It was by the heavenly ideal of holiness that Holy Russia lived for many centuries of its history, to which it strove, to which it sought. And many Russian people attained this ideal, and those who did not attain it came very close to it. This is evidenced by numerous facts of Russian history and Russian life. For example, St. Silouan the Athonite said of his father Ivan Petrovich, a simple peasant, that he, that is, St. Silouan, had not attained the measure of Christian perfection, that his father was higher than him. And this is what a great saint says!

And one spiritual writer recounts the following story of the nun Smaragda, a man of high spiritual life, a righteous woman and a woman of prayer: "A woman is sitting in the market, selling something from her garden. She pulled the handkerchief over her eyes: firstly, the sun was baking, and secondly, in order to be less distracted by the surrounding bustle, she said the Jesus Prayer. She sat with her eyes downcast, praying, and suddenly she heard a poor old man come up to her and say to her: "And you should be simpler: only 'Lord, have mercy', so it will be easier for you." He said it and went. It was the first time she had seen him. Of course, she prayed to herself: he could not hear. That's what we used to have both merchants and beggars..."

And how many of them there were in Russia, God's people and righteous people, known only to God! It is not at all surprising that St. Seraphim of Sarov once saw in the Holy Spirit the Russian land, which was all covered with the fragrant smoke of prayers, rising from earth to heaven. And this, of course, is truly a picture of the people of God, who live by faith, prayer, and communion with God. The words of the poet Rilke, who said that all states border on each other, and Russia borders on God, are quite true...

Russia got a difficult path, throughout its history it was forced to fight against numerous strong and merciless enemies, often threatening it with complete destruction. It was not protected from these enemies by the sea, mountains, or deserts, because Russia is located on a wide plain open on all sides. From the east, the hordes of Batu Khan and Mamai were marching on it, from the west - the Poles, Napoleon and Hitler. From the north - the Swedes, from the south - the Turks. The very climatic and natural conditions in which she lived were difficult conditions: half of the territory of Russia is permafrost, where agriculture is impossible. Its southern part, where agriculture is possible, was a territory completely open and not protected from military invasions and from raids of steppe predators. Therefore, people have always lived in Russia relatively poorly. Even what they managed to accumulate was often destroyed, captured, burned to ashes by another invasion or raid.

Yes, life in Russia was not cloudless and easy. But from the Christian point of view, this is exactly what the life of the people of God should be. No Orthodox people lived a serene, safe and comfortable life. The reason for this is clear: man is weak, and if he is given all the comforts and a luxurious life, he easily forgets God, forgets everything heavenly and completely turns to the earth, drowning in the dust of the earth. That is why the Lord did not give His peoples such a life. St. Isaac of Syria says that "this is what distinguishes the sons of God from the rest, that they live in sorrows, while the world rejoices in pleasure and peace. For it was not God's pleasure that His beloved should rest while they were in the body, but rather that while they were in the world, they should remain in sorrow, in burden, in labor, in poverty, in nakedness, in loneliness, in need, in sickness, humiliation, in insults, in contrition of heart..." In this way the Lord leads all His true followers, just as He Himself, having become man, walked in our world precisely this path – the path of the cross.

In order to understand why the Lord does not allow His people to become too rich and luxurious, it is also necessary to remember what kind of land we live on, to remember that our land is not a place of entertainment and pleasure, but a place where we were expelled from Paradise, a place of our punishment and correction. We live in a perishable, fallen and damaged world, in a world where death reigns, where everything is saturated with it, we live in a territory occupied by the devil and death, we live a short time that we must devote to the struggle – the struggle to fulfill God's commandments. On earth we live as in a war, as at the front. Is it possible, therefore, for Christians to settle down here with all the comforts and luxuries? Will soldiers build five-star hotels with their glitter and excesses on the front line instead of trenches and fortifications? Is it possible for the followers of Christ to drown in pleasure and luxury in the world where their Creator, Lord and Savior have been killed? Where does merciless death rage? Where are many millions of people suffering and suffering? where someone dies every second?..

This does not mean, of course, that the people of God are doomed to complete poverty and ruin, to the life of ragged, homeless and homeless people, no, the Lord gives us everything necessary for earthly life, for, in His own words, He knows that we have need of it. But the Lord does not allow His people to become excessively rich and reach an excess and satiated life, because then the people cease to be the people of God, cease to give birth to saints. The Lord wisely leads His people along the middle path, the path of moderate poverty. In this way He led the people of Israel in Old Testament times, who never had even close to such earthly splendor and wealth, such a glorious earthly culture as, for example, Egypt, Greece or Rome. And in the same way He led all truly Christian, that is, Orthodox peoples in the times of the New Testament. He led them in this way because on this path the people of God are most capable of giving birth to saints and righteous men.