If you boast in this life, then your hope is vain, and your expectation is in vain.

Or were you afraid, wretched one, that the good and loving God would reject your labors? But He Himself and His grace give you strength to do so; He Himself breaks your heart, and He Himself gives you a reward. Everything is from Him, and you are proud! He exacts the wages of a hireling from those who deprive Him of it; Will He deprive you of the reward for your tears? Let it not be so! He who said, "Seek, and ye shall find: pound, and it shall be opened unto you" (Matt. 7:7), shall he become a liar? Nohow. Go away, wretched one. Who wished you harm? Who is jealous of you? A rival and hater of good. He has all his efforts to ensure that not a single person is saved.

Therefore, come to yourself and do not harbor hatred for your soul; open the eyes of your mind, and look at those who live with you: how they struggle, how they exert their efforts; and their lamps are with them, and their lips sing and glorify the immortal Bridegroom; their eyes behold His beauty, and their soul blossoms and delights.

Take a closer look! The bridegroom draws near, and will not delay: for he is coming suddenly to rejoice those who are waiting for him. A voice is heard: "Behold, the Bridegroom is coming" (Matt. 25:6); and those who are with you will go with joy, having their lamps burning brightly and their bright garments, and they will hear the voice of the Bridegroom, Who will say, "Come in the blessing of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matt. 25:34). And as soon as a voice is heard, you will say to them, 'Give me, my brethren, a little oil, for behold, my lamp is being extinguished'; but you will hear from them, 'The food is not enough for us and for you, go to those who sell and buy; you will go repentant, and you will not find where to buy: for the whole earth is like water in the sea, shaking because of His glory. And then, weeping, you will say: "I will go, I will knock at the door; Who knows, perhaps they will open it to me;" and you come, and you strike, and no one answers; thou dost wait all the time, and strike again, and they answer thee from within: Amen, I say unto thee, I know not who thou art (Matt. 25:12); depart from me, worker of iniquity." And when thou standest there, the voice of gladness and gladness shall come to thy ears, and thou shalt know the voice of every one of thy fellows, and sighing, thou shalt say, Alas, alas, unfortunate me! How have I lost such glory of my brethren, how have I lost the company of my companions? He spent all the time of his life with them, and now he has become separated. They were temperate, and I was careless; they sang psalms, and I soared in my mind and was silent; they were zealous for genuflections, and I rested; they prayed, and I rushed my mind to and fro; they humbled themselves, and I was proud; They put themselves in nothing, and I admired myself. Therefore they are now rejoicing, and I am complaining; they admire, and I cry."

Therefore, sober up, at least a little, wretched one, and think about His boundless love for mankind, and do not be negligent about your own salvation. Seek Him, and He will hasten unto thee unto salvation; call upon Him, and He will protect you; give to Him to receive a hundredfold. If inanimate paper, crying out through letters, repays the debts indicated on it, how much more will the good God give grace to those who seek Him. Paper adds growth to growth by means of writing: and the treasure of God's grace multiplies the reward of our prayers and petitions. Therefore, do not be lazy, do not allow your concern for earthly things to prevail over you, and do not fall into despair. God, in His kindness, accepts and protects you, as well as all those who seek Him with all their hearts. Approach Him fearlessly, fall down, sigh, weep and say to Him: "My Lord, my Saviour! Why have You forsaken me? Have mercy on me, for Thou alone art a lover of mankind; save me, a sinner, for Thou alone is sinless; hide me from the mire of my iniquities, so that I may not sink forever and ever; deliver me from the mouth of the enemy, for behold, like a lion he roars, and wants to devour me (1 Peter 5:8), raise up Thy power, and come to save me (Psalm 79:3); flash with Thy lightning, and kindle his power (Psalm 143:6), that he may fear and be scattered from Thy presence; for he has no strength to stand before Thee, and before the face of those who love Thee. As soon as he sees the sign of Thy grace, he fears Thee, and he who is ashamed departs from them. And now, O Lord, save me, for I have run to Thee." If you pray to Him in this way, and call upon Him with all your heart; immediately, like a good and compassionate father, He will send His grace to help you, and will fulfill all your desires.

Come then, my beloved, do not be negligent, do not look at me, who am lazy: for me, who speak and do not do, who exhort and do not understand, the shame with which my face is covered is sufficient. And you be an imitator of the perfect and spiritual fathers and follow their rule. Do not undertake beyond measure the highest that you are not able to accomplish, or the most unimportant, so that your reward may increase. Do not feed your body, lest it raise up a battle against you, do not accustom it to the pleasures of the flesh, lest it become a burden to your soul, and bring it down to the pit of the earth. For if you give yourself over to fulfill her lusts, she leaves the straight paths, walks in the rapids, comfortably receives every impure thought into herself, and no longer observes chastity. And again, if you strain the body excessively, then in this case it also becomes a burden to the soul, which is seized by timidity and despondency, and it becomes irritable, and lazy to singing, and to prayer and good obedience. Therefore, keeping to an excellent measure and weight, govern yourself.

Tell me: have you ever been a spectator on the horse lists? And again, have you ever seen boats on the sea? If someone drives the horses without measure, they fall from one sudden noise. And if you give them complete freedom again; then, having overthrown the charioteer, they drag after them. Like a boat on the sea; if it is loaded in excess of what it can lift, it is flooded by the waves and sinks; but if it is lightened and floats without a load, then it is conveniently capsized by the wind. Thus, the soul and the body, if they are burdened excessively, are subjected to what has been said above. Therefore, it is a beautiful thing to begin and accomplish, to please God, and to be useful to oneself and one's neighbor.

Blessed flock of Christ, the luminaries of the universe and the salt of the earth - you are perfect ascetics, who have loved the angelic life on earth. Your podvig is temporary, but your reward and praise are eternal; Your work is short, but your repose and perfection do not grow old. But as zealously as you strive in virtue, so much is your enemy inflamed with fury, secretly laying various snares for you. Therefore, beware of his ambushes. For without podvig no one is crowned; but even the grace of God does not abandon him who strives diligently and struggles. But if someone, having brought himself to a state of weakness, is too lazy to open his mouth and call on grace for help, then let him blame himself, and not grace, because it does not help him. Imagine a man who has healthy hands, and before whom there is a multitude of viands, but he is too lazy to stretch out his hands and be satiated with the blessings that lie before him; Such is the monk who knows grace by experience, and does not want to invoke it and be filled with its sweetness.

A monk is like a warrior going to battle, who protects his body from everywhere with full armor, sobers up to the very victory, and is anxious that the enemy will suddenly attack him, and lest, if he does not take precautions, he will not be captured. Likewise, a monk, if he becomes lazy after making himself paralyzed; then it is conveniently caught by the enemy; for the enemy puts impure thoughts into him, which he accepts with joy, and I mean thoughts of arrogance and vanity, as well as envy and slander, gluttony and insatiable sleep, and on top of this drives him to despair and to the conviction of the greatness of his misfortunes. If a monk is always sober, then he draws the grace of God to his aid, learns from God how to please Him, and becomes both praiseworthy of God and praiser of God. For she who observes herself in a mirror is both a spectator and a visible one; In the same way, grace, if it finds rest in a person and dwells in him, then it glorifies him, and is glorified by him. And without the help of grace, the heart cannot have sufficient strength in itself and be filled with tenderness in order to properly confess to the Lord; on the contrary, a person is poor and lacking in perfection, and vile and impure thoughts dwell in him, like a nightly raven on a ruin (Psalm 101:7). Therefore it is the duty of man to invoke grace, so that it may come and enlighten him, is the duty of man, having purified himself, to seek that grace dwells in him and helps him; but with grace he will succeed in every virtue, and enlightened by it he will be able to comprehend the diversity and splendor of the age to come. Grace becomes for him a wall and a fortification, and protects him from this world for the life of the age to come.

Therefore, incline your ear, beloved, and I will be a good counselor for you, if you desire eternal life and the pleasure of your Lord. Tell me, why do you wash your face with water? Is it not in order to please your neighbor? And from this it is evident that you did not abhor the passions of your flesh, but were enslaved by them. for the face washed by tears is not fading beauty. But perhaps you will tell me that it is a shame to have an unclean face? Know that the impurity of your feet and face with a pure heart shines brighter than the sun before God and before the holy Powers.

Why do you laugh recklessly? You are commanded to weep, but laughter possesses you. What is it from? Since you did not desire blessedness, then God's punishments do not frighten you.

He who has been taught by experience can give advice to the inexperienced. A merchant who has been caught by robbers offers travelers security measures. Therefore, since I am partly learned by experience (I speak of this to your prudence); for because of my weakness I was safe for a long time; and my slothfulness has again brought me back to my former state: then I advise you, beloved flock of God, to beware, for the sake of carnal passions and worldly pleasures, to lose the glory of God and to make yourselves strangers to the pure joy and joys of the bridal chamber. For you know that the labor of asceticism, like a dream, is fleeting, and the repose with which this labor is rewarded is infinite and indescribable.

Be attentive to yourself, so that you do not suffer loss from both sides and are not punished for both. On the contrary, strive to acquire perfect virtue, adorned with all that God loves. For if you acquire it, you will never offend God, nor your neighbor, you will do no evil. It is called a one-person virtue, which contains all the beauty and all the variety of virtues. Just as a royal diadem cannot be woven without precious stones and selected pearls; so this one-person virtue is not possible without the beauty of the various virtues. It is quite similar to a royal diadem. Just as the latter, if it lacks one stone or one pearl, cannot shine on the king's head: so this one-person virtue, if it lacks one beauty of the other virtues, is not called a perfect virtue. It is also similar to expensive food, which is cooked with all the exquisite spices, but without salt. Therefore, just as these expensive foods cannot be eaten without salt; so this one-person virtue, adorned with all the babble of various virtues, if devoid of love for Christ and neighbor, is not in the least attractive. It is also like the perfect and beautiful composition of the alphabet, in which the letters are decorated and embellished, but which is all made useless if even one letter is taken away from it. In the same way, this virtue, if it is deprived of one of the other virtues, is all useless. And it is also like a large and soaring eagle, which, seeing food in the nets, swoops down on it with all impetuosity, but, wishing to steal the prey, catches itself with the tips of its claws, and from this smallness its whole strength becomes bound; and although it seems that his whole body is free and outside the nets, yet all his strength is bound in nets. In like manner, this virtue, if bound by something earthly, is mortified, exhausted, and perishes, and is no longer able to soar to the heights; because it is nailed to earthly things.

Whoever has no tears, come and weep; Whoever has not stored up with tenderness, come and sigh that virtue, which ascended to heaven and reached the very gates of the kingdom, could not enter there. I present to you, beloved, an example of this: others, through countless labors, succeeded in this virtue and adorned it like a royal diadem, but, having become attached to earthly things, perished and remained outside the heavenly kingdom. Therefore, pay attention to yourself, so that you do not fall into something similar, and, having given yourself over to the enemy, do not turn into nothing such a wondrous virtue, which you have acquired by so much labor; lest you also hinder her from entering heaven, and make her stand ashamed before the bridal chamber. On the contrary, give her the boldness to ascend there with loud exclamations, rejoicing and asking for her reward. Truly a miracle! Bound by earthly care, like a lion with his hair, because such virtue is like a lion, she rotted on the ground and was humiliated. Sober therefore, beloved, and having moved, tear an insignificant hair, so that they may not mock you, as at that strong one, who with his jaw in the twinkling of an eye slew thousands, and, freeing himself, slew his enemies, who wrote his victory to God, and his prayer turned his jaw into a fountain (Judg. 15:16, 19), but, having performed many similar feats, when through foolishness he gave himself over to his enemies, by taking away his hair he bound within himself a terrible and very miraculous power. Be attentive to you, too, lest such virtue be bound by any earthly misfortune. Deliver her from all that is harmful, and go to heaven.