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Preface

This book is addressed primarily to young men who received an Orthodox upbringing in childhood, in order to help them overcome the difficult barrier of youth, fraught with many temptations and temptations, and at the same time not to lose their faith, not to stain their conscience, but to become conscious Orthodox Christians. Much of what has been said here is difficult to understand for a person who has not had the appropriate spiritual experience. It is impossible to bypass and not touch on these issues at all, it is unlikely that it will be possible to convey them in all understandable language. And it's not about the age of the reader. There are people who constantly go to church, but have never experienced and will never understand the main ideological core of this book, because they have never experienced it with all their being. This central theme is man's conversion to Christ as a special supersensible experience, as a turn of the spirit, as a decisive change in volition, in self-consciousness, after which man both feels himself and truly becomes a Christian. The lives of the saints are full of examples of such conversions. The fact of such a great revolution in man is also spoken of by the Holy Fathers, of whom St. Theophan the Recluse expressed himself most closely and most clearly to us.

In the times of Christian piety, Orthodox children grew up in a completely different atmosphere than they do now, even in today's believing families and in Orthodox schools. Mip was still different, not as deeply as it is now, mired in evil. A man of Pushkin's or even Shmelev's way of life turned to Christ by his own volition, as if smoothly and imperceptibly for himself, because he did not need to leave his way of life. That is why man's conversion to Christ, his transformation from a nominal Christian into a spiritual and conscious warrior of the Heavenly Commander, was by no means always considered by church writers, and they rarely focused on it. And only St. Theophan in his work "The Path to Salvation" and St. Ignatius in his words about the sacrament of baptism spoke of conversion as the central moment of the entire spiritual life. It was a time when many Christians remained such only in name, in life, in the general state structure, but no longer in conscience, not in heart, not in fervent conviction. Faith in them weakened more and more. For our time, when the entire way of life is deliberately set in a harsh anti-Christian key, conversion is especially important and it is almost always dramatic. Along with this, the reconciliation that prevails in modern world Orthodoxy and the desire for symbiosis with the world has led to the fact that conversion has somehow been forgotten. Many are again satisfied with a faith that expresses itself only externally, which is reduced only to the fulfillment of a number of precepts. Everything else was built around what was said about conversion to Christ in the book. This topic involuntarily demanded a corresponding reader who, according to his soul, from his life story, would know what it was about. Attempts at Orthodox moral teaching for youth, undertaken by contemporary church authors, in our opinion, are not always satisfactory from this point of view. Young men are often simply taught goodness, without highlighting the fateful moment after which a person becomes a conscious Christian. The last and main question remains: to whom to address your work, if not all adults, not to mention youth, it is suitable? Let's put it this way: the book is intended for reading in the circle of the Orthodox family, In some ways you have to count on the help of the elders, who can quickly understand, learn and pass on to teenagers what is said on these pages.

Introduction

Dear young readers! To those of you who believe in God, who would like to live worthy of your faith, who know what the human soul is, that it is immortal, who have at least heard of God's commandments, who know that they teach good, who generally love this good and strive for it - our book is addressed. If for you the concepts of God, of conscience, of good and evil, are only empty and abstract, interfering with a pleasant life, then, perhaps, we should talk about the sciences that you study in school - physics, chemistry, biology - and say what is not said in textbooks, but which obviously follows from the sciences themselves studied. And the following follows from them: the world could not arise and cannot stand by itself; life is not reducible to the movement of atoms and molecules; the laws of material existence do not determine everything, but only follow from spiritual laws; And finally, the violation of these latter is destructive and dangerous for man and all life on earth. Trying at first to turn away and run away from the moral laws given by God, man returns to them again. If the convictions of morality have not worked, then the facts of objective science can have their say. Not so long ago, many people tried to hide from God by turning to physics and biology, but it was there that they suddenly became even more visible to Him. Is it possible to escape from the Omnipresent? Will it be possible to hide from God in the science, the laws of which He Himself established? External knowledge of God, to which science leads, is able to stir up a sleeping soul. But this is not enough. True faith, which leads not only to awakening, but to the healing of the soul, comes to know God not through external conviction, but through internal, heartfelt communion. The most characteristic feature of your age is that your soul unexpectedly discovers a certain inner source of knowledge and begins to look at the world with completely different eyes. This new knowledge lies not in the realm of reason, but in the realm of feeling, which is why it is said of young men and women who feel it in themselves that they are losing their heads. No matter what adults tell you, no matter what your own reflections, not so long ago, remind you of - you feel that all this was said from a completely different heartfelt mood. And so the young soul starts from everything simple and familiar. The surrounding life and people, even the closest ones, seem alien and cold, unless they are intoxicated by the same intoxicating aroma of youth. Yesterday's teenagers are aware of themselves as smarter than before, more aware of life, more understanding of its complexity. And indeed, the knowledge of life, such an inner comprehension of it as at this time, cannot be taught at the school desk. The overthrow of authority begins, everything is subject to revision and criticism. "Fathers, mothers, teachers - well, what do they understand? They give me the task: to do this and that, the fifth and the tenth, they tell me something from both areas of knowledge, but for all that they are completely incapable of understanding what is going on in my soul... And what is happening there?.. I can't say, but in any case something very big, important, to which neither dry school knowledge nor the abstract instruction of adults who teach us life are at all suitable. They teach us life, but the life of our soul is completely different now. That is why there is no authority for us, except in our own circle, among those who, like us, have rejected authority and have understood life themselves" - these are the thoughts of the young soul on the problem of fathers and sons. It is good when this young soul, instinctively directed towards high and worthy aspirations, nevertheless finds them correctly. Alas, much more often everything turns out quite differently... But do not rush, suddenly matured and wiser soul! After all, you were not yet twenty, or thirty, or forty years old, you do not know what people suffer from at such an age. And those who have already passed these years were once thirteen, fifteen, and eighteen. And it is in vain that you think that adults have forgotten these years, when they themselves, like you, "walked on their heads", not understood by anyone, with rapidly maturing feelings and with a slow growth of prudence. Try to feel and understand that adults (at least some of them) are talking to you as if from the side of the high fence that you are climbing now, and tell you what bumps they have made when they find themselves on this side. After all, the same spiritual dangers await you and those who will come after you... Many poets and writers, reflecting on youth, use such a literary image - moths flying at night to the flame of a candle. Have you ever seen poor things burn their wings easily and die? This comparison is not so much beautiful as harsh. Cognition of the nocturnal will-o'-the-wisp ends in death. And death is not a toy. What is this candle light in comparison with the sun? - Exactly the same as your new inner spiritual knowledge in comparison with the Divine reason and Christian wisdom. The light of the sun on earth is immense, it lives and does not burn. The flame of a candle is visible only in the dark, it beckons, it makes it possible to see something nearby, but for a moth that has touched the flame, it is deadly. Alas, how often youth leaves the true Sun of truth and takes instead the candle of its own inner knowledge, going deeper with it into the darkness of sin! How rarely she is able to believe the word of her elders, and if she listens sometimes, it is only under external compulsion. How many children, even being accustomed from childhood to faith, to prayer, to church piety, in these years somehow instantly lose both. Their "I" acquires more weight for them. This "I" seeks easy and quick self-assertion, self-expression. A child who has ceased to be a child suddenly sees that the world around him is rather dirty and cruel, and if earlier adults still tried not to show him this dirt, now he no longer believes them for this. And now the young soul, seeking the satiation of its mature feelings and impulses, is ready to throw itself into this whirlpool of passions, to dive into it with its head, and only then will the stench of sin reach it. A person is a creature who gets used to everything. After all, if you work in a barn for a long time, then its smell will cease to irritate. When will a person who has known sin from youth have time to come to his senses? When else will he be able to understand that sin is not sweet at all, even if you get used to it? And if he does come to his senses, will he find the strength to get up and return to the path of Christ that he once left behind - the path of truth, goodness and purity? Starting this conversation, we do not know in what state you, our young readers, are. In striving to know life, have you passed through the "fires and waters", which in fact are only the will-o'-the-wisps of temptations and the muddy swamps of passions? Do you know the sin and to what extent? And if not, how do you refrain from it? Is it only external circumstances and the prohibitions of adults (which are more and more easily overcome over time), or those internal obstacles that are called the fear of God and conscience? Do you wish, prudent soul, to look into such a mirror in which you will see yourself? You will see your growing up, your own feelings and temptations. Do you want to take a look? But first let's agree that, having known yourself and your history, you will be attentive to yourself, that you will wait to reject one, only one authority on earth. We, teachers, parents, if you don't want to, don't believe us. But how can you not believe the mirror in which you can see through your own path? Do not strive only to look into a mirror that would embellish you. Well, go and see. And the serpent said to the woman, Did God really say, Ye shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees, but the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, said God, do not eat it or touch it, lest you die." And the serpent said to the woman, "No, you will not die, but God knows that in the day that you eat of them, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil." And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasing to the eyes, and desirable, because it gave knowledge; And she took of its fruit, and ate it; and she gave it also to her husband, and he ate. And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves, and made themselves aprons (Gen. 3:1-7). Has it not yet recognized itself, O soul? Then here is a translation into modern language for you. And the whole world around it, lying in evil, said to the young soul: "Is it true that the Christian teaching has deprived you of all the joys and pleasures of life?" The soul answered: No, we are allowed to do many things, but we are forbidden to do this, that, and the third, so as not to die. And the tempter continued: you will not die, but you will become a Man with a capital letter, you will live by your own mind, and not by someone else's. You, the soul, will know that you yourself are the measure of all things, that the world exists for you, and you for your own pleasure. And the soul saw that what God forbade was beautiful in appearance and sweet in taste, that it was easily and freely tasted by others. She tasted it herself, and gave it to others... Shall I continue, young friend? Until now, you may have learned the whole story for yourself, that is, the sweet part of it. You have scarcely tasted the bitter part, it will last a lifetime, and for the unrepentant it will continue into eternity. Tell me, isn't this story about you and me? Do we not follow the bad example of our foremother? How could the person who wrote this story thousands of years ago know your soul and mine so well? So, it is probably worth listening. It was not for this reason that our foremother fell into sin, it was not for this reason that she gave birth to children in sorrow and illness, it was not for this reason that Adam mourned his fall for all 930 years of his life, and it was not for this reason that people passed on this story to their children and grandchildren for so many centuries, so that, having given us the key to understanding our own souls, it would remain idle or fabulous for us! God does not bring anyone to Himself by force, in spite of or against human will. At your age, the formation of personality is the fastest. Now you are most at the crossroads of life. Which road to choose? Of course, we are not talking about a profession or a place of residence. We have in mind the purpose and meaning of life: will it be high or low, at the level of consciousness, or of wordless instinct? A simple choice of one of two is before you: God, light, life, pure joy on one side; self-sufficient "I", sin, death, torment - on the other. When adults baptize an infant and then introduce him to the sources of grace-filled church life, they only help him in the future to choose the good for himself, to choose the path of God. But they cannot make the choice itself. Babies do not choose, they only imitate their elders and obey them. And you will have to choose the direction of life, even if you do not think about it. The soul has grown, new thoughts and feelings have been revealed in it, and new tasks arise before it. Believing young men and women need to regain their faith, to make it their own, and not their grandmother's. And for those who are untaught to believe in God, it is best to turn to it right now, before the soul becomes hardened, poisoned by grave sins. You have probably already heard such a vulgar philosophical reasoning: we live once, we need to take more from life. The holy Apostle Paul once heard it, and conveyed it even more simply: "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die" (1 Corinthians 15:32). This is the common motto of materialists, but it is they, strange as it may seem, who waste their lives in vain and do not take from it the most important and necessary. In fact, not only life, but also our youth is given to us only once. Each year of youth is unique, and its losses are irreplaceable. What is lost and not done in life at the age of 43 can be made up for at the age of 44, but what is lost at the age of 16 is much more difficult to get back at 17. And it is impossible to return to oneself a year lived thoughtlessly and mediocrely. The most precious treasure for a person is the meaning of his life, its goal, moreover, high and worthy. In youth, many things predispose a person to find it, not to make a mistake in the search and then devote his whole life to this goal. It happens that people find it only in old age and can no longer serve this purpose - how many examples of this every priest meets in the church. And if you never fall in love in all your youth, if you never laugh, even if you are bedridden all this time, but at the same time you find the faith of Christ as your own, you can confidently say that your youth was not in vain, you took the most important thing from it. On the other hand, youth, lived in revelry, is hopelessly ruined, it leaves behind a spiritual desert. So, look for more from life before you scatter over its small sweets and pranks, most often not innocent at all. And the great thing is faith in God and virtue, which allows you to be in communion with Him. In childhood, all good things come easier, almost effortlessly, but not very reliable. Now the path to virtue will become more difficult for you, but having passed it, you will become faithful sons of God, you will receive such great spiritual riches that it is now impossible for you to describe, and you will understand that only for this you should have lived. Do you wish to choose this difficult path to heavenly and eternal blessings? How to do this is what our book will talk about.

Chapter I. The Christian Worldview as the Basis of Moral Teaching

Dear young readers! To those of you who believe in God, who would like to live worthy of your faith, who know what the human soul is, that it is immortal, who have at least heard of God's commandments, who know that they teach good, who generally love this good and strive for it - our book is addressed. If for you the concepts of God, of conscience, of good and evil, are only empty and abstract, interfering with a pleasant life, then, perhaps, we should talk about the sciences that you study in school - physics, chemistry, biology - and say what is not said in textbooks, but which obviously follows from the sciences themselves studied. And the following follows from them: the world could not arise and cannot stand by itself; life is not reducible to the movement of atoms and molecules; the laws of material existence do not determine everything, but only follow from spiritual laws; And finally, the violation of these latter is destructive and dangerous for man and all life on earth. Trying at first to turn away and run away from the moral laws given by God, man returns to them again. If the convictions of morality have not worked, then the facts of objective science can have their say. Not so long ago, many people tried to hide from God by turning to physics and biology, but it was there that they suddenly became even more visible to Him. Is it possible to escape from the Omnipresent? Will it be possible to hide from God in the science, the laws of which He Himself established? External knowledge of God, to which science leads, is able to stir up a sleeping soul. But this is not enough. True faith, which leads not only to awakening, but to the healing of the soul, comes to know God not through external conviction, but through internal, heartfelt communion. The most characteristic feature of your age is that your soul unexpectedly discovers a certain inner source of knowledge and begins to look at the world with completely different eyes. This new knowledge lies not in the realm of reason, but in the realm of feeling, which is why it is said of young men and women who feel it in themselves that they are losing their heads. No matter what adults tell you, no matter what your own reflections, not so long ago, remind you of - you feel that all this was said from a completely different heartfelt mood. And so the young soul starts from everything simple and familiar. The surrounding life and people, even the closest ones, seem alien and cold, unless they are intoxicated by the same intoxicating aroma of youth. Yesterday's teenagers are aware of themselves as smarter than before, more aware of life, more understanding of its complexity. And indeed, the knowledge of life, such an inner comprehension of it as at this time, cannot be taught at the school desk. The overthrow of authority begins, everything is subject to revision and criticism. "Fathers, mothers, teachers - well, what do they understand? They give me the task: to do this and that, the fifth and the tenth, they tell me something from both areas of knowledge, but for all that they are completely incapable of understanding what is going on in my soul... And what is happening there?.. I can't say, but in any case something very big, important, to which neither dry school knowledge nor the abstract instruction of adults who teach us life are at all suitable. They teach us life, but the life of our soul is completely different now. That is why there is no authority for us, except in our own circle, among those who, like us, have rejected authority and have understood life themselves" - these are the thoughts of the young soul on the problem of fathers and sons. It is good when this young soul, instinctively directed towards high and worthy aspirations, nevertheless finds them correctly. Alas, much more often everything turns out quite differently... But do not rush, suddenly matured and wiser soul! After all, you were not yet twenty, or thirty, or forty years old, you do not know what people suffer from at such an age. And those who have already passed these years were once thirteen, fifteen, and eighteen. And it is in vain that you think that adults have forgotten these years, when they themselves, like you, "walked on their heads", not understood by anyone, with rapidly maturing feelings and with a slow growth of prudence. Try to feel and understand that adults (at least some of them) are talking to you as if from the side of the high fence that you are climbing now, and tell you what bumps they have made when they find themselves on this side. After all, the same spiritual dangers await you and those who will come after you... Many poets and writers, reflecting on youth, use such a literary image - moths flying at night to the flame of a candle. Have you ever seen poor things burn their wings easily and die? This comparison is not so much beautiful as harsh. Cognition of the nocturnal will-o'-the-wisp ends in death. And death is not a toy. What is this candle light in comparison with the sun? - Exactly the same as your new inner spiritual knowledge in comparison with the Divine reason and Christian wisdom. The light of the sun on earth is immense, it lives and does not burn. The flame of a candle is visible only in the dark, it beckons, it makes it possible to see something nearby, but for a moth that has touched the flame, it is deadly. Alas, how often youth leaves the true Sun of truth and takes instead the candle of its own inner knowledge, going deeper with it into the darkness of sin! How rarely she is able to believe the word of her elders, and if she listens sometimes, it is only under external compulsion. How many children, even being accustomed from childhood to faith, to prayer, to church piety, in these years somehow instantly lose both. Their "I" acquires more weight for them. This "I" seeks easy and quick self-assertion, self-expression. A child who has ceased to be a child suddenly sees that the world around him is rather dirty and cruel, and if earlier adults still tried not to show him this dirt, now he no longer believes them for this. And now the young soul, seeking the satiation of its mature feelings and impulses, is ready to throw itself into this whirlpool of passions, to dive into it with its head, and only then will the stench of sin reach it. A person is a creature who gets used to everything. After all, if you work in a barn for a long time, then its smell will cease to irritate. When will a person who has known sin from youth have time to come to his senses? When else will he be able to understand that sin is not sweet at all, even if you get used to it? And if he does come to his senses, will he find the strength to get up and return to the path of Christ that he once left behind - the path of truth, goodness and purity? Starting this conversation, we do not know in what state you, our young readers, are. In striving to know life, have you passed through the "fires and waters", which in fact are only the will-o'-the-wisps of temptations and the muddy swamps of passions? Do you know the sin and to what extent? And if not, how do you refrain from it? Is it only external circumstances and the prohibitions of adults (which are more and more easily overcome over time), or those internal obstacles that are called the fear of God and conscience? Do you wish, prudent soul, to look into such a mirror in which you will see yourself? You will see your growing up, your own feelings and temptations. Do you want to take a look? But first let's agree that, having known yourself and your history, you will be attentive to yourself, that you will wait to reject one, only one authority on earth. We, teachers, parents, if you don't want to, don't believe us. But how can you not believe the mirror in which you can see through your own path? Do not strive only to look into a mirror that would embellish you. Well, go and see. And the serpent said to the woman, Did God really say, Ye shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees, but the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, said God, do not eat it or touch it, lest you die." And the serpent said to the woman, "No, you will not die, but God knows that in the day that you eat of them, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil." And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasing to the eyes, and desirable, because it gave knowledge; And she took of its fruit, and ate it; and she gave it also to her husband, and he ate. And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves, and made themselves aprons (Gen. 3:1-7). Has it not yet recognized itself, O soul? Then here is a translation into modern language for you. And the whole world around it, lying in evil, said to the young soul: "Is it true that the Christian teaching has deprived you of all the joys and pleasures of life?" The soul answered: No, we are allowed to do many things, but we are forbidden to do this, that, and the third, so as not to die. And the tempter continued: you will not die, but you will become a Man with a capital letter, you will live by your own mind, and not by someone else's. You, the soul, will know that you yourself are the measure of all things, that the world exists for you, and you for your own pleasure. And the soul saw that what God forbade was beautiful in appearance and sweet in taste, that it was easily and freely tasted by others. She tasted it herself, and gave it to others... Shall I continue, young friend? Until now, you may have learned the whole story for yourself, that is, the sweet part of it. You have scarcely tasted the bitter part, it will last a lifetime, and for the unrepentant it will continue into eternity. Tell me, isn't this story about you and me? Do we not follow the bad example of our foremother? How could the person who wrote this story thousands of years ago know your soul and mine so well? So, it is probably worth listening. It was not for this reason that our foremother fell into sin, it was not for this reason that she gave birth to children in sorrow and illness, it was not for this reason that Adam mourned his fall for all 930 years of his life, and it was not for this reason that people passed on this story to their children and grandchildren for so many centuries, so that, having given us the key to understanding our own souls, it would remain idle or fabulous for us! God does not bring anyone to Himself by force, in spite of or against human will. At your age, the formation of personality is the fastest. Now you are most at the crossroads of life. Which road to choose? Of course, we are not talking about a profession or a place of residence. We have in mind the purpose and meaning of life: will it be high or low, at the level of consciousness, or of wordless instinct? A simple choice of one of two is before you: God, light, life, pure joy on one side; self-sufficient "I", sin, death, torment - on the other. When adults baptize an infant and then introduce him to the sources of grace-filled church life, they only help him in the future to choose the good for himself, to choose the path of God. But they cannot make the choice itself. Babies do not choose, they only imitate their elders and obey them. And you will have to choose the direction of life, even if you do not think about it. The soul has grown, new thoughts and feelings have been revealed in it, and new tasks arise before it. Believing young men and women need to regain their faith, to make it their own, and not their grandmother's. And for those who are untaught to believe in God, it is best to turn to it right now, before the soul becomes hardened, poisoned by grave sins. You have probably already heard such a vulgar philosophical reasoning: we live once, we need to take more from life. The holy Apostle Paul once heard it, and conveyed it even more simply: "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die" (1 Corinthians 15:32). This is the common motto of materialists, but it is they, strange as it may seem, who waste their lives in vain and do not take from it the most important and necessary. In fact, not only life, but also our youth is given to us only once. Each year of youth is unique, and its losses are irreplaceable. What is lost and not done in life at the age of 43 can be made up for at the age of 44, but what is lost at the age of 16 is much more difficult to get back at 17. And it is impossible to return to oneself a year lived thoughtlessly and mediocrely. The most precious treasure for a person is the meaning of his life, its goal, moreover, high and worthy. In youth, many things predispose a person to find it, not to make a mistake in the search and then devote his whole life to this goal. It happens that people find it only in old age and can no longer serve this purpose - how many examples of this every priest meets in the church. And if you never fall in love in all your youth, if you never laugh, even if you are bedridden all this time, but at the same time you find the faith of Christ as your own, you can confidently say that your youth was not in vain, you took the most important thing from it. On the other hand, youth, lived in revelry, is hopelessly ruined, it leaves behind a spiritual desert. So, look for more from life before you scatter over its small sweets and pranks, most often not innocent at all. And the great thing is faith in God and virtue, which allows you to be in communion with Him. In childhood, all good things come easier, almost effortlessly, but not very reliable. Now the path to virtue will become more difficult for you, but having passed it, you will become faithful sons of God, you will receive such great spiritual riches that it is now impossible for you to describe, and you will understand that only for this you should have lived. Do you wish to choose this difficult path to heavenly and eternal blessings? How to do this is what our book will talk about.