What is to be done, what is to be done, so as not to err in the understanding of the Holy Scriptures? How to learn to wield this two-edged sword? First of all, always remember that you are not saved by yourself, not as an individual who supposedly has direct access to your Saviour, but only as a member of His body, the Church, you are saved in the Church and through the Church. The Lord entrusted the entire work of salvation to the Church, and outside of her saving bosom there is no salvation, just as no one escaped the universal flood outside of Noah's ark. Blessed Augustine says: "Only he is saved who has Christ as his head, and only he who is in His body, which is the Church, has Christ as his head." It and it alone is the pillar and ground of truth (1 Tim. 3:15), in it is the divinely established hierarchy, in it are all the divinely established sacraments, it is the guardian of sacred tradition and the infallible interpreter of the word of God. "One should not seek the truth from others," says St. Irenaeus, "it is easy to borrow it from the Church, for in it, as in a rich treasury, the Apostles placed everything that belongs to the truth. Where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God, there is all grace." "Whoever does not listen to the Church," says another holy father, "is not a son of the Church; whoever is not a son of the Church, to him Christ is not a shepherd; whoever is not a shepherd is not Christ's sheep, whoever is not Christ's sheep waits in vain for eternal life." "Do you want to be saved? - teaches St. Chrysostom. - Stay in the Church, and it will not betray you. The Church is a fence: if you are inside this fence, you will not be touched by a wolf, and if you go out, you will be snatched away by a beast. Do not deviate from the Church: there is nothing in the world stronger than it. She is your hope, in her is your salvation." Remember: "To whom the Church is not a mother," says St. Cyprian, "to him God is not the Father!"

Here are the precepts of the Holy Fathers and Teachers of the Church! In this guiding general rule, or dogma, of salvation is already contained the answer to the question: what to do in order not to err in the understanding of the Holy Scriptures. Hold fast to the teaching and guidance of the Mother Church; when you encounter something in the word of God that is incomprehensible to you, seek explanations not in your own wisdom, not in the wisdom of self-appointed interpreters of the Scriptures, of which there are so many now, but where your holy mother, the Orthodox Church, commands you to look for it. And it points out to us such explanations in the Holy Scriptures themselves (for example, what is incomprehensible in the Old Testament is often explained in the New), offers in its symbols, or expositions of the Orthodox faith, in the definitions of the holy councils, in the writings of the Fathers and Teachers of the Church – this is where you will find the solution to all your perplexities. The Holy Fathers interpreted the Holy Scriptures as they were taught by the holy Apostles. From the 2nd Epistle of the Apostle Peter it is already evident that he explained to his disciples the "incomprehensible" passages of the Epistles of the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul repeatedly refers to what he taught verbally. And how strictly the holy fathers and teachers of the Church preserved everything that they received from the holy Apostles, this is evident from their own writings. Thus, St. Irenaeus decisively says that "those who do not know the apostolic tradition cannot know the truth from Holy Scripture alone." St. St. Clement of Alexandria says that "those who interpret the Holy Scriptures not according to Church tradition, but according to their own wisdom, have lost the rule of truth." "Only then will human errors cease," writes St. Cyprian, "when we interpret the word of God in accordance with the tradition of the Church." "One should not go into the explanation of Holy Scripture oneself," warns St. Barsanuphius the Great, "for this matter presents no small danger to unbelievers. When you do not know, it is better not to say anything, because to speak of the Holy Scriptures according to your own understanding is madness." That is why the Holy Church at the Sixth Ecumenical Council decisively legislated: "If the word of Scripture be examined, let it be explained in no other way, except as the luminaries and teachers of the Church, the God-bearing Fathers, expounded" (Prov. 19).

This is a general rule for those who seek an understanding of the Holy Scriptures. Live in the Church, think in the way of the Church, ask the Church about everything, seek from it the solution of all your perplexities, humbling your mind in obedience to the Church. And do not seek the highest for yourself, and do not test the stronger: if you are commanded, abide in them. "Whoever is not in the Church," says St. Hilary, "cannot understand the divine word at all." And this is understandable: the word of God is the word of life, but there is no grace-filled life outside the Church! That is why for those who are perishing it is foolishness at a time when for those who are being saved it is the power of God. And as long as a person does not live in the Church, does not fulfill the life-giving commandments of Christ, until then the word of God is for him a book sealed, as if written in a foreign language. Those who know, for example, the Hebrew alphabet, can read the Hebrew Bible line by line, but in order to understand every word in it, one must know the Hebrew language. Otherwise, you can read the Hebrew text aloud, but not understand what you are reading at all. There are many scholars who know the Bible from board to board, who have studied its text in all kinds of languages, but who are completely alien to its spirit, who reason about this spirit as a blind man judges colors or a deaf man judges music. And whoever lives according to the commandments of God, in grace-filled communion with the Church, the words of Christ come true: "Thou hast concealed this, Father, from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed it as a child." The great founder of the monastic life, the Monk Anthony, who was called the Great by the Church, did not even know how to read and write, but he knew the word of God in a way that our scholars do not know it. The Nun Mary of Egypt, who spent her stormy youth in sinful pleasures, and then purified by 47 years of ascetic labor in the deserts of the Jordan, so amazed the Monk Zosima with her knowledge of the Scriptures, that the elder exclaimed: "Where did you learn the Scriptures?" – and received an answer from the humble ascetic: "God sends knowledge to mortals"... And such miracles of the enlightening grace of Christ are possible only in the Orthodox Church. The same grace guided those holy men who, living in the Church, being sanctified and, so to speak, nourished by its sacraments, cleansing their hearts of passions, wrote their commentaries on the word of God. About St. Chrysostom, for example, his disciple and friend, and later successor in the cathedra, St. Proclus, recounted, that he, Proclus, saw more than once at night how, during the hours of writing, the Golden-Tongued teacher of his immortal commentaries on the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, this Apostle himself mysteriously guided the writing saint, and this vision was, as it were, the personification of the belief of the ancient Church, that whoever reverently studies the word of God, guided by the tradition of the Church (and Chrysostom himself testifies that he writes "not his own words, but the words of our fathers, wondrous and famous men"), the grace of God mysteriously assists him in this holy work for the prayers of the Church, triumphant in heaven. What memory is in a living person, tradition is in the body of the Church: it is the living voice of the heavenly Church, which ever abides in grace-filled communion with the earthly Church. To be guided by one's own thinking alone in the interpretation of the word of God, rejecting tradition, would mean the same as to lose one's memory in one's personal life, to forget one's personal experience, all the lessons of the past. As a person lives, he accumulates experience, enriches his memory; it is the same in the Church: in the course of centuries, the historical life of the Church became more complicated, new demands appeared, new false teachings appeared, and the collective mind of the Church had to sink deeper and deeper into the "sea of scriptures," as St. Chrysostom expresses it, and from there to extract more and more new pearls of the Church's teaching, and the chosen men, the bearers of the spirit of the Church, the faithful guardians of Church traditions, they recorded this in their writings and thus brought them into the treasury of Church Tradition. By the grace of God, the Orthodox Church lives to this day, carefully guarding the treasury of her traditions, and the Spirit of God, we believe, enriches this treasury even in our sinful times, according to the needs of the Church, raising up in the Church such men of faith and spiritual experience as St. Philaret of Moscow, Theophan of Vyshensky and others. Their contributions to the treasury of the Church's understanding of the word of God will remain forever a precious property of Church Tradition. Even if something human is mixed with their opinions, then it will later come away of itself, but pure wheat, and the spirit of churchliness, will remain in their writings and will nourish future generations of children of the Church. The Church will appreciate the humble, reverent "labor of love" of these and similar pastors and teachers in interpreting the word of God, will appreciate their love for its traditions, and will hold them up as an example to their future successors... In this way the Church's tradition is built up even in our poor days of faith, and the Spirit of God, we believe, guides us in this creation, and by them Himself the message is in the ways. It is always based on the word of God, on the tradition of the Church of centuries past, always in accordance with these sources of Church teaching, and only reveals this teaching, applying itself to the needs of our time. And in this is manifested the life of the Church, as the body of Christ, ever living and ever one. That is why the Church in her Catechism recognizes the sacred Church Tradition as the source of Divine revelation on a par with Holy Scripture. That is why the zealots for the dissemination of the Holy Scriptures, refusing to disseminate interpretations of it approved by the Church and thus, as it were, allowing readers to be guided by their own thinking in this holy matter, sin against the Church, against those who thirst to understand the word of God according to the understanding of the Church. That is why, I will say in conclusion, it is impossible not to wish that the Society for the Dissemination of Holy Scripture would finally change its statutes, become without any doubt on the Orthodox soil in its holy work, cease, so to speak, to act with one hand, and include in the circle of its duties the distribution not only of the holy books, but also of interpretations of these sacred books approved by the Church. We live in a time when nothing unsaid, nothing doubtful... About anonymous people, about "dissidents" and the answer of one of them.

Anonymous letters are in vogue today. Their usual content is barbs, reproaches, direct abuse or slander, and all this is from around the corner, so that the recipient does not know who is writing. True, sometimes writers seem to have a good purpose: to point out certain shortcomings and disorders, but then why should honest people hide themselves, at least from the person to whom they write?.. It is another thing to ask the addressee not to announce the name of the author of the letter, but for the addressee the name must be accurate, with the full address. Otherwise, these supposedly "well-intentioned" correspondents put themselves on a par with slanderers and scoffers, and all of them have the same name: cowards; in the first two cases - vile cowards, in the last - cowardly hares!

That is why I humbly ask everyone who even praises me to sign their letters to me in full, so that I can sometimes answer in writing, without taking up lines in my printed diaries. After all, it often turns out to be just an insignificant misunderstanding, and it is not worth answering in print, you could answer with a letter, but here it is a pity to leave a person in error, but it is not worth occupying the attention of several thousand readers with a printed answer. So you throw the letter into the trash.

It goes without saying that my request will not bring the "vile cowards" to their senses, they will not stop swearing, thus proving only the old truth that the impotent man's hat is "burning" on his head and he imagines that he is causing me grief with his scolding, while the value of such abusive letters is known: they only prove to me every time that the word of truth that I utter bothers someone, and therefore it is useful for the work of God, for which glory be to God! As for slander against one's neighbor, of which there are so many in anonymous books, we, pastors, follow the example of King David, who drove out every secret slanderer (Psalm 100:5) - we tear up such a letter and throw it into a basket or into a fireplace.

I appeal to those who think that they serve God with anonymous letters. Our teaching: the end cannot justify the means. God does not need the help of Satan, who is the father of lies and all deception. If it is your wish that I do not name my correspondent in the press, then let this correspondent of mine say about this in a letter to me: I will fulfill his wish. And I personally need to know with whom I am talking by letter. I repeat: often I would like to reply to the author of an anonymous letter by letter, but he hid behind some letter or did not deign to sign at all. In this way he deprives himself of the means of knowing what I believe to be the truth. And from this I have the right to conclude that my anonymous correspondent does not want to know what I could answer him. At least - is it polite?

Recently I received from Vologda from a certain "dissenter" (consequently, non-Orthodox) intelligentsia a long letter about my farewell letter to the Vologda flock. She is indignant that my message "does not breathe peace, love, forgiveness" to some "offended and offended". The intellectual exclaims: "But people are all brothers, all equal children of the Church, right and left, sinners and righteous, heretics and schismatics, political agitators and allies." If it is still possible to reconcile with the former, although with the proviso that children who are disobedient to the Church cannot be equal to those who are obedient, then it is impossible to reconcile with the latter: heretics and schismatics are not children of the Church at all, but her enemies, not sheep of Christ's flock, but goats, and political agitators are even wolves, albeit in sheep's clothing. The letter continues: "Do not treat the perishing people of the house of Israel with hatred and malice of disgust (oh, if these people did not drag her faithful children into perdition, if they did not destroy them with their vile, God-defying false teachings!), but with a feeling of forgiveness and love, treat your lost but dear children like a compassionate and loving father, treat the thief as Christ did on the cross to the thief (I will add: yes, only to the repentant, and not to the blasphemer who perished at the time when Christ said to the repentant: "Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise!"), and to the people who raised their hand against Him, as He forgave all His enemies, destroyers, and blasphemers..." This is how the "dissenter" teaches me. And then he forgets that all this refers to the personal enemies of Christ, that Christ the Savior mercilessly branded the corrupters of the people with the terrible words: "The serpent, the offspring of vipers" (Matt. 23:33), blind leaders, hypocrites, painted graves, madmen" and so on. His apostles did the same with regard to heretics. And I, a sinner, it seems, did not use a single word in my epistle, but took everything from the Holy Apostles. "Do not divide the flock into false teachers, heretics and faithful children of the Church," the dissident bishop instructs. Well, no, gracious Empress: you will never expect this from any Orthodox archpastor! He must and will always call the wolf a wolf, and the sheep a sheep. Those who are obedient to the Church are children of the Church, and heretics are her enemies. Thus the Lord teaches us, so His holy Apostles commanded us. And so let us always do, so that wolves do not penetrate into the flock of Christ entrusted to us. That is why we have been given a staff, to drive them away. To denounce "dissenters" is our sacred duty, and no matter what various preachers of Jewish freedom say, we will do the work entrusted to us by Christ, denouncing and driving away from our sheep the wolves that plunder the flock of God! In my farewell epistle to the flock of Vologda, I have already pointed out how even the Apostle of Love, John the Theologian, commands to treat "dissenters," heretics: he does not allow them to be received into the home: he forbids them to greet them (2 John 10), and the Holy Apostle Paul forbids even to share a meal with them (1 Corinthians 5:11). Have the Apostles of Christ forgotten Christ's teaching about "all-forgiveness, love," etc.? Do our "dissidents," like my correspondent, understand the spirit of this teaching better than they do? And if they do not dare to say this about themselves, then why do they keep silent about these apostolic commandments? Moreover, if we warn the children of the Church against false teachers, naming them as the Holy Apostles did, we do not do this at all out of some kind of hatred. We do not preach hatred, we do not preach enmity in relation to these people, no, we only warn the faithful children of the Church to beware of these wolves! We do not "push away even these who have gone astray from the Church": we protect the flock entrusted to us by God from their poison! Let it be true, if it is true, that they are "under the pressure of doubts, moral demands," let them openly tell us these demands, these doubts: we are ready to answer them with love. But we will not allow the children of the Church to be poisoned by these doubts and demands of the faithful in the simplicity of heart: they are wolves, they are moral poisoners: beware of them! "All-forgiveness" in matters of faith is given under the condition of repentance, renunciation of one's errors, of one's "dissent": otherwise, no matter how much we forgive, God will not forgive! Remember what terrible anathemas the Apostle Paul pronounces on those who believe differently, who preach differently: "If we or an angel from heaven - hear: even we, i.e. the Apostles, even an angel from heaven! - preach good tidings to you, if we preach good news to you, let him be anathema! This is not enough: the Apostle considered it necessary to repeat more: "As I have foretold and now I say: If anyone preaches good news to you more than this, let him be anathema!" This is how strictly we must protect the purity of the Orthodox faith! It is not cloying courtesy and kissing with false teachers (you hear, madam: false teachers), not "all-forgiveness" towards the murderers of Orthodox souls that they preach and command us, but threaten them with terrible anathemas, and give us the right to do so "differently" who preach and deceive with their false teaching to anathematize those who preach "differently" and deceive with their false teaching! And woe to us if we close our eyes to the activities of various "dissenters" and instill in the Orthodox to be indifferent to their preaching and listen to such suggestions as Mrs. "Dissenters" make to me: "May there be peace between you and us... let people of different persuasions and opinions live side by side and glorify God, each in his own way... All these are only flattering words: let each pray to God in his own way, but not dare to touch the conscience of another, but after all, both you, "other believers", and we, the Orthodox, each consider his faith pure and salvific, it is clear that each would like to convert another to his faith, and this is why you need this freedom. This "love, all-forgiveness" that you emphasize so much – in order to more easily seduce the children of Orthodoxy into your heresy. And in your heart you despise us, though you will never admit it. Live quietly, pray in your own way, do not dare to touch the Orthodox soul, and we will all be at peace with you - we will only pity you. And if you, in the name of "peace, love" and other sweet words, creep up on the treasure of the Orthodox faith, then we will draw the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and a terrible anathema will thunder over your heads... True, you are not afraid of it, but it will be useful for those who have not yet lost faith in the Church of Christ, who know and believe that her word does not return in the flesh of the Church. You say that "God receives into His bosom (?) all those who believe differently, who think differently... The Lord made no distinction between His children..." Well, that's not what the Apostle Paul thinks, that's not what the Apostle Paul teaches. If it were so, then he would not threaten "dissenters, dissidents" with such terrible anathemas, and even repeat them. In your opinion, perhaps, the heretic Tolstoy will also receive salvation, despite his excommunication from the Church? Then why did the Lord create His Church? And he promised her that even the gates of hell would not prevail against her?! After all, if it is all about "love and compassion, forgiveness and peace," then why all the care for the Church, all these ecumenical councils, the teaching of the Holy Fathers, the feats and sufferings of confessors? Follow Tolstoy, repeat the word love and you will be saved... No, not so, my "dissenter" correspondent: do you know that even good deeds cannot be done for salvation, if you do not believe rightly? Are you surprised? Don't you understand me? And you will not understand if you do not humbly assimilate the teachings of the Orthodox Church! The fact of the matter is that we believe and confess that the saving grace of God is poured out only in the bosom of the Orthodox Church, and without such grace it is impossible to do truly salvific good. And whoever leaves the Church deprives himself of this grace. The pagans also do good, but this good only brings them closer to the Church, as was the case with Cornelius the centurion, and cannot save them: for this it is necessary to enter into the bosom of the Church through the salvific sacraments of the Church. Do you believe so? Of course not? Then what are we going to talk about? I will say one thing: if you are sincerely looking for the truth, then do not hide under an anonymous person, write me your address and I will lovingly answer your "doubts and requests", to the best of my ability and free time. And if you infect others with your indifference in relation to the purity of the Orthodox faith, then you too - forgive me - I say the truth, I do not lie: and you are threatened with the same anathema that the Apostle subjected to all "those who believe differently and preach differently." And as for my personal infirmities, my lack of service to the Church of Vologda, I will say one thing: I saw all this in myself, grieved over it, told the church authorities many times about my infirmities, but waited for the will of God, when it would be clearly expressed in the will of the church authorities. The hour came, and I gladly left the pulpit, in which the ministry was beyond my strength. This, I think, is enough for you. Shall I add more: according to our Orthodox understanding, it is not the sheep who judge the shepherd, but the shepherd the sheep. But you must be forgiven for this: after all, you are a "dissenter"...

In conclusion, one request: to spare me extracts from the Gospel in French... Perhaps you never read the Gospels in Russian? But you write well in Russian. Why should I, who do not know French, read French quotations in your letter? Then I have the right to write to you in Greek, it is easier for me, and the language is truly apostolic! Why this fashion? it is a flaunting of the language of a people, a stranger, infected with unbelief, Freemasonry, infecting our Fatherland with these ailments??? Or do you prefer the Gospel in French than in Russian?.. Ah, madam! After all, this is how far apart we are from each other: well, where can we agree on such important issues as the salvation of the soul, faith, love, etc?..

My readers will be surprised that I have allocated so much space for an answer to some anonymous correspondent from Vologda.

It's not about Vologda, not about the anonymous lady. This letter is the most characteristic expression of the contagion of Freemasonry, indifference to the truths of faith, which in recent years has begun to prevail in certain intellectual circles of our society. I pronounced the word: Freemasonry. Yes, thank God, now, the mask has already been torn off from this age-old enemy of Christ's truth. We know something of his plans, intentions, we know that his goal is the destruction of Christianity on earth, the transformation of all mankind into cattle fit only for the service of Freemasons, or rather, Jews, who, as it has long been known, consider all people to be brutes without a human soul, brutes to which God gave only the form of a man, so that the Jews would not be disgusted with the use of these cattle. This is not a slander against the Jews: it is literally read in their Talmudic writings. This goal, of course, is hindered by Christianity, and of all Christian confessions, by Orthodoxy, the purest Christian teaching, and therefore the most hated by the Jews. And so all the false tricks, all the sophisms, all the slanders against Orthodoxy have been set in motion, all the sects, all the heresies, all the godless teachings have been drawn into cooperation in the destruction of Orthodoxy in order to shake this pillar of the truth of Christ. And since you cannot immediately turn an Orthodox person into godlessness, then first they try to seduce him into some sect, like Shtunda, Baptism, Molokans, then come spiritism, occultism, Buddhism, and finally - outright godlessness... So this is who our semi-intellectuals of all ranks, sexes and conditions, who preach indifference in the confession of Christianity, serve: after all, they serve the Freemasons and the Jews! This is what we, pastors, must warn the Orthodox faithful against with all our might. That is why it is impossible not to reveal all the harm of those sweet-talking, supposedly peaceful, rantings that we hear from our "dissidents," who do not think in the Russian way, consciously or unconsciously, but completely unfoundedly, sometimes hiding behind the alleged Gospel teaching about love and lavishing reproaches and even scolding on us, the pastors of the Church, for our alleged intolerance towards them, the believers of other faiths. We quote the words of the Apostles, who branded the sectarians of their time with the words: wolves, waterless clouds, etc. This is not in the spirit of Christ's teaching. Take these reproaches, gentlemen of Tolstoy's non-resistance, to the holy Apostles, if you have the boldness to do so.. But we fear the threat of Him who has a sharp sword on both sides: "As thou art neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth." (Ap. 3:16).

One of the invisible guardians of the people's soul

(In memory of my uncle).