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.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, let us hate the world and that which is in the world. For what fellowship do we, Christians, have with the world and with what is in the world? Let us love with all our hearts that God commands us to love. Let us love spiritual poverty, that is, humility, let us love the unceasing day-night weeping, from which spiritual joy is hourly born and consolation is poured out on those who love God. From weeping there is also meekness in those who strive in truth. Those who weep also hunger and thirst for righteousness, and earnestly seek the kingdom of God, which surpasses all human understanding. And not only this, but also that some become merciful and pure in heart, full of peace and peacemaker, also courageous in temptations, is due to unceasing weeping. Weeping produces in us hatred for all evil. It also kindles in the soul a divine zeal, which does not give a person peace for a moment, but, not allowing him to incline to evil with the evil, directs him to all that is good, at the same time filling the soul with courage and strength to endure all temptations and sorrows.

Let us flow, brethren, let us flow with all diligence, until we attain the incorruptible and ever-abiding good, despising the blessings of this world, which are perishable, pass away like a dream, and have nothing permanent and solid in them. The sun and the stars, the heavens and the earth, and all things shall pass away for thee, and thou shalt remain, O man, alone with thy works. What of what we see in this world can benefit us in the hour of mortal need, while we depart from this world and pass into another life, leaving the world and all worldly things here, which will soon pass away and will not be? Let it not pass away immediately, but what is the use of it for us, when, having settled elsewhere (in another place - Ed.), we leave all this here? Our body remains dead in the earth, and the soul, having departed from the body, can no longer look at this world without it, nor be seen from anyone. There her mind turns only to that which is invisible, having no more concern for what is in this world. It is then all in another life, either for the kingdom of heaven and its glory, or for the torment and fire of Gehenna. One of these two things she receives from God as an eternal inheritance, according to the deeds that she has done in this world.

Бежим же от прелестей мира сего и его обманчивых радостей и утешений и к единому устремимся Христу, Спасителю душ наших. Его возревнуем постигнуть и, когда постигнем, припадем к стопам Его и облобызаем их со всею теплотою сердечною. Ей, умоляю вас, восподвизаемся теперь, пока еще мы в настоящей жизни, познать Его и узреть Его. Ибо если здесь сподобимся мы познать Его чувством души своей, то не умрем, смерть не возобладает нами. Не будем дожидаться узреть Его в будущей жизни, но здесь, в этом мире, поподвизаемся узреть Его. Святой Иоанн Богослов говорит: О сем разумеем, яко пребывает в нас, от Духа, Егоже дал есть нам (1Ин.3:24).

Тогда восплачете и возрыдаете, и скорбеть станете бесполезно бесконечные веки. Но да не будет сего с нами, паче же да соделаемся достойными узреть Господа в сей жизни, и когда умирать будем, иметь Его в себе, чтобы с Ним пребывать в другой жизни и радоваться с Ним в царствии Его. Аминь.

Слово четвертое

1. О том, что смерть души есть удаление из нее Духа Святого, жало же смерти сей - грех; и что смерть и тление тела есть уподобление смерти и растлению души.

2. И о том, какие признаки мертвости и живости души.