8. Finally, the soul belongs to him with whom it is in communion and union with its own wills. Therefore, or, having the light of God in herself and living in it and adorning herself with all virtues, she partakes of the light of repose; or, having sinful darkness in himself, he is subject to condemnation. For the soul that desires to live with God in eternal repose and light, according to what has been said before, must approach the true Hierarch Christ, endure the slaughter and die to the world and to the former life of evil darkness, and depart into another life for divine education. If a man dies in a city, hears neither the voice, nor the speech, nor the noise of those who dwell there, but as soon as he dies, he is transported to another place, where there are neither voices nor cries of that city: so the soul, as soon as it is given over to the slaughter and dies in the city of harmful passions in which it lived and spent time, no longer hears within itself the voice of the conversations of darkness, the talk and cry of vain conversation and rebellion of the spirits of darkness are no longer heard in it, but it settles in a city full of goodness and peace, in a city of Divine light; and there he lives and hears, there he is a citizen, he talks and talks, there he does spiritual deeds worthy of God.

9. Therefore let us also pray that by His power we may receive the slaughter and die to the evil age of darkness, that the spirit of sin may be destroyed in us, that the soul may receive the heavenly Spirit within itself, that it may put on Him, that it may dwell from the darkness of sin into the light of Christ, and that it may rest in life for all ages. As chariots rush on the lists, and the one who is ahead of the one delays another, hinders and hinders her from going forward and anticipating victory, so spiritual and sinful thoughts rush through a person, and if sinful thoughts happen to be preempted, it restrains the soul, hinders and hinders it from approaching God and gaining victory over sin. And where the Lord Himself sits and rules the soul, there He always wins, skillfully and constantly steering the reins and guiding the chariot of the soul to the heavenly and divine way of thinking. He does not wage war with sin, but, as authorized and sovereign, He always decides the victory Himself. For this reason the Cherubim are rushing, not whither they themselves wish to go, but whither He who sits on them and Who rules them guides; whither He pleases, there they go, and He Himself carries them; For it is said, The hand of man was under them. Holy souls are carried about and guided by the Spirit of Christ, Who rules where He pleases. And when it pleases Him, they are carried about in heavenly thoughts; and at any time, in the body. Wherever He pleases, there they serve Him. As wings serve as a bird's legs; thus the heavenly light of the Spirit receives the wings of thoughts worthy of the soul, guiding and ruling where He knows.

10. Therefore, as soon as you hear this, pay attention to yourself, whether this is really and truly acquired by your soul. For these are not words simply spoken, but a deed that is truly done in the soul. And if you have not acquired such spiritual blessings, but are still poor; then you must grieve, weep and be sick unceasingly. As one who is still dead to the kingdom, and as one who is wounded, always cry out to the Lord and ask with faith that you also may be vouchsafed this true life. God, having created this body, gave it that it does not borrow life, food, drink, clothing, and shoes from its own nature, not from its own body; but on the contrary, having created the body naked by itself, He arranged that it borrows everything necessary for life from itself, and it is impossible for the body to live without that which exists outside of it, that is, without food, without drink, without clothing. But if it is limited to what is in its nature, borrowing nothing from without; then it is destroyed and perished. In the same way, the soul, which does not have God's light in itself, but is created in God's image (for God so disposed and pleased that it should have eternal life), not from its own nature, but from His Divinity, from His own Spirit, from His own light, receives spiritual food, and spiritual drink, and heavenly garments, which constitutes the true life of the soul.

11.

For the nature of God also has the bread of life, Him Who said: "I am the bread of life" (John 6:35), and the living water (John 4:10), and the wine that rejoices the heart of man (Psalm 103:15), and the oil of joy (Psalm 44:8), and the manifold food of the heavenly Spirit, and the light-bearing heavenly garments given by God. This is the heavenly life of the soul. Woe to the body when it stops at its nature, because it is destroyed and dies. Woe to the soul if it stops at its own nature, and trusts only in its own works, not having communion with the Divine Spirit; because he dies without being vouchsafed eternal Divine life. Just as they despair of the sick when their bodies can no longer take food, and all their relatives, friends, relatives and loved ones weep for them, so God and the holy Angels recognize as worthy of tears those souls who do not taste the heavenly food of the Spirit and do not live in incorruption. And these, I repeat, are not merely spoken words, but the very work of spiritual life, the work of truth, accomplished in a worthy and faithful soul.

12.

But if you are not aware of anything in yourself, then weep, sorrow, and lament; for until now you have not yet acquired eternal and spiritual riches, until now you have not yet received true life. Therefore, grieve over your poverty, beseeching the Lord day and night; because you are in a terrible sinful impoverishment. And oh, that a man should gain even this sorrow for his poverty! Oh, that we did not spend our time in carelessness, like the satiated! Whoever grieves, and seeks, and unceasingly asks the Lord, will sooner receive deliverance and heavenly riches, as the Lord said, concluding the word about the unjust judge and the widow: How much more will God bring vengeance on those who cry out to Him day and night? Unto her, I say, He shall bring forth their vengeance quickly" (Luke 16:7-8). To Him be glory and dominion forever! Amen.

Conversation 2. About the kingdom of darkness, that is, sin, and about the fact that God alone can take away sin from us and deliver us from slavery to the evil prince.

1. The wicked prince, the kingdom of darkness, having first taken man captive, so besieged and clothed the soul with the power of darkness, as one puts on a man, in order to make him a king and give him all the royal garments, and so that from head to nail he would wear all royal things on himself. Thus the evil prince clothed his soul with sin, its whole being, and defiled it all, took all it captive into his kingdom, did not leave in it free from his power a single member of it, neither thoughts, nor mind, nor body, but clothed it in the purple of darkness. Just as in the body not only one part of it, or not one of its members, suffers, but the whole of it is wholly subject to suffering: so the whole soul suffered from the infirmities of vice and sin. The evil one clothed his whole soul, this necessary part of man, this necessary member of him, in his malice, that is, in sin; and thus the body was made suffering and perishable.

2. When the Apostle says: "Put off the old man" (Col. 3:9), then he means the perfect man, whose eyes correspond to his eyes, his head to his head, his ears to his ears, his hands to his hands, and his feet to his feet. For the evil one has defiled and drawn away to himself the whole man, soul and body, and has clothed man with an old, defiled, unclean, God-fighting, disobedient to God's law, into sin itself, so that he would no longer look as man desires, but also see deceitfully, and hear deceitfully, and his feet would hasten to evil, and his hands would do iniquity, and his heart would plot evil. Therefore, let us also beseech God to cast off the old man from us; for God alone can take away sin from us. Stronger than we are those who have taken us captive and keep us in their kingdom; but God has made a promise to deliver us from this bondage. When the sun is shining, and some wind is blowing; and the sun has its own body and its own nature, and the wind has its own nature and its own body, and no one can separate the wind from the sun, unless God alone stops the wind, so that it does not blow any more. In the same way, sin was mixed with the soul; But both sin and the soul have their own special nature.

3. Therefore, it is impossible to separate the soul from sin, unless God stops and stops this evil wind that dwells in the soul and in the body. And again, as another sees a flying bird, and wants to fly himself; but without wings, he cannot fly: so man has a desire to be pure, irreproachable, undefiled, to have no blemish in himself, but always to be with God; But he does not have the strength for this. He wants to fly into the divine air, into the freedom of the Holy Spirit; but he can't until he gets a wing. Therefore, let us beseech God to give us the krill of the dove of the Holy Spirit, that we may fly to Him and rest (Psalm 54:7), and that He may separate us from soul and body, and that He may cease the evil wind in us, which is the very sin that dwells in the members of soul and body. For He alone is able to do this. It is said: "Behold the Lamb of God, take away the sins of the world" (John 1:29). He alone hath wrought this mercy upon men who believe in him, which delivereth them from sin; He brings this inscrutable salvation to those who always hope and hope, and constantly seek it.

4. As in a dark and deep night some cruel wind blows and sets in motion, confusion and shaking all plants and seeds: so man, having fallen under the power of the dark night – the devil, and remaining in the night and in darkness, is caused by the terribly blowing wind of sin to waver, shake and move; his whole nature, soul, thoughts and mind are in turmoil, all his bodily limbs are in convulsion. Not a single member of soul and body is free and cannot but suffer from the sin that dwells in us. Likewise, there is a day of light and the divine wind of the Holy Spirit, which blows and gives life to the souls that abide in the days of Divine light, and penetrates the whole being of the soul, and thoughts, and all the essence, and all bodily members, cools and rests with Divine and ineffable repose. This is what the Apostle expressed: "For ye are the sons of the light, and the sons of the day" (1 Thessalonians 5:5). And as there, in deception, the old man put off the perfect man, and wears the garment of the kingdom of darkness, the garment of blasphemy, unbelief, fearlessness, vanity, pride, love of money, lust, and likewise the other garments of the kingdom of darkness, unclean and filthy rags: so here again, which put off the old and earthly man, and from whom Jesus stripped off the garments of the kingdom of darkness, they have put on the new and heavenly man, Jesus Christ, and again, according to their eyes, they have their eyes, and according to their ears, their ears, and according to their heads, their heads, so that the whole man may be pure and bear upon himself the heavenly image.

5. And the Lord clothed them in the garments of the kingdom of ineffable light, in the garments of faith, hope, love, joy, peace, mercy, goodness, and likewise, in all the other divine, life-giving garments of light, life, and ineffable repose, so that, just as God is love, joy, peace, goodness, mercy, so the new man may be made this by grace. And as the kingdom of darkness and sin are hidden in the soul until the day of resurrection, when the very body of sinners will be covered with darkness, which is now hidden in the soul: so also the kingdom of light and the heavenly image —

Glory to His mercies and kindness! He has mercy on His servants, and enlightens them, and delivers them from the kingdom of darkness, and gives them His light and His kingdom. To Him be glory and dominion forever! Amen.