vladimir province of the Vyaznikovskiy district of the desert, as a builder). The next day we went to see Father Seraphim, in his nearest desert, without drinking or eating anything, and spent the whole day until late at night at the door of this nearby desert.

Thousands of people came to the great elder Seraphim, and everyone left without receiving his blessing, and after standing a little in his senka, they returned back. About seven or eight people stayed with us to wait for the end of that day and for Father Seraphim's departure from the wilderness; they decided with us to wait for the opening of the doors of the great old man. Finally, they too, embarrassed in spirit, left, and even Father Guriy himself - late in the evening - was very embarrassed and said to me: “It's already dark, father, and the horse she got hungry, and the boy coachman probably wants to eat (and this boy was then novice Simeon from the drawing-room, and now he is the hieromonk of the Sarov desert Savvaty); how would it be if we go later and the animals would not attack us! " But I said: “No, Father Gury, go back alone if you’re afraid of anything, and even though the animals will tear me to pieces here, I will not leave Father Seraphim’s door; even if I had to die of starvation in their presence, I will nevertheless wait for him, as long as he opens the doors of his holy cell for me! "

And Father Seraphim, quite a bit later, really opened the door of his cell and, turning to me, said: “Your love for God, I called you, but do not excuse me that I did not open the whole day; now is Wednesday, and I am silent; but tomorrow you are welcome; I will be glad to have a sincere conversation with you; but it’s not so early, if you please, favor me, otherwise, having not eaten all day, you have become very exhausted; and so after the late Mass, and having supported yourself with enough food, please come with Fr. Guriy to me; now come and have your fill of food, you are exhausted. " And he began to bless us, beginning with me, everyone who was here, and said to Father Guriy: “So, friend, so, my joy, tomorrow with my lord, please come to me for my neighbor's pazhninka; there you will find me, and now come in peace. "

Then the next day, on Thursday, when Father Guriy and I found Father Seraphim's father in the place of his haymaking field, where a small alder bush grew on the place of the stump on which he then planted me, the great Elder Seraphim began his conversation, planting me on the stump of a tree that was again felled, while he himself squatted down and began his speech as follows:

“Well, your love for God, we will now prolong our conversation. At the present time, due to our almost universal coldness towards the saint's faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and our inattention to the actions of His Divine Providence about us, we have reached the point that we almost do not understand the words of Holy Scripture, for example, used about Adam: the sight of Adam the Lord walking in paradise, and stuff like that; for example, the apostle says:go to Achaia, and the Spirit of God does not go with us, let us turn to Macedonia, and the Spirit of God is with us!

Here are some who say: this passage is incomprehensible, because could the apostles really feel the Holy Spirit with them so clearly? Is there any de error here? But there was no mistake, your Love for God, and there is no one, for the holy apostles really always delighted to see the Holy Spirit with them, and not otherwise, but only according to such a clear direction from the Holy Spirit, always and about everything obvious from the Holy Spirit. All this stems from our complete inattention to the work of our salvation, which is why it turns out that we and many other words of Holy Scripture are not acceptable in the sense that they should be. And this is all because we do not seek the grace of God, we do not allow it to dwell in our souls, and therefore we do not have enlightenment from above from the Lord God sent into the hearts of people who are hungry and thirsty for the righteousness of God with all their hearts.

For example, many people interpret that when the Bible says that I breathe in God the breath of life in the person of Adam, primordial and created by Him from dust, then it seemed that this meant that before that there was no soul and spirit of men in Adam, as the Holy Church sings: "the souls and souls of the righteous will praise Thee, O Lord," and the human spirit breathed in, they say, then the Lord God in the person of Adam and through this breathing in the breath of life!

But this is groundless and incorrectly asserted, for the Lord God created Adam from the dust of the earth in the same composition as the holy Apostle Paul states: may your spirit, soul and body be all perfect at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Thess. 5, 23).

And all these three parts of our nature were created from the dust of the earth, and Adam was not created dead, but an active living being, like other living creatures of God living on earth. But this is the strength that if the Lord God had not breathed into his face the breath of life, that is, the grace of the Lord Holy Spirit, which proceeds from the Father and for the sake of the Son into the world sent, then Adam, no matter how completely surpassed all other God's creatures, as the crown of God's creations on earth, but nevertheless would have remained without the Holy Spirit within himself, into a god-like elevating his dignity, and would have been like all other creatures, even if their flesh, and soul, and their spirit to each according to their kind belonging to those who have, but The Holy Spirit within ourselves to those who have not.

When the Lord God breathed, as it was then said, in the face of Adam the breath of life - from the Lord God the Father, from the Lord God the Son, the Word of God from time immemorial, and from the Lord God the Holy Spirit - collectively from all persons of the Holy Trinity to the whole world breathing and everything his ends in his hand containing, and life-giving all creation of God, then, in the words of Moses, then Adam became a living soul, that is, completely similar to God in everything and such as He, immortal forever, and before that was created not subject to the action of any of the elements created by God, that it was neither drowned by water, nor fire could burn, nor the earth could devour in its abysses, nor could the air be damaged in any way, now to the detriment of our beings, by its action, and everything was subdued to him as a favorite of God, as a king and owner of creation, and everything admired him as the all-perfect crown of God's creations, surpassing all that exists on earth, and on the waters and in the air the creation of God.

And from this breath of life, breathed in the face of Adam from the all-creative lips of the All-Creator and Almighty God, Adam became so delusional that there has never been a man ever since, and it is unlikely that a man on earth will be wiser and more knowledgeable than him; for when the Lord commanded him to bap the names of all creation, he gave each creature such names that signify all the power and all the properties of every creature that it has according to the gift of God.

And by this all-transcending gift of the grace of God, sent down to him, he could see and understand Adam and the Lord walking in paradise, and comprehend all the verbs of His sacred and secret all-creative conversation with him, and the conversation of holy angels, and the language of all animals, and birds, and reptiles living on earth, and everything that is now from us, as from the fallen and sinful, is hidden, but for him before the fall was clear. The same wisdom, and power, and all the other good and holy qualities were given by the Lord God to Eve, having created her no longer from the dust of the earth, but from the rib of Adam.

And so that they could always maintain in themselves all the immortal, grace-filled properties of the breath of life, God planted in the middle of Paradise the tree of life, in the fruits of which he completely enclosed the whole essence and fullness of all the gifts of this Divine His breath, so that Adam and Eve themselves (and if they had not sinned then all their offspring) could, always using the eating of the fruits of the tree of life, maintain not only the eternally life-giving grace of God, but also the immortal eternally youthful fullness of the strength of the flesh and soul, and the spirit, and the everlasting agelessness of their infinitely immortal all-blessed state, even our imagination is currently incomprehensible. When, by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, contrary to the commandment of God, they learned the difference between good and evil and underwent all the disasters that followed the transgression of the commandment of God, they lost this priceless gift of God, so that until the very coming of the God-man Jesus Christ into the world The Spirit of God does not exist in the world, as Jesus is not glorified with us (cf. John 7:39).

However, the actions of the Spirit of God and the qualities of His actions and the signs of His appearances to men were fully and constantly known to the human race. So, for example, to Adam, as well as to Eve, after the fall, many secrets were revealed that were related to the future salvation of the human race, and Cain, in spite of his wickedness and his crime, understood and understood the voice of the grace-filled Divine, albeit accusatory, interview with him. Noah talked to God. Abraham saw the Lord and His day and rejoiced over that. Job, when his friends reproached him for blaspheming the Lord, said nothing to them but: why do you reproach me, that I blaspheme the Lord? but here is the Breath of the Almighty or what is the same Breath of life – in my nostrils, and if I blasphemed the Lord, it would have departed from me for my blasphemy (cf. Job 27, 2 – 3).

A pillar of cloud and fire appeared to the Jews, leading them to the promised land, and this was nothing more than the same grace of the Holy Spirit or the Breath of the Almighty, and they even had special prophetic schools to teach people how to recognize the signs of the manifestation of God or angels from ordinary phenomena occurring in nature.

Simeon the God-Receiver, the Godfathers Joachim and Anna and many countless servants of God were constantly diverse (not in a dream and not adorable), but in the presence of Divine appearances, voices, revelations, obviously by miraculous events justified and could not be disputed by the pagans, because from among them God found people chosen by Him, which, for example, were the prophetess Sibyls, that is, virgins, and therefore, according to the purity of their virginity, which was preserved, although for an unknown God, but still for God the Creator of the universe, they could be rewarded with the influx of the Holy Spirit and His Divine revelations. Likewise, the pagan philosophers, who, although they wandered in the darkness of Divine ignorance, but, seeking the truth, beloved by God, could be, by this already God-loving search for it, not innocent of the Spirit of God, for it is said: the Gentiles who do not know God by nature do what is lawful and do what is pleasing to the Lord God through this; and the Lord loves the truth so much that He Himself proclaimed about it by His Spirit:truth from the earth ascended, and truth came from heaven.

So this is how in the Jewish people, the holy, dear to God, people, and in the pagans, ignorant of the Lord, the knowledge of God was still preserved, that is, a clear and reasonable understanding of how the Lord God the Holy Spirit acts in people and how and by what external and internal sensations can be ascertained that this works in usThe Lord God is the Holy Spirit, not the charm of the enemy. And it was all this way before the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ into the world, and without this human understanding of the actions of the Holy Spirit, preserved in the human race, there would be no way for people to know exactly whether the fruit promised to Adam and Eve, the Seed of the Woman, came into the world. who had erase the head of the serpent.

But here is Simeon the God-Receiver, saved by the Holy Spirit, after he was foretelling to him in the 65th year of his life the secrets of the ever-virgin conception and birth of the Most Pure Virgin Mary, having lived by the grace of the Holy Spirit for more than 300 years, then at the 365th year of his life he spoke clearly in the temple of the Lord that he had perceptibly learned by the gift of the Holy Spirit that this is Himself, that very Christ the Savior of the world, about the above-natural conception from the Holy Spirit and whose birth to him 300 years ago was foreshadowed by the Angel. And so Saint Anna the Prophetess, the daughter of Fanuil, who served for 80 years from her widowhood in the temple of God and by the gifts of God's grace for a righteous, pure and grace-filled servant of God known, announced that it is indeed He who is the Messiah promised to the world, the true Christ God and Man, the King of Israel, who came to save Adam.

When He, our Lord Jesus Christ, deigned to complete the whole work of salvation, then, blowing on the apostles, resumed the breath of life lost by Adam, and bestowed upon them the same Adamic grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God. But this is not enough - He said: they do not have it, but He goes to the Father; If He does not go, then the Spirit of God will not come into the world; If He goes to the Father, then He will send Him into the world, and He, the Comforter, will instruct them and all those who follow their teachings into all truth and will remember everything for them, even He spoke to them still existing in peace with them (cf. John 14 , 26; 16, 7, 13, etc.). This has already been promised to them grace to grace. And so on the day of Pentecost He solemnly sent down the Holy Spirit to them in a stormy breath, in the form of tongues of fire, on each of them who sat down and entered them, and filled them with the power of fiery Divine grace, breathing dewy and joyfully acting in souls who partake of Her power and actions.

And it is about this very fire-inspired grace of the Holy Spirit, when it is given to us all faithful of Christ in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, sacredly imprinting with chrismation the most important places of the Holy Church of God indicated in our flesh, as its eternal guardian, it is said: "The seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit." And on what, your God-love, do we put our seals, if only on the vessels that store some precious thing that we value highly?

What, then, what can be higher than everything in the world and what is more precious than the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are sent down to us from above in the Sacrament of Baptism? For this baptismal grace is so great and so necessary for a person, so life-giving that even a heretic will not be taken away from a person until his death, that is, until the time designated from above by the Providence of God for a person's lifelong probation on earth - what is he will be good and what he will be able to accomplish in this God-given period, with the means given to him from above for salvation.

And if we had never sinned after our Baptism, we would have remained saints, grace-filled, God-bearing, blameless and from all defilement of the flesh and spirit, taken out by the saints of God.

But the trouble is that, when we succeed in age, we do not succeed in grace, in the mind of God, as our Lord Jesus Christ succeeded in that, but on the contrary, being corrupted, little by little we lose the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God and we become in many different ways by sinful and sinful people.

But when someone is agitated by the wisdom of God, seeking our salvation, bypassing every kind and seeking, will someone not dare for her sake to morning for God and vigil for the sake of gaining his eternal salvation, then, having listened to her voice, it is necessary to resort to the true repentance in all his sins. and to the creation of the opposite of the sins of the virtues, and through the virtues the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, acting within us and within us, establishing the Kingdom of God, according to the word of God: within you is the Kingdom of God (cf. Luke 17:21); and it is needy, and needy women do not delight (cf. Matt. 11, 12); that is, those people who, despite the sinful bonds that bind them and do not allow their violence and excitement to new sins, come to God with perfect repentance for torture with him (according to His own word:come – and if your sins are as scarlet, then as snow I will whiten them (cf. Isa 1:18), despising the entire strength of these sinful bundles, they are forced to break them, - such people then really appear before the Face of God, more than snow, whitened by His grace, as the holy secretary John the Theologian once saw them in white clothes, that is, clothes of justification and "dates in their hands"(Apoc. 7, 9) , that is, a sign of victory, singing a wonderful song to God:Alleluia. To the beauty of their singing no one elseimitate you.

The Angel of God told him about them: these are the essence, those who came from great sorrow, and asked for their robe, and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb (cf. Apoc. 7, 14), - begging with sufferings and making them in the communion of the Most Pure and Life-giving Mysteries of the Flesh and Blood of the Lamb, the immaculate and the Most Pure Christ, who was sacrificed before all ages by His own will for the salvation of the world, ever to this day tempered and fragmented, but never more dependent, given to us in eternal and inexhaustible salvation ours, in the direction of the eternal belly, in response is favorable at His Terrible Judgment and in return, much better and many times dearest and all mind highly superior, - that fruit of the tree of life, which our human race, the enemy of men, who fell from heaven, the day-woman wanted to deprive.

Although the enemy the devil deceived Eve, and through her, and Adam fell, the Lord not only promised them, but also gave us a Redeemer in the Seed of the Woman (who trampled death by death) of the Ever-Virgin Mary, wiping out in Himself and erasing the head of the serpent in all human race with His persistent about the fallen human race, by the Mother's everlasting care and invincible, and in His Most Pure Mother for the most desperate sinners by intercession to His Son and our God. Therefore, the Mother of God herself is called the "Plague of Demons", for there is no way for a demon to destroy a person, if only the person himself does not retreat from resorting to the help of the Mother of God.

The Lord revealed to me that you, your love of God, with early years introduced by the Providence of God into the circle of spiritual people and many great persons, even bishops, and repeatedly asked: "What is the purpose of a Christian life?" But they did not explain this to you, and they were even angry with you and said that you were busy with not godly curiosity, and incorrectly quoted the words of the Holy Scriptures to you, saying: do not seek the higher yourself! A this happened because they wanted to hide their spiritual ignorance through that spiritual ignorance and did not truly tell you: “Go to church, pray to God, do the commandments of God, do good - this is the goal of Christian life for you”. But they didn’t do it the way they should, they explained it to you. The goal of Christian life is to acquire the Spirit of God, andthis is the purpose of life for every Christian living spiritually.

The purpose of life of worldly ordinary people is to acquire or acquire money, from the nobles, in addition, to receive honors, distinctions and other awards forstate services.

The acquisition of the Spirit of God is also capital, but only gracious and eternal, and it, like money, bureaucratic and temporary, is acquired in almost the same ways, very similar to each other. God the Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, likens our life to a marketplace, and calls our life's work on earth a purchase and says to all of us: Bathe, until I come, and redeeming time, as the days are deceiving the essence; that is, buy time to receive heavenly goods through earthly goods.

I, your love of God, come from the flesh of a merchant's rank, and up to 17 years old in Kursk, by the grace of God, I traded; so we tried, sometimes, to trade mainly in the goods that brought us more profit. Not a good merchant who buys a lot of goods and sells them anyhow, but he is the best merchant who, no matter how much he bought goods, bought them on time and cheaply, but sold them dearly and made up capital through this; then again, with this capital, he will buy new goods in the same way and dissolve to the point that he can give up trade and, having put the capital in a pawnshop, will live on interest alone, but even here everything will get richer.

It is also necessary to reason about eternal riches, about the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God. And I will tell your God-love: fasting, vigil, prayer, virginity and all the other virtues done for Christ's sake, no matter how good they are in themselves, but they alone are not the purpose of our Christian life and not then we were born, so that just create them; but the goal of our life is the very grace of the Spirit of God that they bring to us, and it is in the acquisition, or in the profit, which alone (acquired through them) is the goal of Christian life.

Note that it is only for Christ's sake that a virtue done bears the fruit of the Holy Spirit, for for Christ's sake the Holy Spirit is present into the world. Yet even though it is good, so, as they say, what is done for good, and not for Christ's sake, does not bring us the grace of the Holy Spirit (for everything that is not of faith is sin). Although such good deeds, in essence of their goodness, cannot be called a sin, and therefore they are pleasing to God, for everyone, loving God and doing righteousness, is pleasing to Him; but still it is said:Love God but not goodness alone: here, in commemoration of this pleasantness to God of good deeds, the Lord sends messengers to such people who will show them the way of God: they will walk along this path well, their good will be appreciated and the Gift of the Holy Spirit will be given to them; but they will not go, although God, according to His justice, will not deprive them of the reward for good, but will only reward them with only temporary blessings, but he does not give them eternal blessings, for the latter are given only for the sake of Christ our Lord.

So a messenger was sent to the centurion Cornelius and said to him: Thy prayers and alms ascending before God, send men to Joppa and call on Simon, who is Peter's name; this one wanders at a certain Simon's sleep ... that one speaks the verbs of the eternal belly, in which you and your whole house will be saved (cf. Acts 10, 4 – 6) .

So this is how it is done, not just; while for the sake of Christ the virtues done, even without outside intermediaries, the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God is directly given to us; so that it’s not a matter of virtues, but of the fruits of the Holy Spirit given to us through them.

Some of the interpreters of the Holy Scriptures say about the oil that the foolish virgins lacked, that the oil was good deeds, which they supposedly lacked; but such an understanding is a misinterpretation. How was it that they lacked virtues when, although they are holy fools, they are nevertheless called virgins? And virginity is the highest of all virtues virtue, and if they had a lack of other good deeds, then it alone would be sufficient for all other virtues as a substitute; virginity is a state of equal angels.

Others say that they lacked the oil of mercy and mercy; but this is hardly the case. I, poor man, think that it was the grace of the Holy Spirit of God that was the only thing lacking, about the acquisition of which, as the only goal of Christian life, and I have been talking with you for so long. Creating virtues, these virgins, out of their spiritual foolishness, believed that this was only a Christian matter, in order to do some virtues.

I have done good, so I have done the work of God; and there I don't even care about anything, that is, whether even the slightest grace of the Holy Spirit was received through the created virtue, the creator of it did not care about it. Therefore, by the time the groom arrived at the wedding temple, they saw that they did not have or very little oil. About such lifestyles, based only on one creation of virtues, without careful testing, whether they bring and exactly how much they bring the grace of God, and it is said in fatherly books that "they have a way, think to be good at the beginning, but its ends are in the bottom hellish ".

Saint Anthony says about such virgins in his letters to the monks:
Many monks and virgins, having reached great degrees, nevertheless, about the difference in the wills acting in man, do not have a clear idea and do not know that three wills are at work in us: the first is God's all-perfect and salvific, the second is his own human, if not harmful, then not saving, and the third - demonic - harmful. And this third enemy will teaches a person either not to do any virtues, or to do them out of vanity and for one good, and not for the sake of Christ. Our second will of our own teaches us to do everything to please our lusts, not paying attention to the grace acquired through doing good.

But the first and all-saving will of God consists only in doing good and virtue solely for the acquisition of the Holy Spirit as for an inexhaustible treasure, eternal and worthy of being appreciated by nothing forever, which is the oil that was lacking among the holy virgins who did not turn to gaining his not the slightest attention, but content with only counting the virtues they apparently did. That is why these virgins are called holy fools, since they have forgotten about the fruit of the necessary virtues, that is, about the grace of the Holy Spirit, without which there is no salvation and no one can be, for Every soul lives by the Holy Spirit and rises in purity, brightens up the Trinity Unity with the sacred mystery that dwells in our souls.

And this is the very possession of His Almighty in our souls, coexistence with our spirit of His Trinity All-Creative Unity and is bestowed upon us only through the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, which prepares in our souls the throne of God with our spirit of coexistence, according to the immutable word of the Lord: I will dwell in them and I will resemble, and I will be in God for them, and those Mi will be in My people (cf. Lev. 26.12; 2 Cor. 6.16).

This is the oil, with an excess of which among the wise virgins the lamps of souls could burn with light, so that they also began to wait for the bridegroom who had come in midnight with burning lamps and entered the bridal chamber rejoicing; and the holy fools, who saw that their lamps were extinguished, although they went to the marketplace, and buy oil, did not have time to return in time, for the doors were already closed.

Marketplace is our life; the doors of the bridal chamber, shut and not allowing them to the bridegroom, is human death; the wise and foolish virgins are Christian souls; oil is the grace of the Holy Spirit, received through good deeds within our nature, to transform it from corruption to incorruption, from spiritual death to spiritual life, from darkness to light and from our being once a den, where passions were sometimes like cattle and beasts were tied to the manger of the den, that is, to our desires, – transforms our whole being into the temple of the Divine - into the luminous palace of eternal joy in Christ Jesus our Lord, Creator and Deliverer and eternal Bridegroom of our souls; may He Himself vouchsafe to appear to us sinners with an abundance of oil in a voice of joy.

So, every virtue, done for Christ's sake, gives the blessings of the Holy Spirit, but most of all it gives them prayer; for, for example, you wanted to go to church for the Divine service, but either there is no church, or the service has ceased; you would want to give alms to a beggar, but either there is no beggar or nothing to give; would you want to maintain virginity or chastity, but due to your addition or due to the efforts of the enemy's intrigues and due to your own powerlessness and human weakness (in resisting the intrigues of demonic) there is no strength to resist them; would have wanted to create some other virtue for Christ's sake, but either they had no strength, or they could not find an opportunity.

And this does not apply to prayer: there is always an opportunity for it for the rich and the poor, and the noble and the simple, and the strong and the weak, and the healthy and the sick, and the righteous and sinner. Here is an example for us even left in the Holy Scriptures, when, at the request of a desperate mother, who had lost her only begotten son, abducted by death, a harlot wife who got in her way, not even cleansed of sin, cried out to the Lord: for the sake of a mother desperately grieving for her son, but in Thy mercy and omnipotence, Christ, firmly confident God, resurrect, O Lord, her son! " - and the Lord raised him up. That's it, your love of God,prayer most of all brings the Spirit of God, and it is most convenient for everyone to correct it.

So you consider it great happiness to talk with the poor Seraphim, being sure that he is not deprived of the grace of the Lord, then what about the Lord Himself, the inexhaustible Source of all goodness, both heavenly and earthly? And by prayer we are rewarded with talking with Him, the All-good All-Creator, the Lord God and Savior of our souls.

But even here it is necessary to pray only until God the Holy Spirit descends on us in the measures of His heavenly grace known to Him, and when it already takes pleasure in visiting us, then it is necessary to stop praying; for what else is there to pray to Him:

"To the Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Soul of Truth, Who is everywhere and fulfill everything, the Treasure of the good and life to the Giver, come and dwell in us ..." calling on His Holy Name in truth, that is, in order to meet Him with love, the Comforter of our souls? I will explain this to you, your Godliness, with a simple example: if only you would invite me to your house and I would, at your call, come to you and would like to talk with you, but you would still invite me: mercy -Well, please, come to me, - then, against my will, I should have said: what is it, out of the mind, or what, came out? I came to him, but he still calls me.

So it concerns the Lord God the Holy Spirit; that's why it is said: abolish and understand that I am God; that is, I will appear, and I will appear to everyone who believes in Me and calls Me in truth, and I will converse with him, as I once conversed with Adam, with Abraham and Jacob, and with my other servants.

Many interpreters of the Holy Scriptures say that this abolition refers to the affairs of the world, that is, during a prayer conversation with God, it is necessary to abolish from the affairs of the world. But I will tell you according to Bose that although it is really necessary to abolish from them during prayer, but when, with the omnipotent power of faith and prayer, the Lord God the Holy Spirit deigns to visit us and comes to us in the fullness of His ineffable goodness, then it is also necessary from prayer be abolished, for the soul speaks when it is in prayer or creates prayer, and with the invasion of the Holy Spirit we must be in complete silence in order to hear clearly and intelligibly all the words of the eternal life, which He then deigns to proclaim to us.

And, moreover, one must be in complete sobriety of both soul and spirit and in chastity. purity of the flesh, as it was once upon Mount Horeb and the Israelites were told not to touch their wives before the appearance of God in Sinai for three days, for our God is Fire devouring all unclean things and nothing can enter into communion with Him from the filth of flesh and spirit ...

So this is how virtue and if you please "trade spiritually - to produce spiritual trade, which will bring you a great profit of the grace of the Holy Spirit, - and, collecting the capital of grace-filled surplus, put them in the eternal pawnshop, God's, from immaterial percentages, and not by four or six to a hundred, but a hundred per one spiritual ruble and innumerable more than those who increase our spiritual capital.

Distribute the gifts of this grace of the Holy Spirit to those who demand, following the example of a lit candle, which itself shines, but also other lights, without diminishing its own fire, kindles. And if this is true of the earthly fire, then what about the fire of the Divine grace of the Holy Spirit? For, for example, the wealth of the earth when it is distributed becomes scarce, while the wealth of God's grace, the more it is distributed, the more it multiplies in the one who distributes it. The Lord Himself deigned to say to the Samaritans: Drink from sowing water, he will thirst for packs, and drink from water, I will give him south, he will not thirst for ever; but the water, south of I will give him, will be in him an eternal fountain flowing into the stomach (cf. John 4: 13-14).

So I wish, your love for God, that you yourself would acquire this ever-inexhaustible source of God's grace and always reason to yourself whether you are found in the Spirit of God or not! If in the Spirit of God, then God is blessed; there is nothing to grieve about, even now at the Last Judgment of Christ, for in what I find, in that I judge. If not, then it is necessary to analyze why and for what reason did the Lord the Holy Spirit deign to leave us? And again we must seek and seek Him and not lag behind until the sought-after Lord God the Holy Spirit is found and will again be with us by His grace. Those who drive Him away from us, our enemies, must be attacked so long as their dust is taken, as the holy prophet King David said: will be able to, they will fall under my feet "(Ps. 17, 38 – 39). This is how I wish you were always in the Spirit of God. "

When I (Motovilov) asked him, the great elder Seraphim: "How do I and why exactly do I know that I am in the Spirit of God or not?" - then he, laying his hands on my shoulders, said: “Yes, behold, your love for God, we are both now with you in the fullness of the Spirit of God. Why don't you look me, poor Seraphim, in the eye? " I answered: "I cannot, because lightning glows from them, and my eyes ache, and I cannot look at you, Father Seraphim, because you are brighter than the sun." And he said to me: "Why, there is no sun and the day is cloudy, how is it?" I answered: “I know that there is no sun and that it is a cloudy day, but your face has become brighter than the sun and my eyes hurt; this light stabs them, and I cannot look at you. " And he replied, bowing his head over my right ear: "Yes, you yourself are in exactly the same light, who are grace-filled, otherwise you would not have been able to see that on me."
At this time, his face seemed to come out from under the lightning-fast light, and the light remained only around his face, into distant space.

"What do you feel now?" He asked me. "Such a world," I answered, "in my soul that no word can express it." “This is the same world,” Father Seraphim told me, “about which it is said: the peace of God is every mind surpassing (cf. Phil. 4, 7); that is, no human word can express it. This is the world about which the Lord says: "peace ... I give you, not like peace gives, I give you"(John 14:27). What else do you feel? " I answered: "Inexplicable sweetness." And he continued: “This is the very sweetness about which it is said:from fatness to Thy house they will be drunk, and I will fill with a stream of Thy sweetness.

What else do you feel? " And I answered: "Unspoken joy." He continued: "This is the very joy about which it is said:" A wife always gives birth, grief, as if her year is coming: when she gives birth to a child who does not remember sorrow for joy, as if a man was born into the world. "(John 16:21). This is the very joy about which David says: "the bones of the humble will rejoice"(Ps. 50, 10) , which we, the poor, now feel in our bones with you. This is exactly the joy about which the Lord says:in the world you will be in sorrow: when I see you, your heart will rejoice and your joy will not be taken from you (cf. John 16:22).

But no matter how great our present joy is common with you, but all this is only weak is the shadow of that truly inexpressible joy that awaits in the life of the next century those who love the Lord God, when He will appear face to face to them, when their faces will truly and forever and forever be enlightened. more than a thousand suns. That is why the apostle says: now we see only partly, as if in a mirror or fortune-telling, then in reality we will see the Lord face to face, as if He is (cf. 1 Cor. 13.12).

What else do you feel? " I answered: "Unusual warmth." "How warm?" - he asked. I replied: "As in a bath, when they give in to the stove." “But how,” he continued, “is it warm? After all, now is the end of November; winter is standing, and snow is under our feet, and an inch of snow on our heads, and snow is falling, and the wind is blowing; how can it be so warm as in a bath? " And he added: “This, your love for God, therefore, warmth is not in the air, but in ourselves; this is the very warmth about which we speak to the Lord in prayer: "Warm us with the warmth of your Holy Spirit."

And when the Lord gave it, then with this warmth of the All-Holy Spirit of God, saints hermits, hermits for Christ's sake and holy martyrs of God, being warmed, did not freeze in the scum of winter, and in summer she, the most holy grace of God, served them as a pillar of cloudy and heavenly with dew, cooling them down and protecting them from the scorching heat of the sun, or in the very flame of fires and caves that were once kindled by the tormentors of Christianity, it irrigated them with the dew of the Spirit of God and extinguished the cave flame.

She also irrigates those who are suffering from the fire of the irresistibly burning passions of the flesh to those who are suffering for the sake of preserving the virginity, promised to Christ, so that we only do not depart from the Lord and relentlessly hunger and longed to acquire the grace of God saving. So, therefore, this warmth is not in an airy atmosphere, but in the atmosphere of souls, and in our flesh, and in our spirit.

Well, what's the smell from her? He asked me. - Is it the same as in the bath?
No, I answered. - I used to love to dance a lot, and when I was going, during the life of my parent, to a ball, a student at Kazan University, my mother used to spray me with perfume; but that perfume doesn't smell as good as I feel now. "

“What comparison can there be with them? - said Father Seraphim, - that was the perfume extracted from the flowers of the earth, and this is the heavenly fragrance of the All-Holy Spirit of God; so it should be, that it is an uncountable times greater and better fragrance - as from the breath of life of our All-Creator of our God. But for this I asked you in order to judge whether you are so vividly, clearly, intelligibly and perceptibly for your five senses, if you please, so that afterwards you can sensibly and intelligibly and to transfer to others; because this great mercy of God was not shown for me, poor Seraphim. Have you noticed that I did not even have time to cross myself, but only in my soul I prayed to the Lord at and he said to Him: "Lord, show you on him and me, the poor, it is obvious and perceptible how your servants are when you pour out your gifts on them in the fullness of the unapproachable glory of your majesty," and the Lord did not hesitate to fulfill the request my. So this is not for me, but for you it was done, so that you always remember and never forget this great and miraculous His mercy to you. Will you remember this, your love of God? "

I answered: “I don’t know, father, I think it will be difficult to remember exactly such a great miracle of God, now performed on me, a sinner”. - Yes, your love for God, now the words of Christ apply to us, the poor: Many prophets and kings delight to see, even you see, and hear, even you hear, and not able to, Abraham see my day and rejoice (cf. Luke 10:24).

And we have now seen the day of God and we cannot but rejoice in this great day and enlightened with true Divine joy, because we have come true the word of Christ: ‘the essence of those standing here, who do not have a taste of death, still see the Kingdom of God’, which has come in power(Luke 9, 27).

Remember what glory our Lord Jesus Christ was in Tabor! Moses and Elijah talked with Him. His disciple, out of unspeakable joy and not knowing what he was saying, said: good to us, Lord, here to be, let's create a canopy here three – You are one, and Moses and Elijah are one (cf. Matthew 17: 4). This is what the holy apostle said: "There is no kingdom of God for drinking and drinking, but truth and peace and joy about Holy Dus."(Rom. 14:17).

This is precisely the very truth that we are now clearly experiencing; because not in a dream, and not in a ghost, and not in the ecstasy of the sickly human mind, but in fresh memory, in a firm mind and in unshakable feelings, we experience everything, enjoying the joy and peace of the Holy Spirit who gives us this wealth. But in such a blessed state, I, poor Seraphim, have not always been, but only occasionally experienced the same. And many of the saints and saints of God, who lived in the deserts for a whole century and who were even worthy of their relics, did not experience this, as the Lord has now commanded me to tell you.

How can you not remember this? You will always and firmly remember, for it is not for me, but for you, the Lord has delighted to reveal to both of us, so that you yourself, from your own experience, know how the people of God are in the fullness of the Spirit of God;for this is His most extreme fullness, and you cannot stay in such a state for a long time. For example, if the Lord had granted us, the poor, to stay at least a day in this state, then we would not have endured this, and our mortal flesh would have broken, and we would have suffered death, though joyful and gracious, but still; because we would have come to even greater spiritual delight from this joy of ours, we could no longer take any food or drink, and, having spread out from inner sweetness, would have lost temporary life, because in our present fallen state our flesh cannot for a long time to withstand such a power of the influx of the Spirit of God. You will remember this firmly and forever, but it is always impossible to be in this position,and if you feel anything like that in yourself, then know, my joy, that you are in the Spirit of God.

So, according to this exemplary, from the Lord Himself, experience sent down to us, if you please, always argue: whether you will be found in the Spirit of God, or not! Therefore, you will be able to judge others, who to what extent is the grace of God, because the Lord the Holy Spirit is judgmental by the thoughts and thoughts of the heart and is the Giver of that wisdom descending from above, about which the Priest says that it will sit down on the Throne of His Majesty.

But at the same time it is necessary to know that the Lord God the Holy Spirit will deign to leave people for three reasons. Precisely because if they sin. You need to know that all sins are divided mainly into three degrees: the first are lesser and light sins (although they are disagreeable to the goodness of God as the source of all purity and holiness), but nevertheless they do not drive the Spirit of God away from those who have His benevolence, which is why it is said, that the righteous man falls seven times a day, but the Lord does not leave him, that is, he does not deprive him of the grace of the Holy Spirit that he deserves.

But there are the second-gravest sins that separate us from God and drive away His grace from us; but even in these sins, if a person soon and from the soul repents, he can again acquire the grace of God, and it is said: "food that falls will not rise - and only fall, only rise up," everyone who works for Him with all his heart, and about such a person it is said: "Even if he falls, he is not broken, as the Lord strengthens his hand." And in this, in fact, the sense of the Psalmist says: "Blessed, their iniquity remained, and theirs was covered with sin. Blessed is the husband, to him the Lord will not impute sin." (Psalm 31: 1-2) - why did the Apostle Paul deign to say: "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and intelligence of God, for having concluded everything, have mercy on all," that is, there is no sin that overcomes the mercy of God. If we do not hesitate to get up in it immediately and repent of him with a contrite heart and a trembling thought, so that we no longer sin, then not only forgives sins and the Lord returns the old grace, but also gives great grace, and in this way it comes true the word of the apostle thatwherever sin multiplies, that grace abounds (cf. Rom. 5:20).

May we not sin more, however, and may we not allow ourselves to commit great sins, and may we not despair of our falls, if the enemy, having tempted us with something, plunges us into despair. At the same time, it is always necessary to analyze with what kind of sin we angered the goodness of God, that the Holy Spirit has departed from us, and when, having taken over sins, we attack precisely the very sin that offended the Lord God, the Lord God the Holy Spirit touches our conscience and will tell us sacred secret: this is the very sin with which you insulted the All-Creator of God!

And then, soon, with a broken heart and with humility, we should resort to the Lord, and He will forgive us with love and have mercy on us by returning even greater grace for not despairing of God's merciful forgiveness, but through this we defeated the enemy and the murderer of the devil; and the Lord will honor the crowns of heaven for this victory. And the more there is a struggle, and at least even defeats, and then similar victories - through repentance and complete cleansing from all sinful filth with the Most Pure and Life-giving Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ, - the greater and most numerous and most glorious crowns of heavenly fighters and conquerors in the life of the future. centuries will be rewarded. So these are two reasons why the Lord God the Holy Spirit departs from us with a visible and tangible presence for the sin that was with us.

But there is a third reason and, one might say, an unreasonable reason why the grace of the All-Holy Spirit will sometimes leave even a God-bearing man. And this is already allowed from the Lord God Himself to test this only people who are extremely strengthened in the grace of God, as an extraordinary feat for extraordinary and rewards for the same as it was for the Lord Jesus Christ Himself from His Father God who was allowed when on the Cross, His Divinity dwelt completely dispassionate, that is, who did not feel the sufferings of His flesh (the very deified flesh, and the deified soul, and the deified Spirit of Christ did not sense at all the suffering that was dying in human nature), the Divine Sufferer involuntarily deigned to cry: "Eli, Or, Lama Savakhfani" (Matthew 27:46). This means in translation: My God! My God! have you left me?

So here the same temptation will be admitted to the entire universe during the time of antichrist, when all the saints God's people and the Holy Church of God Christ, consisting only of them alone, will be, as it were, abandoned from the protection and help of God; the wicked will triumph and exalt over them to the point that the Lord God the Holy Spirit Himself, seeing from afar their immeasurably heavy suffering, from ancient times predicted about this: O here is the faith and patience of the saints! (cf .: Apoc. 13, 10).

Similarly, immeasurable temptations are allowed and will be allowed until this time on the great saints of God and the saints of God in the temptation of their immensely great faith in Christ and in crowning them with incomprehensibly great and incredible rewards for the human mind during the sacrament - in the life of the next century.

And if such a temptation finds someone, then with all the strength of spirit, soul and flesh one must not become scarce in faith and love for the Lord and never be separated from the hope of His inexhaustible mercy, that sooner or later, with temptation, He is still will send and abundance for this reason and joyfully comfort them for that with such consolations here, on earth, which for sure - and no one's eye has seen before, not even an ear has heard before that time, and in the heart of the suffering one, with all the greatness and boundlessness of faith his in the omnipotence of Christ - never ascended.

By the abundance of such a temptation, having been rewarded with feeling not in a dream, but in reality, not in words, but in fact, even in this life and on himself, he will involuntarily be forced to exclaim: “If the God of Israel is good with his right heart. in the small the nose is motionless, my feet are not shedding in the small, the world of sinners is in vain; but blessed are you, Lord, you, who taught me your justification and kept my feet from crawling, until you uttered yata to the sinner. "

This is how it is, your Love for God, and this terrible and most terrible temptation can and must be overcome with the help of God, remembering and invariably keeping in mind the words of the Seer that Overcoming, he will inherit all things, and to him who overcomes, I will grant to sit on My throne, and he who endures to the end, that one will be saved. And the one who does not forget the words of David:keep gentleness and see righteousness, as there is a remnant of peace to a person, – he easily overcomes the most terrible temptations; for prayer for those who offend, and for those who hate us, and for those who create us to attack, makes us similar in this to the Lord and the gates of the Kingdom of Christ unfailingly open to us ...

So, your love for God, I have shown you not in word, but in deed and on ourselves, the poor, how people are in the fullness of the Spirit of God, and how much the Lord taught me, I explained to you how to achieve and how to achieve the goal our Christian life, that isacquisitions of the All-Holy Spirit of God. So gain Him yourself and teach others this and always, above all else, consider whether you are in the Spirit of God or not! And if there is no more hope, then look for His packs, until He will be found and will grant you again in the greatest measure of His inexorable and ever-flowing grace, and do not bury your talent in the earth, but give it to the workers of Christ's grapes, may the Lord reward, having come to judge the living and the dead, and you a hundredfold(as you work and do your in the ways of His commandments), and, multiplying, may he multiply your talents in the life of the Divine Life in His Heavenly Kingdom ”.

Sergey Nilus

The purpose of the Christian life - a conversation between the Monk Seraphim of Sarov and Motovilov

(full version)

It was on Thursday. The day was overcast. There was a quarter of snow on the ground, and quite thick snow crumbs poured from above when Father Fr. Seraphim began a conversation with me at his closest pazhinka, near the same nearby wilderness opposite the Sarovka river, by a mountain close to its banks.

He placed me on the stump of a tree he had just cut down, and he himself squatted against me.

- The Lord revealed to me, - said the great elder, - that in your childishness you zealously wanted to know what the purpose of our Christian life is, and you have repeatedly asked many great spiritual persons about this ...

“But no one,” Father Seraphim continued, “did not tell you that definitely. They told you: go to church, pray to God, do the commandments of God, do good - this is the goal of Christian life for you. And some were even indignant at you because you were busy with not godly curiosity, and told you: do not seek higher yourself. But they didn’t speak as they should. Here I, poor Seraphim, will explain to you now what this goal really is.

Prayer, fasting, vigilance and all other Christian deeds, no matter how good they are in themselves, however, the goal of our Christian life does not consist only in doing them, although they serve as the necessary means for achieving it. The true goal of our Christian life is to acquire the Holy Spirit of God. Fasting and vigilance, and prayer, and alms, and every good deed done for Christ's sake are the means for acquiring the Holy Spirit of God. Note, father, that a good deed done only for Christ's sake brings us the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Yet what is done not for Christ's sake, although good, does not represent a reward in the life of the century to come, and in this life it does not give the grace of God either. That is why the Lord Jesus Christ said: " everyone who does not gather with Me, he scatters"A good deed cannot be called otherwise than gathering, for although it is not done for Christ's sake, it is nevertheless good. Scripture says:" fear God in every tongue, and do righteousness, it is pleasing to Him to eat."And, as we see from the sacred narrative, this" do the truth"so pleasing to God that an angel of the Lord appeared to Cornelius the centurion, who feared God and did righteousness, during his prayer and said:" send to Joppa to Simon Usmar, tamo rite Peter and that one speaks the verbs of the eternal belly, in them you and your whole house will be saved". So, the Lord uses all his Divine means to give such a person the opportunity for his good deeds not to be deprived of the reward in the life of the Divine Order. But for this we must start here with the right faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who came into the world to save sinners. and the acquisition of the grace of the Holy Spirit, Introducing the kingdom of God into our hearts and paving the way for us to acquire the blessedness of the life of the century to come. either to implement them or not. That is why the Lord told the Jews: " If they had not seen it faster, they had no quicker sin. Now you say - we see, and your sin remains on you". If a man, like Cornelius, takes advantage of God's pleasure in his deed, not done for Christ's sake, and believes in His Son, then such a deed will be imputed to him, as if done for Christ's sake and only for faith in Him. Otherwise, a person has no right to complain that his good did not go into business.This never happens only when doing some kind of good for Christ's sake, for good, done for His sake, not only in the life of the next century, the crown of righteousness intercedes, but also in this life fills a person with the grace of the Spirit Holy and, moreover, as it is said: " God gives the Holy Spirit too much, the Father loves the Son and gives everything in His hand".

So it is, your love of God! So in the acquisition of this Spirit of God is the true goal of our Christian life, and prayer, vigil, fasting, alms and other virtues for Christ's sake are only means to acquire the Spirit of God.

- What about acquisition? - I asked Father Seraphim. - I don’t understand this.

“Acquisition is the same as acquisition,” he answered me: “after all, you understand what acquiring money means. So it is all the same the acquisition of the Spirit of God. After all, you, your Love for God, understand what acquisition is in the worldly sense? The purpose of the mundane life of ordinary people is to acquire, or make money, and among the nobles, in addition, to receive honors, distinctions and other awards for state services. The acquisition of the Spirit of God is also capital, but only gracious and eternal, and it, like money, bureaucratic and temporary, is acquired in the same ways, very similar to each other. God the Word, our Lord God-Man Jesus Christ likens our life to a marketplace and calls our work on earth a purchase, and says to all of us: " bathe, dondezhe come, redeeming time, as the days of cunning are the essence", ie gain time to receive heavenly goods through earthly goods. Earthly goods are virtues done for Christ's sake, giving us the grace of the All-Holy Spirit. In the parable of the wise and holy virgins, when the holy fools lacked oil, it is said:" buy on the market"But when they bought, the doors to the bridal chamber were already closed, and they could not enter it. Some say that the lack of oil among the holy fools signifies a lack of good deeds in their lifetime. This understanding is not entirely correct. they were lacking in good deeds, when, even though they were holy fools, they were nevertheless called virgins? After all, virginity is the highest virtue, as a state of equal angels, and could serve as a substitute in itself for all other virtues. the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God was lacking. Creating virtues, these virgins, due to their spiritual foolishness, believed that this was the only Christian thing to do only virtues. but before they received the grace of the Spirit of God, whether they achieved it, they did not care. They bring the grace of the Spirit of God, and it is said in the paternal books: " there is a way, imagine to be good at the beginning, but its ends are in the bottom of hell". Anthony the Great in his letters to the monks speaks about such virgins: many monks and virgins have no idea about the differences in wills operating in a person, and do not know that three wills are at work in us: the 1st of God, the all-perfect and all-saving ; 2nd own, human, that is, if not harmful, then not saving; and 3rd demonic - completely harmful. And this is the third enemy will and teaches a person either not to do any virtues, or to do them out of vanity, or for one good, and not for the sake of Christ. The second is that our own will teaches us to do everything to please our lusts, or even, like the enemy teaches, to do good for the good, not paying attention to the grace they acquire. The first, the will of God and all-saving, consists only in doing good only for the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, as an eternal treasure, inexhaustible and in nothing fully and worthy of being appreciated by one who cannot. oil that it was lacking among the holy fools. That is why they are called holy fools, that they forgot about the necessary fruit of virtue, about the grace of the Holy Spirit, without which there is no salvation and no one can be, for: " By the Holy Spirit, every soul lives and rises in purity;". The Holy Spirit Himself dwells in our souls, and this is the very absorption in our souls of His, the Almighty, and the abiding with our spirit of His Trinity Unity and is given to us only through the all-round acquisition of the Holy Spirit from our side, which prepares in the soul and of our flesh is the throne of God, all-creative with our spirit, according to the immutable word of God: " I will dwell in them and I will be like, and I will be in God for them, and they will be in My people"This is the very oil in the lamps of the wise virgins, which could burn lightly and for a long time, and those virgins with these burning lamps could wait for the Bridegroom, who came in midnight, and enter with Him into the chamber of joy. seeing that their lamps were extinguished, although they went to the marketplace, but they would buy oil, but they did not have time to return in time, for the doors were already closed. the wise and the foolish are Christian souls; oil is not deeds, but the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God received through them into our nature, transforming it from corruption into incorruption, from spiritual death into spiritual life, from darkness into light, from the den of our being, where are the passions tied like cattle and beasts - to the temple of the Divine, to the luminous palace of eternal joy in Christ Jesus our Lord, Creator and Deliverer and Eternal Bridegroom of our souls. His care for us when God says: " I’m standing at the door and confused!"... meaning by the doors the course of our life, not yet closed by death. Oh, how I wish, your love for God, that in this life you would always be in the Spirit of God!" In what I find, in that I judge"says the Lord. Woe, great woe, if He finds us burdened with care and sorrows of life, for whoever endures His wrath and who will stand against the face of His wrath! That is why it is said:" watch and pray, do not enter the attack", that is, do not be deprived of the Spirit of God, for vigilance and prayer brings us His grace. a tool for acquiring the grace of the Spirit. Would you want, for example, to go to church, but either there is no church, or the service is gone; you would want to give to a beggar, but there is no beggar, or nothing to give; you would want to keep your virginity, but you have no strength to fulfill this by adding yours or through the efforts of the enemy's intrigues, which you cannot resist due to human weakness; you would want to do some other virtue for Christ's sake, but you also have no strength, or you cannot find an opportunity. to everyone and always there is an opportunity - both the rich and the poor, and the noble, and the simple, and the strong, and the weak, and the healthy, and the sick, and the righteous, and the sinner. ascends, judge by the following the example of Holy Tradition: when, at the request of a desperate mother, who had lost her only-begotten son, abducted by death, a harlot wife, who had fallen in her way and had not yet been cleansed of her just-former sin, touched by the desperate sorrow of her mother, cried out to the Lord: " Not for the sake of the accursed sinner, but tears for the sake of a mother grieving for her son and firmly confident in Your mercy and omnipotence, Christ God, resurrect, O Lord, her son!"... - and the Lord resurrected him. So, your Love for God, the power of prayer is great, and it most of all brings the Spirit of God, and it is most convenient for everyone to correct it. Blessed will we be when the Lord God finds us vigilant, in the fullness of gifts His Holy Spirit! Then we can boldly hope to be caught up in the clouds at the meeting of the Lord in the air, coming with glory and power to judge the living and the dead with much, and repay him according to his work.

Behold, your love for God, for the great happiness, please, deign to talk with the poor Seraphim, being sure that he is not deprived of the grace of the Lord. The fact that we speak about the Lord Himself, the source of the ever-scarce source of all goodness, both heavenly and earthly! But by prayer we are rewarded with talking with Him, the All-Merciful and Life-giving God and our Savior. But even here it is necessary to pray only until God the Holy Spirit descends on us in the measures of His heavenly grace known to Him. And when He delights in visiting us, then we must already stop praying. Why then pray to Him: " come and dwell in us and cleanse us from all defilement and save us, Beloved, our souls"when He has already come to us, it is possible to save us, who trust in Him and call on His holy Name in truth, that is, in order to humbly and lovingly meet Him, the Comforter, inside the temple of our souls hungry and thirsty for Him I will explain this to your love of God with an example: if only you would invite me to visit you, and at your call, I would come to you and would like to talk with you. please, please, they say, come to me! Then I should against my will have to say: what is he? Is he out of my mind? I came to him, but he still calls me! refers. That is why it is said: " abolish and understand that I am God, I will ascend into the town, I will ascend to the earth", that is, I will appear and will appear to everyone who believes in Me and calls on Me, and I will converse with him, as I once conversed with Adam in Paradise, with Abraham and Jacob and with my other servants, with Moses, Job and the like. that this abolition applies only to the affairs of the world, that is, that during a prayer conversation with God it is necessary to abolish from the affairs of the world. the power of faith and prayer, the Lord God the Holy Spirit deigns to visit us and come to us in the fullness of His ineffable goodness, then we must also be abolished from prayer. , to hear clearly and intelligibly all the verbs of the eternal life, which He will then deign to proclaim. Moreover, one must be in complete sobriety of both soul and spirit and in the chaste purity of the flesh. So it was in Mount Horeb, when the Israelites were told to Before the appearance of God at Sinai, they would not have touched their wives for three days, for our God is " devour all unclean fire"and no one can enter into fellowship with Him from the defilement of flesh and spirit.

- Well, what about, father, to be with other virtues, done for Christ's sake, to acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit? After all, you will only speak to me about prayer?

- Acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit and all others of Christ for the sake of virtues, trade them spiritually, trade those of them that give you the greatest profit. Collect the capital of the blessed excess of the goodness of God, put them in the eternal pawnshop of God from the percentage of immaterial and not four or six per hundred, but one hundred per one spiritual ruble, but even that many times more. For example: giving you more of the grace of God prayer and vigilance, watch and pray; fast gives much of the Spirit of God, fast; more alms gives, do alms, and thus reason about every virtue done for Christ's sake.

Here I will tell you about myself, poor Seraphim. - I come from Kursk merchants. So, when I was not yet in the monastery, we used to trade in goods that give us more profit. So you, father, do, and, as in trade, it is not the strength to just trade, but to get more profit, so in the cause of Christian life it is not strength to just pray or whatever. -or a good deed to do. Although the apostle says: " pray incessantly", but why, as you remember, he adds:" I want better five words with my mind than a thousand with my tongue". And the Lord says:" do not all speak Mi, Lord, Lord! will be saved, but do the will of my Father", that is, he who does the work of God and, moreover, with reverence, for" cursed is everyone who does the work of God with negligence". And the work of God is:" Yes, you believe in God and He was sent to eat Jesus Christ". If we judge correctly about the commandments of Christ and the apostles, then our Christian business consists not in increasing the count of good deeds that serve the goal of our Christian life only by means, but in extracting more benefit from them, that is, in acquiring the most abundant gifts of the Holy Spirit. ...

So I wish, your love for God, that you yourself would acquire this ever-inexhaustible source of the grace of God and always reason to yourself whether you are found in the Spirit of God or not; and if - in the Spirit of God, then blessed be God! - there is nothing to grieve about: even now - for last judgment Christoff! For " what I find, that's what I judge". If not, then it is necessary to understand why and for what reason the Lord God the Holy Spirit has deigned to leave us, and again seek and seek Him and not lag behind until the sought-after Lord God the Holy Spirit is found and will not be again with us by His grace. On those who drive us away from Him, our enemies must be attacked so long as their dust is taken away, as the Prophet David said: " I will marry my enemies, and I will comprehend, and I will not return, until they die, I will insult them, and they will not be able to become, they will fall under my feet".

That's it, father! So, if you please, trade spiritually virtue. Distribute the gifts of the grace of the Holy Spirit to those who demand, following the example of a lit candle, which itself shines, burning with earthly fire, and other candles, without diminishing their own fire, kindle in light to everyone in other places. And if this is so in relation to the earthly fire, then what can we say about the fire of the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God ?! For, for example, earthly wealth, when it is distributed, becomes scarce, while the heavenly wealth of God's grace, the more it is distributed, the more it multiplies in the one who distributes it. So the Lord Himself deigned to say to the Samaritans: " drink from this water will thirst again, and drink from water, south of I will give him, it will not thirst for ever, but water, south of I will give him, there will be a spring in him ever-flowing into his belly, everlasting".

“Father,” I said, “you all deign to talk about the acquisition of the grace of the Holy Spirit as the goal of the Christian life, but how and where can I see it? Good deeds are visible, but how can the Holy Spirit be seen? How will I know if He is with me or not?

“At the present time,” the elder answered, “because of our almost universal coldness toward the holy faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and through our inattention to the actions of His Divine Providence for us and the communication of man with God, we have reached the point that, one might say, almost completely retired from a truly Christian life. Now the words of Holy Scripture seem strange to us when the Spirit of God through the mouth of Moses says: " and the sight of Adam the Lord walking in paradise"or when we read from the Apostle Paul:" go to Achaia, and the Spirit of God does not go with us, turn to Macedonia, and the Spirit of God is with us". Repeatedly in other places of the Holy Scripture it is said about the manifestation of God to men.

Here are some who say: "These places are incomprehensible. Could it be that people could see God so clearly?" And there is nothing incomprehensible here. This misunderstanding arose because we moved away from the simplicity of the original Christian knowledge and, under the pretext of enlightenment, entered such darkness of ignorance that it already seems inconceivable to us that which the ancients so clearly understood, that even in ordinary conversations they had the concept of the manifestation of God between people did not seem strange. So Job, when his friends reproached him for blaspheming God, answered them: " How can it be when I feel the breath of the Almighty in my nostrils?"ie how, de, I can blaspheme God when the Holy Spirit is with me. If I blasphemed God, the Holy Spirit would depart from me, but I feel His breath in my nostrils. This is exactly how it is said and about Abraham and about Jacob, that they saw the Lord and talked with Him, and Jacob even fought with Him.Moses saw God and all the people with him, when he was vouchsafed to receive from God the tablets of the law on Mount Sinai. or, what is the same - the obvious grace of the Holy Spirit, served as guides to the people of God in the wilderness. People did not see God and the grace of His Holy Spirit in a dream and not in dreams, and not in a frenzy of upset imagination, but truly manifest. to the cause of our salvation, which is why it turns out that we and many other words of Holy Scripture are not acceptable in the sense that we should have, but all because we do not seek the grace of God, we do not allow it, out of the pride of our mind, to dwell in our souls and therefore do not have true enlightenment from the Lord, sent go to the hearts of people who are hungry and thirsty for the righteousness of God with all their hearts. For example, many people interpret that when the Bible says: " vdunu God is the breath of life in the person of primordial Adam and created by Him from the dust of the earth"- as if this meant that before that there was no human soul and spirit in Adam, but as if there was only one flesh, created from the dust of the earth. This interpretation is incorrect, for the Lord God created Adam from the dust of the earth in that composition, as the priest, the holy Apostle Paul asserts: " may your spirit, soul and flesh be all perfect at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ". And all these three parts of our nature were created from the dust of the earth, and Adam was not created dead, but an active animal being, like other animate creatures of God living on earth. But this is the power that if the Lord God had not breathed then in the face of this breath of life, that is, the grace of the Lord God the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and rests in the Son and for the Son is sent into the world, then Adam, no matter how perfectly he was created over other God's creatures, as the crown of creation on earth, nevertheless, he would have remained without the Holy Spirit within himself, elevating him to a God-like dignity, and would have been like all other creatures, although they have flesh and soul, and a spirit belonging to each according to their kind, but the Holy Spirit within himself to the have not . When the Lord God breathed in the face of Adam's breath of life, then, in the words of Moses, and " Adam fast into the soul I live", that is, completely similar to God in everything, and such as He is, forever and ever immortal. Adam was created so unresponsive to the action of none of the elements created by God that he was not drowned by water, nor fire burned, nor the earth could not devour in its abysses, nor the air could damage any of its actions. Everything was subdued to him, as a favorite of God, as a king and owner of creation. And everyone admired him as the all-perfect crown of God's creations. This breath of life, breathed in the face of Adam from the All-Creative Mouth of the All-Creator and Almighty God, Adam became so wise that there has never been a man ever, no, and hardly ever will there ever be a man on earth wiser and more knowledgeable than him. Give him the names of every creature, then he gave each creature in the language such names that completely signify all the qualities, all the power and all the properties of a creature that it has according to the gift of God, given to it during its creation.

When, by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil - prematurely and contrary to the commandment of God - they learned the difference between good and evil and underwent all the calamities that followed the transgression of the commandment of God, they were deprived of this priceless gift of the grace of the Spirit of God, so that until the very advent of the God-man into the world Jesus Christ the Spirit of God " not in the world, as Jesus is not glorified"However, this does not mean that the Spirit of God was not at all in the world, but His stay was not as full as in Adam or in us, Orthodox Christians, but manifested itself only outside, and the signs of His stay in the world were known to the human race. So, for example, Adam after the fall, as well as Eve with him, were revealed many secrets related to the future salvation of the human race. Noah talked with God Abraham saw God and His day and rejoiced. The grace of the Holy Spirit, acting from the outside, was reflected in all the Old Testament prophets and saints of Israel. The Jews later established special prophetic schools, where they taught to recognize the signs of the manifestation of God or angels and to distinguish the actions of the Holy Spirit from ordinary phenomena that occur in the nature of unfavorable earthly life. Numerous servants of God have experienced constant, various manifestations of God, voices, revelations, justified by obvious miraculous events. Not with such power as in the people of God, but the manifestation of the Spirit of God also acted in the pagans, who did not know the True God, because from among them God also found people chosen for Himself. Such, for example, were the virgins - the prophetesses, the Sibyls, who doomed their virginity, although for an unknown God, but still for God, the Creator of the universe and Almighty and Ruler of the world, as He was recognized by the pagans. Likewise, the pagan philosophers, who, although in the darkness of the ignorance of the Divine, wandered, but, seeking the truth beloved of God, could, by this very God-loving search for it, not partake of the Spirit of God, for it is said: " languages ignorant of God by nature create lawful and pleasing to God make"And the Lord so blesses the truth that He Himself proclaims about it by the Holy Spirit:" Truth is from the land of ascension, and truth from heaven is prince".

So, your love of God, and in Jewish people sacred, God-kind people, and among the pagans, ignorant of God, but still the knowledge of God was preserved, that is, father, a clear and reasonable understanding of how the Lord God the Holy Spirit acts in a person and how exactly and according to which external and inner sensations can be convinced that it is the Lord God the Holy Spirit, and not the enemy's charm, is acting. This is how it was all from the fall of Adam to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh into the world.

Without this, your Love for God, which has always been perceptibly preserved in the human race about the actions of the Holy Spirit, understanding, there would be no way for people to know exactly whether the fruit of the woman's seed, promised to Adam and Eve, has come into the world, having to erase the head of the serpent.

But here is Simeon the God-Receiver, saved by the Holy Spirit after the foretelling to him in the 65 year of his life of the secret of his ever-virgin from the Most Pure Virgin Mary of His conception and birth, having lived by the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God for 300 years, then, at 365 years of his life, he said clearly in the temple of the Lord that sensibly learned from the gift of the Holy Spirit that this is He Himself, the Christ, the Savior of the world, about whose natural conception and birth from the Holy Spirit was foretold to him three hundred years ago from an angel.

Here is Saint Anna the prophetess, the daughter of Phanuil, who served eighty years from her widowhood to the Lord God in the temple of God and known for the special gifts of God's grace for a righteous widow, a pure servant of God, announced that it is indeed He who is the Messiah promised to the world, the true Christ. God and man, the King of Israel, who came to save Adam and the human race.

So once the holy mystic John the Theologian saw such people in white clothes, i.e. robes of excuse, and " dates in their hands"as a sign of victory, and they sang a wonderful song to God" Hallelujah". "The beauty of their singing no one else can imitate". About them the Angel of God said:" These are the essence, who came from great grief, who asked for his robe and made his robe in the Blood of the Lamb.", - asking with sufferings and making them whiten in communion of the Most Pure and Life-giving Mysteries of the Flesh and Blood of the Immaculate and Most Pure Christ, who before all ages was slain by His own will for the salvation of the world, ever to this day, tempered and fragmented, but not dependent on us, giving us into the eternal and our inexhaustible salvation, in the way of the eternal belly, in return is favorable at His terrible judgment and the replacement of the dearest and every mind surpassing that fruit of the tree of life, which our human race wanted to deprive of the human enemy of men, who fell from heaven Dennitsa. , and Adam fell with her, but the Lord not only bestowed upon them the Redeemer in the fruit of the Seed of the Woman, who had corrected death by death, but also gave all of us in the Woman, the Ever-Virgin Mary of the Mother of God, who erased the serpent's head in herself and erases the head of the serpent in all the human race, persistent An intercessor to His Son and our God, an unashamed and invincible Representative even for the most desperate sinners. This is why the Mother of God is called " An ulcer of demons ", for there is no way for a demon to destroy a person, if only the person himself does not retreat from resorting to the help of the Mother of God.

Also, your love for God, I must, poor Seraphim, explain the difference between the actions of the Holy Spirit, who sacredly dwells in the hearts of believers in the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ, and the actions of sinful darkness, at the instigation and incitement of demonic thieves in us. ... The Spirit of God remembers to us the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and acts in one with Him, always solemnly, joyfully making our hearts and guiding our feet on the path of peace, but the flattering, demonic spirit, contrary to Christ, is wise, and his actions in us are rebellious, obstinate and full of lust fleshly, lust of hair and pride of life. " Amen, amen, I say to you, everyone who lives and believes in Me will not die forever": he who has the grace of the Holy Spirit for his rightful faith in Christ, if through human weakness and died mentally from any sin, he will not die forever, but will be resurrected by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who takes away the sins of the world and gives grace to the tune. . About this grace, shown to the whole world and our human race in the God-man, and it is said in the Gospel: " in that belly be and belly be the light of man", and added:" and the light shines in the darkness, and His darkness does not embrace"This means that the grace of the Holy Spirit, given at baptism in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, despite the human falls, despite the darkness around our soul, still shines in the heart from time immemorial with the former Divine light of the priceless merits of Christ. This light Christ, with the sinner's unrepentant repentance, says to the Father: Abba, Father, do not be angry with this impenitence to the end! And then, when the sinner turns to the path of repentance, he completely blots out the traces of the crimes committed, dressing the former criminal again with incorruptible clothes woven from the grace of the Holy Spirit. about the acquisition of which, as the goal of Christian life, I have spoken for so long to your love of God.

I will also tell you, so that you understand even more clearly what to understand by the grace of God and how to recognize it, and in what its effect is especially manifested in people enlightened by it. The grace of the Holy Spirit is the light that enlightens a person. All the Holy Scripture speaks about this. Thus, Godfather David said: " the lamp of my feet is Thy law, and the light of my paths, and if Thy law was not my teaching, then I would perish in my humility". That is, the grace of the Holy Spirit, expressed in the law by the words of the commandments of the Lord, is my lamp and light, and if it were not for this grace of the Holy Spirit, which I am so thoroughly and diligently acquiring that seven days a day I learn about the fate of Thy righteousness, would enlighten me in the darkness of the worries associated with the great title of my royal dignity, then where would I get even a spark of light to illuminate my path along the path of life, dark from the hostility of my enemies? The saint on those people whom He sanctified and enlightened with His great influences. Remember Moses after his conversation with God on Mount Sinai. People could not look at him - so he shone with an extraordinary light that surrounded his face. He was even forced to appear to the people not otherwise, as under a veil. Remember the Transfiguration of the Lord on Mount Tabor. Great light enveloped Him, and " there was His robe, shining like snow, and His disciples from fear of falling prostrate". When Moses and Elijah appeared to Him in the same light, then, in order to hide the radiance of the light of Divine grace that blinded the eyes of the disciples, the" clouds ", it is said," overshadow them. "And in this way the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God appears in ineffable light for all, to whom God reveals her action.

- In what way, - I asked the priest about. Seraphim - to know to me that I am in the grace of the Holy Spirit?

- This, your love of God, is very simple! - he answered me, - that's why the Lord says: " the whole point is simple for those who gain reason"Yes, our trouble is that we ourselves do not have this Divine mind, which does not boast (does not take pride), for it is not of this world. This mind, filled with love for God and neighbor, creates every person. for his salvation. The Lord said about this mind: " God wants everyone to be saved and come to the mind of truth"And to His apostles about the lack of this reason, He said:" Do you not naturally understand, and do you not understand these Scriptures and parables?"Again about this reason, the Gospel says about the apostles that" then the Lord opened their minds to understand the Scriptures". Being in this mind, the apostles always saw whether the Spirit of God abides in them or not, and those who were imbued with it and seeing the Spirit of God abiding with them, affirmatively said that their work was holy and completely pleasing to the Lord God. This explains why they are in their letters they wrote: " be pleased with the Holy Spirit and us"and only on these grounds did they offer their messages as an immutable truth for the benefit of all the faithful - so the holy apostles felt the presence of the Spirit of God in themselves ... So, your love of God, do you see how simple it is?

I answered: - Still, I do not understand why I can be firmly convinced that I am in the Spirit of God. How can I recognize His true manifestation in myself?

Father about. Seraphim replied: - I already, your love for God, told you that it was very simple and in detail told you how people are in the Spirit of God and how one should understand His appearance in us ... What do you want, father?

“It’s necessary,” I said, “so that I understand this well.

Then Fr. Seraphim took me very tightly by the shoulders and said to me: - We are both now, father, in the Spirit of God with you. Why aren't you looking at me?

I answered: - I cannot, father, look, because lightning is pouring from your eyes. Your face has become brighter than the sun, and my eyes ache with pain.

Fr. Seraphim said: - Do not be afraid, your love for God, and now you yourself have become as bright as I myself. You yourself are now in the fullness of the Spirit of God, otherwise you would not have been able to see me like that.

And, bowing his head to me, he quietly said to me in my ear: - Thank the Lord God for His ineffable mercy to you. You saw that I did not even cross myself, but only in my heart I mentally prayed to the Lord God and inside myself said: Lord! honor him clearly and with bodily eyes to see the descent of Thy Spirit, with which Thou dost honor Thy servants, when Thou deign to appear in the light of Thy glorious glory! And so, father, the Lord instantly fulfilled the humble request of the wretched Seraphim ... How can we not thank Him for this ineffable gift to both of us! That is how, father, the Lord God does not always show His mercy to the great hermits. This grace of God was pleased to comfort your contrite heart, like a child-loving mother, through the intercession of the Mother of God Herself ... - Well, father, don't look me in the eyes? Just look, do not be afraid - the Lord is with us!

After these words I looked into his face, and an even greater reverential horror attacked me. Imagine, in the middle of the sun, in the brightest brightness of its midday rays, the face of a person talking to you. You see the movement of his lips, the changing expression of his eyes, hear his voice, feel that someone is holding you by the shoulders, but not only you don’t see these hands, you don’t see either yourself or his figure, but only one blinding light , stretching far, several yards in a circle and illuminating with its bright shine both the snow veil covering the clearing, and the snow pellet, which showered me and the great old man from above. Is it possible to imagine the position in which I was then?

- What do you feel now ?! - asked me about. Seraphim.

“Unusually good,” I said.

- How good is it? What exactly?

I answered: - I feel such silence and peace in my soul that I cannot express it in any words.

“This is your love for God,” said Father Fr. Seraphim is the world about which the Lord told His disciples: " My peace I give to you, not as peace gives, I give to you. If you were faster from the world, the world would love its own, but as if you were elected from the world, for this sake the world hates you. Lots of dare, as I have won the world". It is to these people who are hated from this world, chosen by the Lord, and the Lord gives the peace that you now feel in yourself;" peace, "according to the apostolic word," every mind prevails". This is what the apostle calls him, because no word can express the well-being of the soul that he produces in those people in whose hearts the Lord God instills him. Christ the Savior calls him the world from His own bounty, and not from this world, for nothing temporary earthly well-being cannot give him to the human heart: it is bestowed from above from the Lord God Himself, which is why it is called the peace of God ... What else do you feel? - Fr Seraphim asked me.

“An extraordinary sweetness,” I replied.

And he continued: - This is the sweetness about which it is said in the Holy Scriptures: " from fatty to Thy house they will be drunk, and I will fill with a stream of Thy sweetness"This sweetness now fills our hearts and spreads through all our veins with our ineffable delight. From this sweetness our hearts seem to melt, and we are both filled with such bliss that no language can express ... Well, then can you still feel?

- An extraordinary joy in all my heart.

And Father Fr. Seraphim continued: - When the Spirit of God descends on a person and overshadows him with the fullness of His inspiration, then the human soul is filled with inexpressible joy, for the Spirit of God rejoices everything, no matter what He touches. This is the very joy about which the Lord speaks in His Gospel; " wife always gives birth, have grief, as if her year had come; Whenever he gives birth to a child, he does not remember the sorrow for the joy, as if a man was born into the world. You will be in sorrow in the world, but whenever I see you, your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.". But no matter how comforting this joy that you now feel in your heart, it is nevertheless insignificant in comparison with that about which the Lord Himself through the mouth of His Apostle said that this joy" neither the sight of the eye, nor the ear of hearing, nor the good ascending in the heart of man, even God is ready for those who love Him". The foreshadows of this joy are given to us now, and if from them it is so sweet, good and cheerful in our souls, then what can we say about the joy that is prepared there, in heaven, for those who weep here on earth? Here you are, father, quite - but we wept in your life on earth, and look, with what joy the Lord consoles you even in this life. may the words of the Lord come true on us: " but those who endure the Lord, they will change the fortress, they will grow round, like eagles, they will flow and will not bother, they will go and not hunger, they will go from strength to strength and the God of the gods will appear to them in Zion of understanding and heavenly visions"... It was then that our present joy, which appears to us in a small and brief way, will appear in all its fullness, and no one will take it from us, filled with inexplicable despicable pleasures ... What else do you feel, your love of God?

I answered: - Extraordinary warmth.

- How, father, warmth? Why, we are sitting in the forest. Now it’s winter outside and there is snow under our feet, and there is more snow on top of us, and the croup from above is falling ... What kind of warmth can there be?

I answered: - And the kind that happens in the bathhouse, when they put it on the stove and steam pours out of it in a column ...

- And the smell, - he asked me, - the same as from the bath?

“No,” I replied, “there is nothing on earth like this fragrance. When, during my mother's life, I loved to dance and went to balls and dance evenings, my mother used to sprinkle me with perfume that she bought in the best fashion stores in Kazan, but those perfumes do not emit such a fragrance ...

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Conversation between Seraphim Sarovsky and Nikolai Motovilov Is a revelation of worldwide significance. At first glance, there is nothing fundamentally new in it, because full revelation was given to the apostles. But now, when people have forgotten the basic truths of the Christian religion and plunged into the darkness of materialism, or observe only the outer ritual part of the Christian life, the revelation of Father Seraphim is truly extraordinary. Seraphim of Sarov himself thought so:

"It was not given to you alone to understand this, but through you for the whole world, so that you yourself would be established in the work of God and could be useful to others."

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Understanding goes deeper and deeper - as soon as it is ready.

Conversation between the Monk Seraphim and N.A. Motovilov

He placed me on the stump of a tree he had just cut down, and he himself squatted against me.

I must say here that since the age of 12 this thought has persistently disturbed me, and I really addressed many of the clergy with this question, but their answers did not satisfy me. The elder did not know this. - But no one, - continued Fr. Seraphim, - did not tell you about that definitely. They told you: go to church, pray to God, do the Commandments of God, do good - this is the goal of Christian life for you. And some were even indignant at you because you were busy with not godly curiosity, and told you: do not seek higher yourself. But they didn’t speak as they should. Here I, poor Seraphim, will explain to you now what this goal really is.

Prayer, fasting, vigilance and all other Christian deeds, no matter how good they are in themselves, but not only doing them is the goal of our Christian life, although they serve as the necessary means to achieve it. The true goal of our Christian life is to acquire the Holy Spirit of God. Fasting, and vigilance, and prayer, and alms, and every good deed done for Christ's sake are the means for acquiring the Holy Spirit of God. Note, father, that only for the sake of Christ a good deed done brings us the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Still, what is done not for Christ's sake, although good, does not represent a reward in the life of the century to come, and in this life it does not give the grace of God either. That is why the Lord Jesus Christ said: "Everyone who does not gather with Me, he scatters." A good deed cannot be called otherwise than gathering, for although it is not done for Christ's sake, it is nevertheless good. Scripture says: "In every tongue fear God and do righteousness, it is pleasing to Him to eat." And, as we see from the sequence of the sacred narrative, this "do the righteousness" is so pleasing to God that Cornelius, the centurion who feared God and did righteousness, appeared an angel of the Lord during his prayer and said: "Send to Joppa to Simon Usmar, there Peter and that one speaks the verbs of the eternal life, in them you and your whole house will be saved. " So, the Lord uses all His Divine means to give such a person the opportunity for his good deeds not to lose the reward in life. But for this we need to start here with the right faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came into the world of sinners to save and by acquiring the grace of the Holy Spirit, who introduces the Kingdom of God into our hearts and paves the way for us to acquire the blessedness of life in the age to come. But that is what limits this pleasing to God of good deeds that are not done for Christ's sake: the Creator gives the means for their implementation. It remains for a person to implement them or not. That is why the Lord said to the Jews: “If they did not see it faster, they had no quicker sin. Now you speak - we see, and your sin remains on you. " If a person, like Cornelius, takes advantage of God's pleasure in his work that was not done for Christ's sake, and believes in His Son, then this kind of work will be credited to him as if for Christ's sake, done and only for faith in Him. Otherwise, a person has no right to complain that his good did not go into business. This never happens only when doing some kind of good for Christ's sake, for good, done for His sake, not only in the life of the next century, the crown of righteousness intercedes, but also in this life fills a person with the grace of the Holy Spirit, and moreover, as it is said: “Not God gives the Holy Spirit to the best of it. The Father loves the Son and gives everything in His hand. " So it is, your love of God. So in the acquisition of this Spirit of God is the true goal of our Christian life, and prayer, vigil, fasting, alms and other virtues for Christ's sake are only means to acquire the Spirit of God.

- What about acquisition? - I asked Father Seraphim. “I don’t understand this.

“Acquiring is like acquiring,” he answered me. - Do you understand what the acquisition of money means? So it is all the same the acquisition of the Spirit of God. After all, you, your love of God, understand what acquisition is in the worldly sense? The purpose of the life of the mundane ordinary people is to acquire, or make money, and among the nobles, in addition, to receive honors, distinctions and other awards for state services. The acquisition of the Spirit of God is also capital, but only gracious and eternal, and it, like money, bureaucratic and temporary, is acquired in the same ways, very similar to each other. God the Word, our Lord our God-man, Jesus Christ likens our life to the marketplace and calls our work of life on earth a purchase and says to all of us: "Bathe until I come, redeeming time, as if the days are deceiving the essence", that is, buy time to receive heavenly blessings through earthly goods. Earthly goods are virtues done for Christ's sake, giving us the grace of the All-Holy Spirit. In the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, when the foolish fools did not have enough oil, it is said: "Come and buy at the marketplace." But when they bought, the doors to the bridal chamber were already closed and they could not enter it. Some say that the lack of oil among the holy fools signifies a lack of good deeds in their lifetime. This understanding is not entirely correct. What is their lack of good deeds, when they are called holy fools, nevertheless, they are called virgins? After all, virginity is the highest virtue as a state of equal angels and could serve as a substitute in itself for all other virtues. I, poor man, think that it was precisely the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God that was lacking. Creating virtues, these virgins, by their spiritual foolishness, believed that the point was only Christian, to do some virtues. We did a virtue, and so did the work of God, but before they received the grace of the Spirit of God, whether they achieved it, they did not care. About such and such a way of life, based only on one creation of virtues without careful testing, whether it brings and exactly how much of the grace of the Spirit of God, is said in the fatherly books: “There is a way, think to be good in the beginning, but its ends are the bottom of hell. " Anthony the Great, in his letters to the monks, says about such virgins: “Many monks and virgins have no idea about the differences in wills operating in a person, and do not know that three wills are at work in us: the first is God's, all-perfect and all-saving; the second is its own, human, i.e. That is, if not harmful, then not saving, and the third is demonic, completely harmful. And it is this third enemy will that teaches a person either not to do any virtues, or to do them out of vanity or for one good, and not for the sake of Christ. The second, our own will, teaches us to do everything to please our lusts, or even, as the enemy teaches, to do good for the sake of good, not paying attention to the grace he receives. The very first and all-saving will of God consists only in doing good only for the acquisition of the Holy Spirit as an eternal treasure, inexhaustible and fully and worthy of being appreciated by one who cannot. It is this, this acquisition of the Holy Spirit, in fact, is called that oil, which was lacking among the holy fools. That is why they are called holy fools, that they forgot about the necessary fruit of virtue, about the grace of the Holy Spirit, without which there is no salvation and no one can be, for "by the Holy Spirit, every soul lives and rises in purity, it is illuminated by the Trinity unity of sacred secrets." The Holy One dwells in our souls, and this is the very dwelling in our souls of His, the Almighty, and the abiding with our spirit of His Trinity Unity and is given to us only through the all-round acquisition of the Holy Spirit from our side, which prepares the throne of God in our soul and flesh our all-creative coexistence with our spirit, according to the immutable Word of God: "I will dwell in them and I am like, and I will be in God for them, and they will be in My people." This is precisely the oil in the lamps of the wise virgins, which could burn lightly and for a long time, and those virgins with these burning lamps could wait for the Bridegroom, who came in midnight and enter with him into the palace of joy. The holy fools, seeing that their lamps were extinguished, although they went to the marketplace and bought oil, did not have time to return in time, for the doors were already closed. Marketplace is our life; the doors of the bridal chamber, closed and not allowing access to the Bridegroom, is human death; wise virgins and holy fools are Christian souls, oil is not deeds, but the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God received through them, transforming this from this into this, that is, from corruption to incorruption, from spiritual death to spiritual life, from darkness to light, from the den of our being, where passions are tied like cattle and beasts, to the temple of the Divine, to the luminous palace of eternal joy in Christ Jesus, our Lord, Creator and Deliverer and the Eternal Bridegroom of our souls. How great is God's compassion for our misfortune, that is, inattention to His care for us, when God says: "Behold, I stand at the door and to the point," meaning by the door the course of our life, not yet closed by death! Oh, how I wish, your love of God, that in this life you would always be in the Spirit of God. “In what I find, in that I judge,” says the Lord. Woe, great woe, if He finds us burdened with cares and sorrows of life, for whoever endures His wrath and who will stand against the face of His wrath. That is why it is said: “Watch and pray, but do not enter into trouble,” that is, do not lose the Spirit of God, for vigilance and prayer bring us His grace. Of course, every virtue done for Christ's sake gives the grace of the Holy Spirit, but most of all it gives prayer, because it is, as it were, always in our hands, as a weapon for acquiring the grace of the Spirit. Would you like, for example, to go to church, but either there is no church, or the service has ceased; they would like to give to a beggar, but there is no beggar, or there is nothing to give; you would want to keep your virginity, but you do not have the strength to fulfill it according to your addition or according to the efforts of the enemy's intrigues, which you cannot resist due to human weakness; would want to do some other virtue for Christ's sake, but also there is no strength or an opportunity cannot be found. And before prayer, this does not apply in any way: everyone always has an opportunity for it - both the rich and the poor, and the noble and the simple, and the strong and the weak, and the healthy and the sick, and the righteous and sinner. How great is the power of prayer, even of a sinful person, when it rises from the bottom of your heart, judge by the following example of Holy Tradition: when, at the request of a desperate mother who has lost her only-begotten son, abducted by death, a whore wife, caught on her way and even from just She was not cleansed of her former sin, touched by the desperate sorrow of her mother, and cried out to the Lord: “Not for me for the sake of a cursed sinner, but for tears for the sake of a mother who grieves for her son and firmly convinced of Your mercy and omnipotence, Christ God, resurrect. Lord, her son. " And the Lord raised him up. So, your love for God, the power of prayer is great, and it most of all brings the Spirit of God, and it is most convenient for everyone to correct it. “Blessed will we be when the Lord God finds us vigilant, in the fullness of the Gifts of His Holy Spirit. Then we can boldly hope to be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, coming with glory and power to judge the living and the dead with much power, and reward him according to his deed. " Behold, your love for God, for the great happiness you deign to consider with the poor Seraphim, you are sure, being sure that he is not deprived of the grace of the Lord. That which we speak about the Lord Himself, the source of all the goodness, both heavenly and earthly, which is ever-scarce. But by prayer we are rewarded with talking with Him, the All-Merciful and Life-giving God and our Savior. But even here it is necessary to pray only until God the Holy Spirit descends on us in the measures of His heavenly grace known to Him. And when He delights in visiting us, then we must already stop praying. Why then pray to Him; “Come and dwell in us and cleanse us from all defilement and save, O Thing, our souls”, when He has already come to us, in a hedgehog to save us, who trust in Him and call on His Holy Name in truth, that is, in order to humbly and with love meet Him, the Comforter, inside the temple of our souls, hungry and thirsty for His coming. I will explain this to your love of God with an example: if only they would invite me to visit you, and at your call I would come to you and would like to talk with you. And you would nevertheless begin to invite me: you are so welcome, please, come to me, they say. Then I should against my will have to say: what is he out of his mind or what? I came to him, but he still calls me. So it also applies to the Lord God the Holy Spirit. That is why it is said: “Abolish and understand that I am God; I will appear and will appear to everyone who believes in Me and calls on Me, and I will converse with him, as I once conversed with Adam in Paradise, with Abraham and Jacob and with my other servants, with Moses, Job and the like. Many people interpret that this abolition concerns only worldly affairs, that is, that during a prayer conversation with God, one must abolish from worldly affairs. But I will tell you according to Bose that although it is necessary to abolish from them during prayer, but when, with the almighty power of faith and prayer, the Lord God the Holy Spirit deigns to visit us and come to us in the fullness of His ineffable goodness, then it is necessary to abolish from prayer. The soul speaks and is in the rumor when he does the prayer, and with the invasion of the Holy Spirit one must be in complete silence, hear clearly and intelligibly all the verbs of the eternal life, which He then deigns to proclaim. At the same time, one must be in complete sobriety of both soul and spirit and in the chaste purity of the flesh. So it was at Mount Horeb, when the Israelites were told that they would not touch their wives for three days before the appearance of God in Sinai, for our God is "a fire consuming all unclean things" and no one can enter in communion with Him from the filth of the flesh and spirit.

- Well, but how, father, to be with other virtues, done for Christ's sake, in order to acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit? After all, you will only speak to me about prayer?

- Acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit and all others of Christ for the sake of virtues, trade them spiritually, trade those of them that give you the greatest profit. Collect the capital of the blessed excess of the grace of God, put them in the eternal pawnshop of God from the percentage of immaterial, and not four or six per hundred, but one hundred per one spiritual ruble, but even an infinite number of times more Approximately: gives you more grace God's prayer and vigil, watch and pray; fast gives much of the Spirit of God, fast; more alms gives, do charity, and thus reason about every virtue done for Christ's sake.

Here I will tell you about myself, poor Seraphim. I come from Kursk merchants. So, when I was not yet in the monastery, we used to trade in goods that give us more profit. So you, father, do, and, as in trade, it is not just power to trade, but to get more profit, so in the cause of Christian life it is not power to just pray or something else. do any good deed. Although the Apostle says: "Pray incessantly," but why, as you remember, he adds: "I would rather say five words with my mind than with a thousand tongues." And the Lord says: “Not everyone speaks Mi, Lord, Lord, will be saved, but do the will of My Father”, ie he who does the work of God and, moreover, with reverence, for "cursed is everyone who does the work of God with negligence." And the work of God is: "Yes, you believe in God and He also sent Jesus Christ." If we judge correctly about the Commandments of Christ and the Apostles, then our Christian business consists not in increasing the count of good deeds that serve the goal of our Christian life only by means, but in extracting more benefit from them, that is, in the acquisition of the most abundant Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

So I wish, your love for God, that you yourself would acquire this ever-inexhaustible source of the grace of God and always reasoned whether you are found in the Spirit of God or not; and if in the Spirit, then God is blessed. There is nothing to grieve about, even now at the terrible judgment of Christ. For "in what I find, in that I judge." If not, then it is necessary to understand why and for what reason the Lord God the Holy Spirit has deigned to leave us and again seek and seek Him and not lag behind until the sought-after Lord God the Holy Spirit is satisfied and is again with us by His grace. Our enemies who drive us away from Him must be attacked so long as their ashes are swept away, as the Prophet David said: "I will marry my enemies and I will comprehend and I will not return, until they die, I will insult them, and they will not be able to fall under my feet." ...

So that's the father. So, if you please, trade spiritually virtue. Distribute the gifts of the grace of the Holy Spirit to those who demand, following the example of a kindled light, which itself shines, burning with earthly fire, and other lights, without diminishing its own fire, kindles into light to everyone in other places. And if this is so in relation to the earthly fire, then what can we say about the fire of the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God? For, for example, earthly wealth when it is distributed becomes scarce, while the heavenly wealth of God's grace, the more it is distributed, the more it multiplies in the one who distributes it. So the Lord Himself deigned to say to the Samaritans: "Drink from this water he will thirst again, and drink from water, from the south I will give it, it will not thirst forever, but the water from the south I will give him, there will be a source in him ever-flowing into the everlasting belly."

“Father,” I said, “you all deign to speak about the acquisition of the grace of the Holy Spirit as the goal of Christian life, but how and where can I see it? Good deeds are visible, but can the Holy Spirit be seen? How will I know if He is with me or not?

“At the present time,” the elder answered, “because of our almost universal coldness toward holy faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and through our inattention to the actions of His Divine Providence for us and the communication of man with God, we have reached the point that, one might say, almost completely retired from a truly Christian life. We now find the words of Holy Scripture strange when the Spirit of God through the mouth of Moses says: "And in the sight of Adam the Lord going to paradise" or when we read in the Apostle Paul: "I go to Achaia, and the Spirit of God does not go with us, we will turn to Macedonia, and The Spirit of God is with us. " Repeatedly in other places of the Holy Scripture it is said about the manifestation of God to men.

Here are some who say: “These places are incomprehensible. Could it be that people could see God so clearly? " And there is nothing incomprehensible here. This misunderstanding arose because we moved away from the simplicity of the original Christian knowledge and, under the pretext of enlightenment, entered such darkness of ignorance that it already seems inconceivable to us what the ancients so clearly understood, that even in ordinary conversations they had the concept of the manifestation of God between people. didn't seem strange. So Job, when his friends reproached him for blaspheming God, answered them: "How can it be when I feel the breath of the Almighty in my nostrils?" that is, how can I blaspheme God when the Holy Spirit is with me. If I blasphemed God, the Holy Spirit would depart from me, but I feel His breath in my nostrils. " In exactly the same way it is said about Abraham and about Jacob that they saw the Lord and talked with Him, and Jacob even fought with Him. Moses saw God and all the people with Him when he was vouchsafed to receive the tablets of the Law from God on Mount Sinai. The pillar of cloud and fire, or, what is the same, the clear grace of the Holy Spirit, served as a guide to the people of God in the wilderness. People did not see God and the grace of His Holy Spirit in a dream, and not in dreams, and not in a frenzy of upset imagination, but truly manifest. We have become very much inattentive to the work of our salvation, which is why it turns out that we and many other words of Holy Scripture are not acceptable in the way they should be. And all because we do not seek the grace of God, we do not allow it to dwell in our souls out of the pride of our mind, and therefore we do not have true enlightenment from the Lord, sent into the hearts of people who are hungry and thirsty for the righteousness of God with all their hearts.

Many people interpret that when the Bible says: “God breathes the breath of life in the person of the primordial Adam and created by Him from the dust of the earth,” it meant that before that there was no human soul and spirit in Adam, but as if there was only one flesh created from the dust of the earth. This interpretation is incorrect, for God created Adam from the dust of the earth in the same composition as the holy Apostle Paul, the father, asserts: "May your spirit, soul and flesh be all-perfect at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." And all these three parts of our nature were created from the dust of the earth, and Adam was not created dead, but an active animal being, like other animate creatures of God living on earth. But this is the strength that, if the Lord God had not breathed into his face later this breath of life, that is, the grace of the Lord God the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and rests in the Son and for the sake of the Son sent into the world, then Adam, as nor was he absolutely superbly created over other God's creatures, as the crown of creation on earth, nevertheless, he would remain without the Holy Spirit within himself, elevating him to a god-like dignity, and would be like all other creatures, although they have flesh and soul, and a spirit that belongs to each according to his kind, but does not have the Holy Spirit within himself. When the Lord God breathed in the face of Adam's breath of life, then, in the words of Moses, it was “Adam live in a soul,” that is, completely similar to God in everything and such as He is, forever and ever immortal. Adam was created so that he was not subject to the action of any of the elements created by God, that he was not drowned by water, nor fire burned, nor the earth could devour in its chasms, nor the air could damage by any of its actions. Everything was subdued to him, as a favorite of God, as a king and owner of creation. And everyone admired him as the all-perfect crown of God's creations. From this breath of life, breathed into the face of Adam from the all-creative lips of the All-Creator and Almighty God, Adam became so wise that there has never been a century ago, no, and indeed there will hardly ever be a man on earth wiser and more knowledgeable than him. When the Lord commanded him to give names to every creature, then he gave each creature in the language such names that completely signify all the qualities, all the power and all the properties of a creature that it has according to the gift of God, given to it during its creation. It was by this gift of the above-natural grace of God, sent down to him from the breath of life, that Adam could see and understand the Lord going to paradise, and comprehend His verbs and the conversation of holy angels and the language of all animals, birds, and reptiles living on earth. , and everything that is now hidden from us, as from the fallen and sinful, and that for Adam before his fall was so clear. The same wisdom and power, and omnipotence, and all the other good and holy qualities, the Lord God gave to Eve, having created her not from the dust of the earth, but from the rib of Adam in the Eden of sweetness, in the paradise planted by Him in the middle of the earth. In order for them to comfortably and always maintain in themselves the immortal, grace-filled and all-perfect properties of this breath of life, God planted a tree of life in the middle of paradise, in the fruits of which he enclosed all the essence and fullness of the gifts of this Divine breath of His. If they had not sinned, then Adam and Eve themselves and all their offspring could always, using the eating of the fruit of the tree of life, maintain in themselves the eternally life-giving power of God's grace and the immortal, eternally youthful fullness of the forces of the flesh, soul and spirit and the incessant agelessness of the infinitely immortal his all-blissful state, even incomprehensible to our imagination at the present time. When, by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil - prematurely and contrary to the Commandment of God - they learned the difference between good and evil and underwent all the disasters that followed the transgression of the Commandment of God, they lost this priceless gift of the grace of the Spirit of God, so that until the very advent of the God-man into the world Jesus Christ the Spirit of God "is not in the world, for Jesus is not glorified." However, this does not mean that the Spirit of God was not at all in the world, but His stay was not as full as in Adam or in us, Orthodox Christians, but appeared only outside and the signs of His stay in the world were known to the human race. So, for example, Adam after the fall, as well as Eve with him, were revealed many secrets related to the future salvation of the human race. And Cain, in spite of his wickedness and his crime, understood the voice of the grace-filled Divine, albeit accusatory, conversation with him. Noah talked to God. Abraham saw God and His day and rejoiced. The grace of the Holy Spirit, acting from the outside, was reflected in all the Old Testament prophets and saints of Israel. The Jews later established special prophetic schools, where they taught to recognize the signs of the manifestation of God or angels and to distinguish the actions of the Holy Spirit from ordinary phenomena that occur in the nature of unfavorable earthly life. Simeon the God-Receiver, the Godfathers Joachim and Anna, and many countless servants of God experienced constant, manifold manifestations of Divine manifestations, voices of revelation, justified by obvious miraculous events. Not with such power as in the people of God, but the manifestation of the Spirit of God also acted in the pagans, who did not know the True God, because from among them God also found people chosen for Himself. Such, for example, were the virgins - the prophetesses, the Sibyls, who doomed their virginity, although for an unknown God, but still for God, the Creator of the universe and Almighty and Ruler of the world, as He was recognized by the pagans. Likewise, the pagan philosophers, who, although in the darkness of the ignorance of the Divine, wandered, but, seeking the truth beloved of God, could, by this very God-loving search, have no part in the Spirit of God, for it is said: “Languages that do not know God naturally create lawfulness and make God pleasing” ... And the Lord so blesses the truth that He Himself proclaims about it by the Holy Spirit: "Truth ascends from the earth, and righteousness from heaven prince." So, your love for God, and in the sacred Jewish people. To God, a kind people, and in the pagans who did not know God, but still the knowledge of God was preserved, that is, father, a clear and reasonable understanding of how the Lord God the Holy Spirit acts in a person and how exactly and according to what external and internal sensations you can make sure that it is the Lord God the Holy Spirit at work, and not the enemy's delusion. This is how it was all from the fall of Adam to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh into the world.

Without this, your love for God, which has always been preserved in the human race, is perceptible about the actions of the Holy Spirit of understanding, there would be no way for people to find out exactly whether the fruit of the woman's seed, promised to Adam and Eve, has come into the world, which has the ability to erase the head of the serpent.

But here is Simeon the God-Receiver, saved by the Holy Spirit after the foretelling to him in the 65th year of his life of the secret of his ever-virgin from the Most Pure Virgin Mary of His conception and birth, having lived by the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God for 300 years, then, at the 365th year of his life, he said clearly in the temple of the Lord that he had perceptibly learned from the Gift of the Holy Spirit that this is He Himself: That Christ, the Savior of the world, about whose natural conception and birth from the Holy Spirit was foretold to him 300 years ago from the Angel. Here is the holy Anna-pro rochitsa, daughter of Fanuil, who served eighty years from her widowhood to the Lord God in the temple of God and is known for the special gifts of God's grace for the righteous widow, pure servant of God, announced that it is indeed He who is the Messiah promised to the world, the true Christ, God and Man, the King of Israel, who came to save Adam and the human race.

And on what, father, your love for God, do we, the poor, put our seals, if not on the vessels that store some precious precious thing for us? What can be higher than everything in the world and what is more precious than the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, sent down to us from above in the sacrament of baptism, for this baptismal grace is so great and so necessary, so life-giving for a person that even a heretic person will not be taken away from him until his death , that is, until the period designated from above by the Providence of God for a person's lifelong probation on earth: what he will be good for and what he will be able to accomplish in this God-given period, through the mediation of the power of grace given to him from above. And if we had never sinned after our baptism, then forever we would have remained holy, blameless and taken away from all defilement of the flesh and spirit by the saints of God. But the trouble is that, when we succeed in age, we do not succeed in grace and in the mind of God, as our Lord Jesus Christ succeeded in that, but, on the contrary, being corrupted little by little, we are deprived of the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God and we become sinful and sinful people in many different ways. But when someone, being excited and seeking our salvation by the wisdom of God, bypassing every kind, decides for her sake to matins to God and vigil for the sake of gaining his eternal salvation, then he, obedient to her voice, must resort to true repentance in all his sins and to creation. the virtues opposite to the sins committed, and through the virtues of Christ for the sake of the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, acting within us and within us arranging the Kingdom of God. It is not for nothing that the Word of God says: "The Kingdom of God is within you and it is in need, and the needy people delight in it." That is, those people who, despite the sinful bonds that bound them and do not allow their violence and excitement to new sins, can come to Him, our Savior, with perfect repentance for torturing Him, despising all the strength of these sinful bonds, to break their bonds, such people then really appear before the face of God, more than snow, whitened by His grace. "Come," says the Lord, "and if your sins are like crimson, then as if the snow will make them white."

So once the holy seer John the Theologian saw such people in white clothes, that is, clothes of justification, and "dates in their hands" as a sign of victory, and they sang to God the wondrous song "Hallelujah". "No one can imitate the beauty of their singing." About them the Angel of God said: “These are the essence, who came from great sorrow, who asked for his robe and whitened his robe in the Blood of the Lamb, asking for suffering and making them ready in communion of the Most Pure and Life-giving Mysteries of the Flesh and Blood of the Immaculate and Most Pure Christ, above all the age slain by His own will for the salvation of the world; ever and hitherto slaughtered and shattered, but never dependent, giving us our eternal and inexhaustible salvation, the way of our eternal belly, in return is favorable at His terrible judgment and the replacement of the dearest and every mind surpassing that fruit of the tree of life, which we wanted to deprive the human race is the enemy of men, who saved Dennitsa from heaven. " Although the enemy, the devil, deceived Eve and Adam fell with her, but the Lord not only gave them the Redeemer in the fruit of the Seed of the Woman, who had corrected death by death, but also gave all of us in the Woman, the Ever-Virgin Mary of the Mother of God, eradicating in Herself and erasing in everything to the human race, the head of the serpent, the persistent Intercessor to His Son and our God, the unashamed and invincible Representative even for the most desperate sinners. For this very reason, the Mother of God is called "the plague of demons," for there is no way for a demon to destroy a person, as long as the person himself does not retreat from resorting to the help of the Mother of God.

Also, your love for God, I must, poor Seraphim, explain the difference between the actions of the Holy Spirit, who sacredly dwells in the hearts of believers in the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ, and the actions of sinful darkness, at the instigation and incitement of demonic thieves in us acting. The Spirit of God remembers to us the Words of our Lord Jesus Christ and acts in one with Him, always solemnly, joyfully making our hearts and guiding our feet on the path of peace, but the flattering spirit, demonic, contrary to Christ, wise, and his actions in us are rebellious, obstinate and full of lust fleshly, lust of hair and pride of life. "Amen, amen, I say to you, everyone living and believing in Me will not die forever." He who has the grace of the Holy Spirit for the rightful faith in Christ, if through human weakness and died mentally from any sin, he will not die forever, but will be resurrected by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who takes away the sins of the world and gives grace to the tune. It is about this grace, manifested to the whole world and our human race in the God-man, and it is said in the Gospel: "In that belly is the light of man," and it is added: "The light shines in the darkness, and His darkness does not embrace Him." This means that the grace of the Holy Spirit, given at baptism in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, despite human falls, despite the darkness around our soul, still shines in the heart with the former Divine light of the priceless merits of Christ. This light of Christ, with the sinner's unrepentant repentance, speaks to the Father: “Abba Father! Do not be completely angry at this impenitence! ”, And then, when the sinner turns to the path of repentance, he completely obliterates the traces of the crimes committed, dressing the former criminal again with incorruptible clothes, woven from the grace of the Holy Spirit, about acquiring which, as the goal of Christian life, I have been speaking for so long to your love of God.

I will also tell you, so that you understand even more clearly what to understand by the grace of God and how to recognize it, and in what its effect is especially manifested in people enlightened by it. The grace of the Holy Spirit is the light that enlightens a person. All the Holy Scripture speaks about this. Thus, the Godfather David said: "The lamp of my feet is Thy Law and light for my paths, and if Thy Law was not teaching me, then I would have perished in my humility." That is, the grace of the Holy Spirit, expressed in the Law by the words of the Commandments of the Lord, is my lamp and light, and if it were not for this grace of the Holy Spirit, which I am so carefully and diligently acquiring that seven days a day I learn about the fate of Your righteousness, enlightened me in darkness worries associated with the great title of my royal dignity, then where would I get at least a spark of light to illuminate my path along the road of life, dark from the hostility of my enemies. And in fact, the Lord repeatedly manifested for many witnesses the effect of the grace of the Holy Spirit on those people whom He sanctified and enlightened with His great influences. Remember Moses after his conversation with God on Mount Sinai. People could not look at him, so he shone with an extraordinary light that surrounded his face. He was even forced to appear to the people only under a veil. Remember the Transfiguration of the Lord on Mount Tabor. Great light embraced Him, and "there was His robe, shining like snow, and His disciples from the fear of falling prostrate." When Moses and Elijah appeared to Him in the same light, then, in order to hide the radiance of the light of Divine grace that blinded the eyes of the disciples, "clouds", it is said, "overshadow them." And in this way the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God appears in an ineffable light for all to whom God manifests its action.

- In what way, - I asked the priest about. Seraphim - to know to me that I am in the grace of the Holy Spirit?

- This, your love of God, is very simple, - he answered me, - that's why the Lord says: "The whole essence is simple for those who acquire reason." Yes, our whole trouble is that we ourselves do not have this Divine reason, which does not boast (does not arrogant), for it is not of this world. This mind, filled with love for God and neighbor, builds up every person for his salvation. The Lord said about this mind: "God wants everyone to be saved and come to the mind of truth." But to His apostles about the lack of this reason, He said: "Do you not be foolish by nature, and do you not understand these Scriptures and parables?" Again, about this reason, the Gospel says about the apostles that "then the Lord opened the mind to understand the Scriptures." Being in this mind, the apostles always saw whether the Spirit of God abides in them or not, and, being imbued with it and seeing the Spirit of God abiding with them, they affirmatively said that their work was holy and completely pleasing to the Lord God. This explains why they wrote in their epistles: "Be pleased with the Holy Spirit and us" - and only on these grounds did they offer their messages as an immutable truth for the benefit of all the faithful - so St. the apostles were perceptibly aware of the presence of the Spirit of God in themselves ... Now, your love for God, you see, how simple it is.

I answered: - Still, I do not understand why I can be firmly convinced that I am in the Spirit of God. How can I recognize His true manifestation in myself?

Father about. Seraphim replied:

- I already, your love for God, told you that it is very simple, and I told you in detail how people are in the Spirit of God and how one should understand His appearance in us ... What do you want, father?

“It’s necessary,” I said, “so that I understand this well.

Then Fr. Seraphim took me very tightly by the shoulders and said to me:

- We are both now, father, in the Spirit of God with you. Why aren't you looking at me? I answered:

- I can't, father, look, because lightning is pouring from your eyes. Your face has become brighter than the sun, and my eyes ache with pain.

O. Seraphim said:

- Do not be afraid, your love of God, and now you yourself have become as bright as I myself. You yourself are now in the fullness of the Spirit of God, otherwise you would not have been able to see me like that.

And, bowing his head to me, he quietly said to me in my ear:

- Thank the Lord God for His ineffable mercy to you. You saw that I did not even cross myself, but only in my heart I mentally prayed to the Lord God and said within myself: “Lord, grant him clearly and with bodily eyes to see that descent of Your Spirit with which You honor Your servants when you are pleased to appear in the light Your splendid glory. " And so, father, the Lord instantly fulfilled the humble request of the wretched Seraphim ... How can we not thank Him for this ineffable gift to both of us? That is how, father, the Lord God does not always show His mercy to the great hermits. This grace of God has deigned to comfort your contrite heart, like a child-loving mother, through the intercession of the Mother of God herself ... Well, father, don't look me in the eyes? Just look, do not be afraid: the Lord is with us.

After these words I looked into his face, and an even greater reverential horror attacked me. Imagine in the middle of the sun, in the brightest brightness of its midday rays, the face of a person talking to you. You see the movement of his lips, the changing expression of his eyes, hear his voice, feel that someone is holding you by the shoulders, but not only you don’t see these hands, you don’t see either yourself or his figure, but only one blinding light , stretching far, several yards in a circle and illuminating with its bright shine both the snow veil covering the clearing, and the snow pellet, which showered me and the great old man from above. Is it possible to imagine the situation in which I was then! - What do you feel now ?! - Father Seraphim asked me.

“Unusually good,” I said. - How good is it? What exactly? I answered:

- I feel such silence and peace in my soul that I cannot express it in any words. “This, your love for God, is the peace about which the Lord told his disciples:“ I give you my peace, not like peace gives, I give you. If you were faster from the world, the world would love its own, but as if you were elected from the world, for this sake the world hates you. Dare to dare, as I have won the world. " It is to these people, who are hated from this world, chosen by the Lord, and the Lord gives the peace that you now feel in yourself; "Peace", in the apostolic word, "every mind prevails." This is what the Apostle calls him, because no word can express the well-being of the soul that he produces in those people in whose hearts the Lord God instills him. Christ the Savior calls him the world from His own bounty, and not from this world, for no temporary earthly well-being can give him a human heart: it is given from above from the Lord God Himself, which is why it is called the peace of God ...

“What else do you feel?” Fr. asked me. Seraphim.

“An extraordinary sweetness,” I replied. And he continued:

- This is the sweetness about which it is said in the Holy Scriptures: "From fatness to Your house they will be drunk, and I will give you a stream of Your sweetness." It is this sweetness that now fills our hearts and spreads through all our veins with our ineffable delight. From this sweetness, our hearts seem to melt, and we are both filled with such bliss that no language can express ... What else do you feel? - An extraordinary joy in all my heart.

And Father Fr. Seraphim continued: - When the Spirit of God descends to a person and overshadows him with the fullness of his inspiration, then the human soul is filled with inexpressible joy, for the Spirit of God rejoices everything, no matter what He touches. This is the very joy about which the Lord speaks in His Gospel; “The wife always gives birth to sorrow imat, as if her year had come; Whenever he gives birth to a child, he does not remember the sorrow for the joy, as if a man was born into the world. You will be sorrowful in the world, but when I see you, your heart will rejoice and your joy will be taken by no one from you! " But no matter how comforting this joy that you now feel in your heart, it is nevertheless insignificant in comparison with that about which the Lord Himself through the mouth of His Apostle said that that joy “is neither an eye, nor an ear, neither in the heart of man has a good ascending; God is even more prepared for those who love Him. " The preconditions of this joy are given to us now, and if they make it so sweet, good and cheerful in our souls, then what can we say about the joy that is prepared there, in heaven, weeping here on earth? Here you too, father, have wept quite enough in your life on earth, and look, with what joy the Lord consoles you even in this life. Now it is up to us, father, the task, so that, applying labor to labor, we ascend from strength to strength and reach the measure of the age of fulfillment of Christ, may the words of the Lord come true on us: and they will not bother, they will go and not hunger, they will go from strength to strength and the God of the gods will appear to them in the Zion of understanding and heavenly visions ... "Then our present joy, which appears to us in little and in short, will appear in all its fullness and no one will take it from us, filled with inexplicable celestial pleasures ... What else do you feel, your love of God? I answered:

- Extraordinary warmth. - How, father, warmth? Why, we are sitting in the forest. Now it's winter in the yard and there is snow under our feet, and there is more snow on top of us, and the croup from above is falling ... What kind of warmth can there be? I answered:

- And the kind that happens in the bath, when they put it on the stove and steam is pouring out of it in a column ... - And the smell, - he asked me, - is the same as from the bath?

“No,” I replied, “there is nothing on earth like this fragrance. When during my mother's life I loved to dance and went to balls and dance evenings, my mother used to sprinkle me with perfume that she bought in the best shops in Kazan, but those perfumes do not emit such a fragrance.

And Father Fr. Seraphim, smiling pleasantly, said:

- And I myself, father, I know this exactly as you do, but on purpose I ask you if you feel it this way. The absolute truth, your love of God. No sweetness of an earthly fragrance can be compared with the fragrance that we now feel, because we are now surrounded by the fragrance of the Holy Spirit of God. What earthly things can be like him? Note, your love for God, because you told me that it is warm around us, like in a bathhouse, but look, after all, neither you nor me the snow melts and under us as well. Therefore, this warmth is not in the air, but in ourselves. It is precisely that warmth about which the Holy Spirit with the words of prayer makes us cry out to the Lord: "Warm me with the warmth of the Holy Spirit." She-warmed hermits and hermits were not afraid of winter filth, being dressed, as in warm fur coats, in grace-filled clothing, woven from the Holy Spirit. This should be so in reality, because the grace of God must dwell within us, in our hearts, for the Lord said: "The kingdom of God is within you." By the Kingdom of God, the Lord meant the grace of the Holy Spirit. It is this Kingdom of God that is now inside us, and the grace of the Holy Spirit shines and warms us from the outside and, filling the air around us with a varied fragrance, delights our senses with negligible delight, filling our hearts with unspeakable joy. Our present situation is the very one about which the Apostle says: "The kingdom of God is not food and drink, but truth and peace about Holy Dus." Our faith consists "not in words that are awkward to earthly wisdom, but in the manifestation of strength and spirit." It is in this state that we are with you now. It is about this state that the Lord said: “The essence of the non-citizens is from those who stand here, who do not have a taste of death, until they see the Kingdom of God, which has come in power”. Behold, father, your love for God, what inexpressible joy the Lord God has given us now. This is what it means to be in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, about which Saint Macarius of Egypt writes: “I myself was in the fullness of the Holy Spirit ...” With this fullness of His Holy Spirit and the poor, the Lord has now filled us ... Well, now there is nothing more, it seems, to ask , your love for God, how are people in the grace of the Holy Spirit ... Will you remember the present manifestation of the ineffable mercy of God that has visited us?

“I don’t know, father,” I said, “whether the Lord will deign to remember me forever as vividly and clearly as now I feel this mercy of God.

“I’m thinking,” Fr. answered me. Seraphim, - that the Lord will help you to keep this in your memory forever, for otherwise His goodness would not have bowed so instantly to my humble prayer and would not have anticipated listening to the poor Seraphim so soon, especially since it was not for you alone that you were given to understand this, but through you for the whole world, so that you yourself, having been established in the work of God, can also be useful to others. As for the fact, father, that I am a monk, and you are a worldly person, then there is nothing to think about: from God the right faith in Him and His only begotten Son is required. For this, the grace of the Holy Spirit is abundantly given from above. The Lord seeks a heart filled with love for God and neighbor - this is the throne on which He loves to sit and on which He appears in the fullness of His heavenly glory. “Son, give Me your heart,” He says, “and I will myself apply everything else to you,” for the Kingdom of God can be contained in the human heart. The Lord commands His disciples: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and this will all be added to you. The message is for your Heavenly Father, as you demand all of these. " The Lord God does not reproach for the use of earthly goods, for He Himself says that according to our position in earthly life, we demand all of these, i.e. everything that calms our human life on earth and makes our path to the heavenly fatherland convenient and easier. Relying on this, St. The Apostle Peter said that, in his opinion, there is nothing better in the world than piety combined with contentment. And the Holy Church prays that this will be given to us by the Lord God; and although sorrows, misfortunes and various needs are inseparable from our life on earth, yet the Lord God did not want and does not want us to be only in sorrows and misfortunes, which is why he commands us through the apostles to bear each other's burdens and thus fulfill the Law Christoff. The Lord Jesus Christ personally gives us the Commandment that we love each other and, consoling with this mutual love, make it easier for ourselves the sad and close path of our march to the heavenly fatherland. Why did He come down to us from heaven, if not to take on our poverty upon Himself, to enrich us with the riches of His goodness and His unspeakable bounties? After all, He did not come to serve Him, but let Himself serve others and give His soul for the deliverance of many. So you, your love for God, do and, having seen the grace of God clearly shown to you, report this to everyone who desires salvation for himself. "The harvest is plentiful," says the Lord, "but the laborers are few." So the Lord God brought us to work and gave the gifts of His grace, so that, reaping the classes of salvation of our neighbors through the multiplying number of those brought by us into the Kingdom of God, they would bring Him fruits - thirty, sixty, and a hundred. Let us look after ourselves, father, so as not to be condemned to us with that crafty and lazy slave who buried his talent in the ground, and we will try to imitate those good and faithful servants of the Lord who brought their Lord: one - instead of two, four talents, and the other is ten instead of five. There is nothing to doubt about the mercy of the Lord God: yourselves, your love for God, you see how the words of the Lord, spoken through the Prophet, came true on us: "I am God from afar, but God is near and at your mouth is your salvation." No sooner had I, poor man, been baptized, but only in my heart I wished that the Lord would deign to see benevolence in all its fullness, as He immediately and in fact, by fulfilling my desire, has deigned to hasten. I say this without boasting, and not in order to show you my significance and make you envious, and not so that you think that I am a monk, and you are a layman, no, your love of God, no. “The Lord is near to all who call on Him in truth, and He has no sight on faces, the Father loves the Son and gives everything in His hand,” if only we ourselves loved Him, our Heavenly Father, truly in a filial way. The Lord listens equally to a monk and a layman - a simple Christian, as long as both are Orthodox and both love God from the depths of their souls and both have faith in Him, even if only "like a grain of grain" and both move mountains. "One moves a thousand, two - darkness." The Lord Himself says: "All is possible for the believer," and Father, the holy Apostle Paul, exclaims in a loud voice: "I can all about Christ who strengthens me." Isn't our Lord Jesus Christ even more wondrous than this about those who believe in Him: “Believe in Me, I do not do the same things, but I will do more than these, as I am going to My Father and I will pray for you, so that your joy will be filled ... Hitherto you have not sifted anything in My Name, now ask and receive ... ”So, your love for God, whatever you ask the Lord God for, you will accept everything, if only it was for the glory of God or for the benefit of your neighbor, because He also attributes the benefit of others to His glory, which is why He says: "All, even to the one who is the least of these who have created, I have created." So do not have any doubts that the Lord God will not fulfill your requests, as long as they only relate to the glory of God, or to the benefits and edification of neighbors. But even if for your own need, or benefit, or benefit you needed something, and even so quickly and obediently the Lord God will send you, if only an extreme need and necessity insisted on that, for the Lord loves Those who love Him: the Lord is good to everyone, but he gives and gives to those who do not call on His Name and His mercy in all His works, but He will do the will of those who fear Him and hear their prayer, and all counsel will fulfill, the Lord will fulfill all your requests. Beware of one thing, your love of God, so as not to ask the Lord for what you will not have an urgent need. The Lord will not deny you even that for your Orthodox faith in Christ the Savior, for “the Lord will not betray the rod of the righteous to the lot of sinners” and “the will of His servant David will unswervingly do”, but he will demand from him why he disturbed Him unnecessarily, asked He has something that he could very conveniently do without.

So, your love for God, I have told you everything now and in practice showed that the Lord and the Mother of God through me, poor Seraphim, deigned to tell and show you. Come in peace. May the Lord and the Mother of God be with you always, now and forever and forever and ever. Amen. Come in peace ...

And during all this conversation, from that very time, as the face of Fr. Seraphim was enlightened, this vision did not stop, and everything from the beginning of the story and until now he spoke to me, being in the same position. The ineffable shining of light emanating from him I saw with my own eyes, which I am ready to confirm with my oath.

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