There is nothing greater than a
pure heart, because such a heart becomes the throne of God. Is anything more
glorious than the throne of God? Of course not. This is what the Lord says to
those who have a pure heart: I will dwell in them, and walk in them;
and I will be their God, and they shall be my people (2 Cor. 6:16).
Thus, who can be happier than these people? And what blessings could they lack?
Aren’t there all blessings and all gifts of the Holy Spirit in their blessed
souls? What else could they possibly lack? Nothing, verily nothing! Because
they have the greatest goodness in their hearts—God Himself!
How those people err who seek
happiness outside themselves—in foreign countries and travels, in riches and
glory, in large properties and delights, in pleasures, abundance, and in empty
things, which end in bitterness! Erecting a tower of happiness outside our own
hearts is the same as building a house in a place that is constantly subjected
to earthquakes. Such a building will soon collapse…
Brothers and sisters! Happiness is
in us ourselves, and blessed is the one who has understood this. Search your
hearts and be watchful of its spiritual state. Perhaps you have lost boldness
before the Lord? Perhaps your conscience reproaches you for violating His
commandments? Perhaps it reproaches you for injustice, for falsehood, for not
fulfilling our obligations before God and neighbor? Search yourself; perhaps
evil and passions have filled your heart; perhaps it has turned away to the
crooked and impassible path…
Unfortunately, whoever has left
his heart without attention has lost all blessings and fallen into a multitude
of evils. He has cast out joy and been filled with bitterness, sorrow, and
vexation of soul. He has cast out peace and gained depression, worry, and
horror. He has cast out love and gained hatred. And finally, he has cast out
all the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit that he received at his Baptism,
and become kin to all evil-doing that makes a man pitiful and accursed.
Brothers and sisters! The
All-Merciful God wants us all to have happiness in both this life and the next.
For this He has founded His holy Church, so that it would cleanse us from sin,
illumine us, make peace between us and God, and give us heavenly blessings.
The Church’s embrace is always
open to us. Let those whose conscience is heavy hasten to this embrace. Let us
hasten, and the Church will take up the weight of our burden, give us boldness
before God, and fill our hearts with happiness and bliss.
***
Holy Baptism
As many of you who have been
baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Gal. 3:27).
What a great truth does the
apostle Paul show us by these words!
Baptized Christians do not wear
the old man with the passions and lusts, but have put on the new man, have put
on Christ Himself, Who now lives in their hearts. And the words, “put on” do
not refer to some simple and external garments, but to something deeper,
something essential and inalienable.
Through our faith in Christ and
through our Baptism we put on Christ Himself and become children of God, the
habitation of the All-Holy Spirit, temples of God, holy and perfect, gods by
grace. Thus have we thrown off corruption from ourselves and been clothed in
incorruption. We have put off the man of sin and put on the man of
righteousness and grace. We have cast out death and put on immortality…
But have we understood our great
obligation, which through Baptism we have taken upon ourselves before God? Have
we recognized that we should behave like children of God and brothers of our
Lord, that we must make our own will the same as God’s will; that as children
of God we must abide free from sin, that we must love Him with all our strength
from the depths of our hearts and souls, that we must worship Him and
impatiently await being united with Him forever? Have we thought about the fact
that our hearts should be so filled with love that it will pour out upon our
neighbors? Do we have the feeling that we are obligated to become saints and
perfect, the image of God, children of God, and inheritors of the Kingdom of
Heaven?
For the sake of all this we must
struggle, so that we will not turn out to be unworthy of God’s call and be
rejected. Yes, brothers and sisters, let us struggle with zeal and self-denial,
that we might be victorious. Let none of us lose his boldness, so that we might
not neglect our duty, or be cowardly, not lose heart in the face of the
difficulties of spiritual battle. Therefore do we have God as our helper, Who
will strengthen us on the difficult path of the virtues.
Spiritual warfare
The goal of our life consists in
becoming perfect and holy, to be shown to be God’s children and heirs to the
Kingdom of Heaven. Let us be vigilant, that for the sake of this life we might
not lose the future life; that in our daily cares and fuss we might not neglect
the goal of our life.
Fasting, vigil, and prayer do not
by themselves bring the desired fruits, because these are not the goal of our
life but the means for achieving the goal.
Adorn your lamps with virtues.
Struggle to cut off emotional passions. Purify your heart of all defilement and
preserve it in purity, so that the Lord would come down and abide in you; so
that He would fill you with the Holy Spirit and divine gifts.
My beloved children, all your
zeal and efforts should be aimed at this. This should ceaselessly be your goal
and striving. Pray for this to God.
Ask the Lord every day, but
within your heart and not outside of it. And when you find Him, stand in fear
and trembling like the cherubim and seraphim, because your heart has become
God’s throne. But in order to find the Lord, humble yourself to the ground,
because the Lord hates the proud, but loves and visits the humble of heart.
If you struggle in the good
fight, God will strengthen you. In struggles we discover our weaknesses, our
inadequacies, and our defects. It is the mirror of our spiritual state. Whoever
does not struggle will not come to know himself.
Be attentive also to your
insignificant falls. If from inattentiveness some sin happens with you, do not
despair but immediately take yourself in hand and fall down before God, Who has
the power to raise you up.
In excessive regret pride is
hidden. Therefore it is harmful and dangerous, and is often made even worse by
the devil, in order to stop the progression of the struggler.
The path that leads to perfection
is long. Pray to God that He would strengthen you. Patiently accept your falls,
and having immediately arisen, run to God, do not stop like children who sit in
the place where they’ve fallen, crying and sobbing inconsolably.
Be vigilant and pray, so that you
would not fall into temptation. Do not despair if you continually fall into old
sins. Many of them are strong in essence, and come from acquired habit.
Nevertheless, they are conquered with time and zeal. Let no one deprive you of
your hope.
Temptation
Temptations are sent to us in
order to reveal our hidden passions and so that we would struggle against them,
and in this way heal our souls. They are also a sign of God’s mercy; therefore,
give yourself into God’s hands and ask His help, that He would strengthen you
in your struggle. Hope in God never leads to despair. Temptations bring
humble-mindedness. God knows how much each of us can bear and allows us
temptations according to the measure of our strength. But we must also take
care to be vigilant and attentive, and not lead our own selves into temptation.
Trust in God Who is Good, Strong,
and Living, and He will lead you to a place of rest. Remember, that after
temptations come spiritual joy, and that the Lord watches after those who
endure temptations and suffering for the sake of His love. Thus, do not be
fainthearted or afraid.
I do not want you to suffer and
be confused by all that is happening against your will, no matter how just it
might be. Such suffering testifies to the existence of egoism. Watch out for
egoism, which hides under the façade of correctness. Watch out also for
inappropriate regret, which springs up after deserved rebukes. Excessive
distress over this is a temptation. The only true [proper] distress is what we
feel when we are well aware of how wretched the state of our soul is. All other
distress has no relation whatsoever to God’s grace.
Take care to preserve the heart,
in order to guard the joy of the Holy Spirit and not allow the evil one to pour
his poison into us. Be attentive, so that paradise, which is within us, would
not turn into hell.
Prayer
Man’s most important labor is
prayer. Man was created to glorify God. This is the labor worthy of him. Only
this is capable of revealing his spiritual essence. Only this justifies his
extraordinary status in all the created world. Man was created in order to
honor God and to be a participant in His divine goodness and blessedness.
As the image of God, man desires
God, fervently strives for Him and thirsts to be raised up to Him. Through
prayer and hymns, he exalts. His spirit rejoices, his heart leaps, and the more
he prays, the more his soul casts off worldly lusts and is filled with heavenly
blessings. And the more he separates himself from the earthly and delights of
this life, the more he delights in heavenly exaltation. Our experience proves
to us that this is the truth.
God accepts those prayers raised
up in the proper manner; that is, with a feeling of our imperfection and
unworthiness. But in order for this feeling to exist, there must be complete
self-renunciation of our low selfishness, and submission to God’s commandments;
there must be humility and ceaseless spiritual labor.
Entrust the Lord with all your
cares—He provides for you. Do not be fainthearted and do not fret. He Who
searches the hidden depths of the human soul also knows about your desires, and
He has the power to fulfill them as only He knows how. But you must ask God and
not lose boldness. Do not think that because your striving is holy you have a
right to complain when your prayers are not heard. God fulfills your desires in
ways that you do not know about. And so, be at peace and call out to God.
Our prayers and requests do not
lead us to perfection by themselves. The Lord Who comes and abides in us leads
us to perfection when we fulfill His commandments. And one of the first
commandments is that in our lives, not our will but God’s be done; and that it
be done exactly, as in heaven with the angels. So that we too could say, “O
Lord, not as I wish, but as Thou willest, may Thy will be done on earth and it
is in the heavens.” Thus, without Christ in us, prayer and requests lead us
to prelest [spiritual delusion].
Love
Acquire love. Ask God every day
for love. Along with love comes a whole multitude of blessings and virtues.
Love, so that you also might be loved. Give God your heart, so that you would
abide in love. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in
God, and God in him (1 Jn. 4:16).
You must maintain great caution
in your relationships with others and respect each other as sacred images.
Never look at his body or beauty, but watch after his soul. Be attentive to the
feeling of love, because if the heart is not warmed by pure prayer, love risks
being fleshly and unnatural; it risks darkening the mind and scorching the
heart.
It is necessary to confess every
day—perhaps our love [for another] does not proceed from our bond with Christ,
does not flow from our complete and total love for the Lord. Whoever is
attentive and preserves love in purity is protected from the snares of the evil
one who tries to gradually turn our Christian love into general love and
sensual love.
Good Christian manners
Christians, according to God’s
commandments, should become saints and perfect. Perfection and sanctity are
first engraved deep in the soul of the Christian, and only later are they also
imprinted in his desires, speech, and deeds. In this manner, God’s grace, which
exists in the soul, is poured out upon his entire outward personality.
A Christian must be polite with
everyone. His words and deeds should breathe the grace of the Holy Spirit,
which abides in his soul; so that in this way his Christian life would be
witnessed and the name of God be glorified.
He who tests every word also
tests every deed. He who searches the words he is about to speak searches also
the deeds he intends to commit, and he never oversteps the boundaries of good
and virtuous behavior.
A Christian’s grace-filled speech
is characterized by sensitivity and politeness. This is what gives birth to
love, and brings peace and joy. On the contrary, rudeness gives birth to
hatred, enmity, grief, the desire to win [arguments], disorder, and wars.
Thus, let us always be polite.
May no base words proceed from our lips—words that are not filled with the salt
of God’s grace—but may our speech be always filled with grace, with goodness;
speech that witnesses to politeness in Christ and a developed soul.
Discernment
I desire you to have discernment
and wisdom. Avoid extremes. Conform the strictness of life to the measure of
your virtue. He who at once desires to contend with the perfect and to live as
the holy ascetics lived will most likely become proud and fall. Therefore
struggle ascetically with discernment and do not bring the body to exhaustion
from excessive labor. Remember that the restraining of the flesh is only a
means helping the soul to attain perfection, while the chief thing is the
spiritual warfare of the soul itself.
Do not impose upon yourselves
more than you can bear. Remember that God does not bestow His gifts under
compulsion, but when He Himself wills. All that He gives you, you receive
undeservedly, exclusively according to His mercy.
Do not think that you will
receive lofty gifts and virtues for your great labors; thinking thus, you risk
falling into pride. He who seeks divine gifts and illuminations, while being
immersed in the passions, remains in foolish and proud delusion. First of all,
it is necessary to labor over the cleansing of oneself. Grace is sent as a gift
to those who have been cleansed from the passions. And they receive it quietly,
and at an hour of which they did not know.
Pride
Pride of the mind is satanic
pride, which denies God and blasphemes the Holy Spirit, and through this makes
a man scarcely healable. It is a deep darkness which does not allow the eyes of
the soul to see the light, and in this light to enter upon the path leading to
good, to humility, to God.
In contrast to it, pride of the
heart is born not of satanic pride, but of various external things and
circumstances, for example, of wealth, glory, honor, gifts of soul or body
(mind, beauty, strength, agility, etc.). All this makes people arrogant and foolish,
but not atheists. Such people are often corrected, by the mercy of God,
receiving admonition and instruction from Him. When their hearts turn out to be
broken, they cease to be puffed up and to seek glory, and thereby they are
healed.
Your spiritual labor consists in
watching over your heart. Pride is hidden in it like a venomous serpent; this
passion gives birth to a multitude of evils, defiles every virtue, poisons
everything in you. And to this diabolical evil one must direct all one’s
attention. You must keep watch continuously day and night.
I suppose it would be right to
say that all our spiritual cares should be directed toward finding and killing within
ourselves pride and its offspring. If we are able to be delivered from it and
to make humility reign in our heart, then we shall receive everything. For
where there is humility, there Christ truly dwells, and there all the other
virtues are gathered.
Peace
Peace [of soul] is a divine gift,
which is generously given to those who have been reconciled with God and
fulfill the divine commandments. Peace is light, and it withdraws from sin,
which is darkness. This is why a sinner never finds rest, does not acquire
peace in the soul.
Struggle against sin and suppress
the uprising of the passions within you. If this struggle is victorious for
you, then it becomes for you the cause of acquiring joy and peace. If—God
forbid—you suffer defeat in this struggle, then from it are born for you
misfortunes and sufferings. But if after defeat you again rise up for the
struggle against sin, then peace returns to you.
“Strive to have peace with all
and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14).
Peace and sanctification are two
necessary conditions for him who seeks and desires to see the face of God.
Peace is the foundation upon which our sanctification is accomplished.
Sanctification leaves the
troubled and irritated heart, darkened by enmity toward one’s neighbor.
Therefore let us be reconciled more quickly with our brother, so as not to
deprive ourselves of the grace of God, which sanctifies our hearts.
He who is at peace with himself
and at peace with his neighbor is also at peace with God. Such a man is filled
with holiness, because God Himself abides in him.
Thanksgiving
A Christian must glorify God both
in body and in soul. Both the one and the other belong to God; therefore we
have no right to use them dishonorably, but ought to make use of them as
sanctified and holy, with great gratitude.
Everyone who remembers that his
soul and body belong to God has reverence and mystical fear concerning them,
and this helps him to keep them unstained and pure from defilement, abiding in
constant communion with Him from Whom they are sanctified.
A man glorifies God with his body
and soul, first, when he remembers that they have been sanctified by God and
united with Him, and secondly, when he directs toward God the resolve of his
will, so as always to do His good and holy will. Such a man lives not for
himself, but for God. He acquires the Kingdom of God on earth. He glorifies God
both by his words and by his deeds, for that which is done [by a Christian] for
the good of others glorifies the name of God. The life [of such a man],
enlightened by divine light, shines ever more brightly, so that it even becomes
a guide to God for those who have not yet met Him.
Translated from the Russian edition: https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Nektarij_Eginskij/put-k-schastju/
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.