My beloved brethren! If any of us is not sealed, and does not bear the seal of our Lord Jesus Christ, let him flow as quickly as possible, that he may be sealed; if we do not have the sign of the grace of the Holy Spirit, let us strive in every way to receive it. For death has no dominion over souls, which are sealed with the all-pure blood of Christ and the grace of the All-Holy Spirit, and the mental wolf, the devil, cannot bear to look (turn away) upon the seal of the Chief Shepherd Christ, with which He seals His sheep. Yes, my Christian brethren, it is not tolerable for this reason that we strive to do all the works that are pleasing to Christ, that we may be vouchsafed to be sealed by Him, so that we may pass through the rest of our life without fear; and not only this, but that we may receive mercy from Him, and be made worthy to know the mysteries of Christ, to know, I say, not only in word, or by hearing and tradition, but by deed and efficacy.

How, then, does anyone know the mysteries of God? "Listen, and you understand. Jesus Christ says in the Holy Gospel: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for to them is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:3).

For the Lord tells us that the kingdom of heaven is within us.

And whoever does not turn away from all this, but has an addiction to any of the things of which we have spoken, has not seen the kingdom of heaven, nor smelled it, nor tasted its sweetness and fragrance.

And again Christ says: "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted" (Matt. 5:4). Let us look again and examine whether we have weeping, and what is this consolation which, as the Lord says, will follow weeping? First He said that blessed are the poor in spirit, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven. But the poor in spirit, as we have said, have no addiction to the goods of this world, and do not think of them with delight, but hate them and abhor them. And so, whoever despises the whole world, who distances himself from it in thought rather than in body, and has no lust for any visible good, can he be grieved or delighted with worldly things? And for him who has the kingdom of heaven and rejoices within it every day, how is it possible to weep? In addition, the Lord said that those who weep receive consolation. But hearken, I beseech you, that ye may understand the power of this word.

A faithful man, who always hearkens well to the commandments of God, when, doing all that the commandments of God require, he thinks about their loftiness, that is, about that blameless life and purity (which they depict), then, examining his measure, he will find himself extremely weak and powerless to reach this height of the commandments, he will find that he is extremely poor and unworthy to receive God, or to thank Him and glorify (to rest in himself), since he has not yet acquired any good for himself (there is nothing to rest with). But such a one, thinking about all that I have said, with spiritual feeling, will without any doubt weep with that weeping, which is truly the most blessed lamentation, which accepts both consolation and makes the soul meek. The consolation and joy that weeping engenders are the pledge of the kingdom of heaven. Faith is the knowledge of those who hope, as the divine Paul says, and the consolation that comes in those souls that weep from the illumination and illumination of the Holy Spirit is the presence of God, who grants them humility for the sake of weeping, which is called both seed and talent: because it grows and multiplies thirty, sixty, and a hundred in the souls of those who struggle, and brings to God the holy fruit of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Where there is true humility, there is the depth of humility; where there is humility, there is the radiance of the Holy Spirit; where the Holy Spirit shines, there is an abundant outpouring of the light of God, and God, with wisdom and knowledge of His mysteries; Where this is, there is the Kingdom of Heaven, and the consciousness of the Kingdom, and the hidden treasures of the knowledge of God, in which is the manifestation of spiritual poverty; where there is a feeling of spiritual poverty, there is joyful weeping and incessant tears, which cleanse the soul of all love and attachment and make it all luminous.

When the soul is enlightened in this way and knows the good of its Lord and God, then it will begin with all diligence to bear fruit in itself and other virtues to Him and Christ the Lord. And so it should be. For, being always drunk and nourished by tears, it completely extinguishes anger within itself, and becomes all meek and immovable to anger, and then it hungers and thirsts, that is, it strongly desires and seeks to know God's justifications and to partake of them, and at the same time becomes merciful and compassionate. From all this her heart is again made pure, and the contemplation of God comes, and she sees His glory purely, according to His promise: for they shall see God. And those whose souls are such are indeed peacemakers, and are called the sons of God, who know their Father and Master purely, and love him with all their hearts, enduring every hardship and affliction for his sake, when they are reproached, reproached, and oppressed for his righteous commandments, which he has commanded us to keep, when they are insulted and persecuted in every way, and endure every evil word, what lies they spew out against them, for the sake of His Holy Name, rejoicing that they have been vouchsafed to receive dishonor from people for their love for Him.

Have you now learned, my brethren, the true seal of Christ? Have you understood, faithful ones, in what signs is the faithfulness of a Christian revealed? Truly, there is only one seal of Christ – the illumination of the Holy Spirit, although there are many types of His effects and many signs of His power. Humility is the first and most necessary of all others, since it is the beginning and foundation. For God says, "On whom will I look, but on him who is meek and humble, and trembling at My words" (Isaiah 66:2). The second is weeping, which exudes unceasing tears, of which I would like to say much, but I do not find enough words to speak of them. An inexplicable miracle! Material tears flow from material eyes and wash the immaterial soul from the filth of sin; fall to the ground, but overthrow the demons and free the soul from the invisible bonds of sin. Oh, tears! you, flowing from the action of divine enlightenment, open the very heavens and bring down divine consolation. From this consolation and from the spiritual sweetness that I experience, I say again and will repeat many times the same thing: where there are tears with true knowledge, there is the illumination of the divine light, and where there is the illumination of this light, there is the bestowal of all blessings, there is also the seal of the Holy Spirit imprinted within the heart, from Whom all the fruits of life are born. From tears, meekness, peace, mercy, compassion, kindness, goodness, faith, and self-control bear fruit to Christ. From tears comes that one loves his enemies and beseeches God for them, rejoices in temptations and boasts in sorrows, looks upon the sins of others as his own and weeps over them, and willingly gives up his life to die for his brethren.

Listen, then, I beseech you, my Christian brethren, and awake from slumber! Enter into yourselves and see if the light of Divine grace has shone within your hearts, see if you have seen the great light of knowledge, if the east has visited you from on high, and if it shines for you who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. God lacks nothing, being full of all good things and perfections. He does not need anything from us, except for our salvation alone. Our salvation cannot take place in any other way, unless our mind is changed and made by another action of the power of God, so that it becomes a deified mind, that is, passionless and holy. A deified mind is that which has God within itself. However, it is impossible for the mind to become such of itself. Only that mind which unites with God through faith and comes to know Him through the fulfillment of the commandments, only such a mind is most surely vouchsafed to see Him contemplatively, for through the medium of faith which it has in Christ, Christ dwells within him and makes him deified. And the mind is preserved deified if it is always taught what is Christ's, and constantly hearkens to His law, for as long as one hearkens to the law of Christ, he also keeps His commandments (and through this he keeps himself deified); as again, whoever has a deified mind, therefore he himself is always taught that which is Christ's, constantly hearkens to His law and fulfills His commandments.

Let us strive then, beloved, to nourish and kindle in ourselves the most abundant divine fire, that is, the love of God, by doing the commandments of Christ, for by means of them the divine fire is kindled in us, and by means of them it is usually increased. As sensual fire is kindled in matter, such as wood and other than such combustible, so that when a small spark of fire falls on such a substance, it kindles a great flame, which then becomes the greater the more combustible substance it finds; In the same way, the intellectual fire acts in relation to the intelligent (or in the intellectual domain). As the combustible substance is for sensual fire, so is the rational soul, which has in itself a combustible substance, the commandments of Christ, for the fire of the Divine. Divinity, that is, Divine grace in itself, alone, is not manifest unless it descends into the rational soul. Just as sensual fire does not appear in the sensual if it does not find combustible substance, so the intellectual fire does not appear in the intellect if it does not find the substance of God's commandments. The Lord also says: "He who loves Me will keep My commandments, and I will love him, and I will appear to him Myself" (John 14:21). Material fire, before it manifests itself in the material, is hidden; In the same way, the divine fire, before manifesting itself in intelligent souls, is hidden. And again, the beginning of sensual fire is incomprehensible, because it is hidden within the sensual; In the same way, the beginning of the mental fire is inconceivable, because it is hidden in the intelligent. However, the sensual fire is of the same nature with the sensual, and the intelligent fire is not of the same nature with the intelligent (souls), for the Creator is not of the same nature with the creature. Consequently, the intellectual fire is much more hidden in the intellectual than the sensual in the sensual.

Let us consider, brethren, and examine ourselves to the point of exactness, whether there is the seal of Christ in us, and by the signs indicated above let us try to find out definitely whether Christ is in us. If we have not yet received Christ, do not yet have His seal, and do not see that there are in us the signs of which we have spoken, but rather we see everything contrary to this, that is, that the lovely world (deceitful, deceitful - Ed.) lives in us, and we, unfortunately, live in it, that we place high the temporal blessings of the world, and in sorrows, we faint those who come upon us, we grieve in dishonor, but in honors, riches, and pleasures, worldly and carnal, we rejoice and be glad; woe to us because of the evil that we suffer, woe to us because of the ignorance and darkness that covers us, woe to us because of the wretchedness and insensibility that have prevailed over us! We have completely descended to the valley, to the earthly, worldly and sensual. Truly we are poor and miserable, being far from eternal life and the kingdom of heaven, because we have not yet acquired Christ in ourselves, but still have the living world in us, inasmuch as we live in it and philosophize on earth. And whoever is such is clearly an enemy of God, because addiction to the world is enmity against God, as the divine Apostle says: "Love not the world, neither that which is in the world" (1 John 2:15), for the love of this world is enmity to God (James 4:4). It is impossible for God to work and live according to man.

Verily I say to you, my brethren, that there is nothing better in the world than to have nothing of the good things of this world, and to desire nothing superfluous except what is necessary for the body. Bread, water, clothing, and shelter are necessary for the body, as the divine Apostle says: "Having food and clothing, we shall be filled with them" (1 Timothy 6:8). But if we are in need of anything greater than this, He Who has given us incomparably more, and fulfills every animal of good will (Psalm 144:16), will certainly grant this to us, who believe and trust in Him. Let us only leave all that is sinful and unclean before God, such as: vanity, envy, hatred, enmity, deceit, murmuring, lies, unrighteousness, covetousness, abuse, reproach, slander, gossip, pride, hatred of man, malice, and all the other things that the devil taught the human race. He did not command this so that we would indiscriminately hate God's creations, but so that through this we would cut off the causes of sin. For this reason let us finally hate the world and all that God hates, because all this is destructive to the soul.

The blessings of this world are obstacles that do not allow us to love God and please Him. Who, loving glory and honor from men, can have himself the least of all and the most humble, be poor in spirit and contrite in heart, sigh and weep for his sins? Who, loving wealth, all things, and possessions, can be merciful and compassionate, and not hard-hearted and bestial more than any beast? Who can, being vain and proud, be free from the envy of rivalry? And is it possible for one who is given over to carnal passions and wallows in impure pleasures, to be pure in heart, or to behold God, Who created him? Where can he see Him?! Is it also possible for one to be a peacemaker who has alienated himself from God and does not listen to Blessed Paul, who says: "For we pray according to Christ, as I pray to God by us, we pray according to Christ, be reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5:20). That is, instead of Christ, Who was the ambassador, the mediator of God the Father to people, so that they would be reconciled to God, we, the Apostles, who accepted the embassy and instead of Christ became the mediators of God the Father to you, instead of Christ and His Father, we beseech you: be reconciled to God. For everyone who transgresses the commandments of God is an adversary of God, fighting against Him. And how can such a person be a peacemaker of others? Even if he happens to reconcile others with one another, he cannot arrange this reconciliation in such a way that it is pleasing to God. When he is an enemy to himself and to God, it can be doubted that those who are reconciled through him, just like him, are not enemies of God. Whoever is an enemy to someone will not be able to advise others to do anything pleasing to his enemy, he will not be able to teach them to do the will of his enemy, when he himself is an opponent of this will.