And so, the matter of the one who has decided: be zealous, take up more resolutely the feats, which are also the most decisive and adaptable, for among them some are more and others less conducive to the mortification of the passions and the imprinting of virtues. If this state of suffering is inevitable, albeit transitory, then what is the point of dragging out this matter for one oversight? Indecision, oversight, lethargy are a great obstacle.

I have decided, do not stand there, but fight; This is on behalf of a person. But at the same time it is necessary to constantly keep in mind that, although self-ruthless zeal is salvific for the convert, nevertheless the success and fruits of his labors and feats, that is, their influence and influence on the purification of the passions and the formation of true good morals, are not from him. The fruit of podvigs is sown and ripens under them, but not by them and not through them alone, but by grace. I planted, Apollos gave me to drink, and God grew (1 Corinthians 3:6). As spiritual life began by God's grace, so can it only be preserved and matured. "He who has begun a work in you is strong," says the Apostle, "and will accomplish it to the end" (cf. Phil. 1:6). The first seed of the new life consists of a combination of freedom and grace, and its spur will be the development of these elements alone. Just as there, vowing to live according to the will of God, to His glory, the penitent said: "Only Thou strengthen and strengthen," so in all the time that follows he must at every moment, so to speak, put himself into the hand of God with the prayer: "Thou Thyself do what pleases Thy will," so that in this way, both in consciousness and volition, and in reality, God will be at work in us, and to will, and to do good will (Phil. 2:13). The minute in which a person himself hopes to do something about himself and in himself is the minute of extinguishing a true, spiritual, grace-filled life. In this state, in spite of exorbitant labors, there is no true fruit. There are consequences that cannot be called bad if you look at them separately; but in the course of the matter they are a stop and a deviation, and often an evil, for they lead to arrogance, self-conceit, which are the seed of the devil, instilled by him and related to him. At the same time, the work of God in us is not mixed with God's and spoils it, so that instead of raising up a person who has come to his senses, grace will first cleanse and remove (throw away rubbish, unnecessary - Ed.), spoiled by self-madeness. Or do you not know that Christ is in you, the Apostle teaches, unless you are unskilled (cf. 2 Corinthians 13:5). Having united with the Lord in the Sacrament of repentance or baptism, we must surrender ourselves to Him, so that having entered into us Himself, as the Lord of all, He will arrange our salvation by the tidings of fate. The Lord said: "Without Me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5) – we must believe and ask Him to do in us, to cleanse us of passions, to impress virtue in us, and to do all that is healing. This is the essential mood of the penitent: "By them weigh my destinies, save me, O Lord, and I will work and without hypocrisy, without deviations or misinterpretations, with a clear conscience, do everything that I understand and can!" His teacher is God, the man of prayer is God, the willer and doer is God, the fruit-bearer is God, the ruler is God. This is the seed and heart of the heavenly tree of life in him, but for him there must be a material-spiritual fence. This fence is made up of a leader and rules.

The repentant, having given himself over to God, immediately comes under His direct guidance and is accepted by Him. Whoever manages to do this, as he should, at the beginning, is hastily, smoothly and reliably led by God's grace to perfection. But in fact, there are very few of them. These are God's chosen ones, who, with an incredibly quick impulse from themselves, placed themselves in God's hands, were accepted and led by Him. Such, for example, are Mary of Egypt, Paul of Thebes, Marco of Thrace, and others. They were saved only by a resolute surrender of themselves to God. Mary of Egypt, in all her fierce battles with the passions, had a rule to throw oneself into the hand of God, and the passions departed, as we know, through podvig. Without a doubt, she did the same in other cases: for example, she asked for admonition and received it.

But such a path was not and could not be universal. He belonged and still belongs to the special chosen ones of God. Others are all maturing under the visible guidance of experienced men. Standing in the faith that only God grows, the penitent, in order to be in time, must without fail surrender himself to his father-leader. The necessity of this is presented because there is no complete surrender of oneself to God, a defect belonging to the majority. It must be matured and matured by many experiments, and before its formation there is no point to which the guiding hand of the Lord would touch – there is, as it were, no occasion for which the message must. Consequently, without this condition, one who begins to do the work of salvation himself will inevitably follow a path of which it cannot be said decisively that it is the right path, and this is both dangerous and painful for the spirit. Saint Anthony the Great, when he came to the thought whether his rules were correct, immediately began to cry out: "Tell me, O Lord, the way," and, having received assurance, he calmed down. He who enters the spiritual life is the same as one who has entered the ordinary path. Since this path is unknown to us, it is necessary that someone accompany us. It would be presumptuous to dwell on the idea that I myself can... No, neither rank nor scholarship - nothing helps. It is no less presumptuous if someone, without extreme need, having the opportunity to obtain a leader, does not choose him, in the thought that God will directly guide him. Indeed, the knowledge to perfection belongs to God, who came to us, but under the guidance of the father. The Father does not raise them to degrees, but helps them to be raised up from God. However, in the usual order, God leads us through others, admonishes us, purifies us, and declares His will. Those who are left alone, with themselves, are in extreme danger, not to mention the fact that they will struggle and jostle in one place almost without any fruit. Not knowing either spiritual feats and exercises, or the order in them, he will only do and remake, as one who does not know how to take up a task. Often for this reason, many people stagnation, grow cold and lose jealousy. But the main danger to it is from internal discord and satanic flattery. The one who began has a fog inside, as from stinking vapors, from passions and wrong publications from himself, from spoiled forces. Everyone has it, more or less thick, judging by the previous depravity. In this fog, how good and correct is it to distinguish objects? To one who wanders in the mist, even a small row of herbals often seems like a forest or a village, so one who has begun spiritual activity inevitably sees much where there is nothing in reality. Only an experienced eye can reason and explain what is going on. Again, he is sick: how can he be his own doctor? He will kill and strangle himself out of love for himself: for even bodies are not healed by doctors themselves. But the main danger in this case is from Satan. Since he himself is primarily self-witted, he loves more among people those who are guided by their own mind, and on this he mainly confuses and destroys. And it can be said that this alone gives him access to us, or the opportunity to plunge us into destruction. Whoever does not believe in his own mind and heart, and, on the contrary, offers everything that is in feeling and thought to the judgment of another, even if the devil instills something dangerous and pernicious, will not suffer, because the experience and reason of another will unravel the delusion and warn him. That is why they say: whoever has a leader and entrusts himself to him, Satan does not approach him, so as not to be constantly put to shame and not to reveal all his snares. On the contrary, it does not cease to exist with him who believes in himself alone or composes his reason and relies on it. Such a one, by various plausibles, imprinted through imagination, or by the power of dreaming, he leads him along various crossroads, until at last he completely destroys him.

Judging by these reasons, which are very valid, the beginner must agree to have a leader, elect him and surrender to him. Under it he is safe, as under a roof and a fence - he will already be responsible both before God and before people for infidelity. But it is wondrous that the seeker is always sincerely given a true guide. And the guide, whoever he may be, always gives accurate and faithful guidance, as soon as the one who is led gives himself over to him with all his soul and faith. The Lord Himself already guards such a devotee... Pray - and the Lord will show you a guide; give yourself over to your leader, and the Lord will teach him how to guide you.

Another thing that is inevitably necessary for a repentant who has made up his mind is rules. A rule is a definition or a method, an image and an institution of any activity, whether internal or external. They are given the direction and the whole course is determined - the beginning, time, place, turns, the end of the action. Thus, for example, one must read – this is one of the ascetic deeds. The rule should determine: what books to read, at what time, how much, how to prepare, how to begin, continue and finish, what to do with what you read. The same is true for prayer, reasoning, and other activities. It is obvious that the rules encompass every action, they constitute its outer shell, as if it were a body. They must be imposed on all our forces, on all the outcomes of our activity, so that no movement can be made without its own rule being applied to it.

The need for this is self-evident. A completely new, unusual life begins, in which we have not yet exercised, to which our strength is unaccustomed. In order to accustom oneself to this or that activity and to strengthen oneself in it, it is necessary to appoint certain rules for how and what to do, just as a newly recruited soldier is shown how to stand, take a gun, and so on. Without them, strength will not be formed, and there will be no serviceable activity. He will not know how to pray who does not have a rule for prayer, or to fast without a rule of fasting; In general, the wrong will not be able to do anything as he should, and consequently his life will not be life, in spite of his labors and sweats, for life is composed of our activities. Moreover, life without rules cannot be even, sedately and harmoniously developing. A child is swaddled so that he does not become a freak or with a hump: in the same way, all spiritual activity should be entwined with rules, it is expedient that all life should develop under them smoothly and harmoniously, that no activity should take out of ignorance a direction that stands out from others and harms the whole system, or does not fall into the wrong path of its own accord, as, for example, post. A young plant is propped up or tied to a strong one so that it stands and grows straight. He who develops without rules, of his own accord, is untrained, unskillful, unable to do some things, doing some things in the wrong way, and some things in this way, but this is out of place, out of touch with the person. Finally, the danger is considerable: without rules, as without support, it is inevitable to fall and make mistakes. For such a person, all activity will hang on the presence of the spirit, consideration and desire. But can we rely on such principles? Presence of mind cannot always be preserved; the mind must be trained and, moreover, it is not always mobile, sharp and dull; Who can control desire all the time? Therefore, when there are no rules, omissions, mistakes, and stops are inevitable. There is only one thing with the rules: whether you want it or not, do it as it should be, and it will be done; There will be no stop, and he will move forward. And again: how else to curb willfulness and self-thinking - this most dangerous disposition [26]?

Thus, with the rules, under the guidance of the father, the zealous, striving in self-compulsion and self-resistance, or remaining in an unremitting struggle, will day by day grow in perfection, approach purity, through the eradication of his passions and the acquisition of virtues. But one must know that this ascent to perfection is invisible to him: he labors in the sweat of his brow, but as if without fruit, grace builds its work under cover. A human vision, the eye, eats up the good. Man himself is left with only one thing - the vision of his obscenity. The path to perfection is the path to the realization that I am blind, and poor, and naked, in constant connection with which stands contrition of spirit, or illness and sorrow for my impurity, poured out before God, or, what is the same thing, unceasing repentance. Repentant feelings are the distinguishing signs of true asceticism. Whoever deviates from them and avoids them has deviated from the way. In the position of beginning a new life there was repentance; it must also be in growth and mature with it. The one who matures matures in the knowledge of his corruption and sinfulness and deepens into the contrite feelings of repentance. Tears are a measure of maturity, and incessant tears are a sign of imminent purification. That this is how it should be is evident from the fact that we are in the fall, in exile, out of the hearth, and moreover because of our own fault. The exile weeps and regrets his homeland; In the same way, those who have begun to purify themselves should grieve and lament, and seek in tears a return to the paradise of purity. Moreover, he who strives is constantly in struggle with unwillingness, now with diswillingness; now thought, now desire, now passion, now sin, now sin, though unintentional, minute by minute muddy the purity of his mind and remind him that he contains in himself only impurity, sinful, contrary to God. He sees himself as like a stinking corpse, lying before his face and tormenting his sense of smell until his head darkens. "Lay thy sins before thee," says Anthony the Great, "and see through them to God. Finally, frequent falls and misdeeds in beginners, due to inexperience, ignorance, lack of skill, and sometimes even weakness, fall as a heavy burden on his conscience, and, perhaps, heavier than before: in carelessness the sins are greater. He is like a child learning to walk and falling. And falls require purification, consequently - contrition, repentance, tears; That is why everyone is commanded daily and even every minute to repent. God, be merciful to me, a sinner! this should be the unceasing prayer of the ascetic.

Thus, the beginner with ardent and quick zeal devotes himself to the most decisive feats, expecting, however, everything from the power and help of God, and devoting himself to Him, in the hope of success, but not seeing it, and therefore in unceasing undertaking, under the guidance of his father, among the rules, always keeping to the humblest part.

In such a spirit and structure, the ascetic can reliably begin his work - the work of eradicating passions, or purifying his nature from the admixture of unnatural passion. In his spirit there is a zeal as strong as death; But even the strongest zeal has need of a plan in order to go correctly towards the intended goal. In explaining it will consist all the rules for one who enters upon podvig. This will be nothing more than an exposition of those rules, the necessity of which has been shown before. The leader of a general theory must know this most of all, and, when applied to the person being guided, he can also change them in accidents that are subject to change.

In order to construct such rules, let us again affirm the thought on the state of the repentant-ascetic. The spirit in him is resurrected and enlivened by the action of grace received in the Sacraments. But it alone is the healed part, hidden in the very depths of our being. This is the same as a healing medicine taken on a part of the body that is completely decaying. Then, outside, his soul, in all its powers, and the body, in all its functions, and the man himself, in all external relations, are overflowing and saturated with passion, not dead, but active in them, living. The main task of labor is to kill passion in all its shades and to restore nature to its proper purity, so that in this way grace from within, in the process of purification, appears, as if penetrating in man one part after another, with wise gradualness and purposefulness. From here the whole order of the rules to be built is immediately visible, or the measuring thread for the wire and drawing them is visible. Thus:

1) The seed of life has been sown: keep it with all your keeping; otherwise there is nothing to apply to and labor, and there is nothing with which to bear them. If you have received the Spirit, do not quench the Spirit; if you are jealous, be jealous of more. Guard what is given, what is acquired, this acquired is a coin for the purchase of treasures. It will disappear - and the whole thing will be lost. Just as in time of war one is very anxious to maintain one's position in every possible way, so it is here.

2) It is necessary to tear away the passion that has grown together and dissolved with the forces of our nature. Since this coalescence is similar to the coalescence of chemical compositions, the methods of its separation must be applied to the methods of chemical decomposition. Namely, in order to liberate the element from its coercive state in connection with another, it is brought into contact with a third, external, external, with which it would be in a stronger affinity than with the former. When this is true, the element that bound it falls away, and with this new element it unites and acquires a new form with it. Applying ourselves to this, it is necessary to apply to all the powers of soul and body and all our activity, captivated by passion and kept in a compulsory, unnatural state, something with which they would be in close affinity and co-naturalness, so that in this way, being attached and as it were growing to it, in proportion to be freed from the bonds of passion and assume a new natural form of being. This will be the rule of deeds or occupations imposed on the forces. Walking in them, while preserving that inner acquisition of the Spirit of grace, akin to them and to the forces of our nature, man will be more and more filled with this Spirit, the fire of Whom, thus receiving more freedom to pass inside, the more quickly will it burn impurity, the more it meets the expansion of naturalness.

3) These two points exhaust the structure of the ascetic's positive deeds, or, what is the same thing, the exercises of self-compulsion.