We must be able to distinguish between sorrow for sins and wrong sorrow. Sorrow for sins gives a person zeal, spiritual vigor, makes him capable of labor, while false sorrow, that is, despondency over his sins, on the contrary, leads a person to a state of weakness, makes him spiritually and morally lazy. These two things need to be distinguished very clearly and clearly. Those who grieve over their sins must always remember about the ultimate goal, about the fact that like it or not, you will have to answer for them, and it is necessary to purify your soul, to prepare it for eternal life. Those who forget about this can, of course, become despondent and relaxed from the very remembrance of sins, and draw the conclusion that if they fail, they will never succeed, that they have already had multiple falls and that there is no way out, and therefore it is useless to work. And the one who sees the ultimate goal - how can he calm down? So, the most important conclusion that I would like to draw is this: despondency is laziness, laziness to spiritual life, laziness to spiritual labors. Therefore, it is necessary to acquire spiritual diligence, which in the Gospel is called compulsion: "The Kingdom of Heaven is wanting" (Matthew 11:12). This compulsion is necessary throughout life, and not in such a way that now you understand everything, you work for three days, and then the incentive to compulsion disappears. No. A person develops and, having changed for the better in some way, needs to force himself again and again to achieve greater virtues. In this way, he steadily moves towards eternal life, sometimes achieving the most sublime spiritual results, the most beautiful and, as it seemed to him before, the most difficult virtues to achieve. When our first parents fell, the Lord said to Adam: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread" (Gen. 3:19). In the literal sense, these words refer to ordinary human labor, work for subsistence. But in a broad sense, they can also be attributed to spiritual life. St. Isaac the Syrian says that our Lord Jesus Christ, shedding bloody sweat during prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, replaced the sweat of labor with the sweat of prayer. That is, for the sake of partaking of spiritual food, which nourishes our soul and strengthens it for eternal life, we must now shed sweat in prayer, just as the Savior did; The ancient commandment remained, but its meaning now became spiritual. And if we accept the interpretation of some of the Holy Fathers that the "daily bread" in the Lord's Prayer is the bread "supersubstantial" and "supersubstantial," that is, first, the Body and Blood of Christ, and second, any spiritual food in general that nourishes our soul, then it turns out that, indeed, for the sake of tasting this spiritual bread, we must also shed the corresponding sweat. Of course, this does not mean that one should literally make so many prostrations in order to be drenched in sweat, although many ascetics did this as well; I think that the deep meaning of life here lies in working spiritually as a person who sweats to buy bread for his livelihood works. Everyone in the world is working like this now. We, having left the world, have lost all common sense. Everything that we had, some sensible notions, reasoning, we discarded and became, as it were, completely incomprehensible people, forgetting that we worked in the world, that even when we were studying at school or at the institute, we had to make some effort, but for some reason we did not want to make it in a monastery. But the commandment remains the same, only in relation to a different subject. We have to work hard. To work with the extreme zeal that a person has, who sheds sweat during his work.

Question. Father, but no matter how much a person forces himself, no matter how hard he works, he still cannot do it without the grace of God.

Answer. We are not talking about this now, but about what a person should do on his part. The Lord is always ready to help us and has already rushed to help us, but we ourselves do not want to accept it. And you want to say again that the Lord does not help and therefore you do not succeed. We came to the monastery to save our souls. We work out of necessity, because we have to take care of ourselves, earn our bread. Exactly out of necessity. And first of all, we must work with all our might for our salvation. One must have diligence, both in general and in private matters of the inner life, to work hard: if it doesn't work today, it will work tomorrow. It is necessary to look for the cause, to reason - of course, under the guidance of the eldress, the spiritual father - to look for the snag, to eliminate it, to work again and again, to work and that's it. In the end, we will achieve the result. Even if it is not something special, the work itself will also be imputed to us, perhaps as impassibility or miracle-working, if only we work all our lives.

Question. What does Archimandrite Sophrony's advice to keep one's mind in hell mean? Are we talking about the memory of death or does it have its own peculiarities? I can imagine how to keep one's mind at the Last Judgment, but not at hell.

Answer. Archimandrite Sophrony received this work from his elder-leader St. Silouan, and it is not suitable for everyone. This is very difficult, it requires guidance and, as it seems to me, high success, so it is better for us to simply humble ourselves, repent, force ourselves to every humble thought about ourselves, and, who knows, perhaps the grace of God acts in this or that person in such a way that he will feel himself really worthy of hell, and what exactly does "keep the mind in hell" mean, I, unfortunately, I cannot say, because I have not experienced anything like this myself, I do not have such an experience, I can even say the opposite, that when, having read the book "Elder Silouan", I tried to imitate him and lower my mind into hell, then I either did not succeed in any of this at all, or despondency appeared, and I gave up my attempts. Often this turns out to be humility in the bad sense of the word, because it is one thing to sincerely think something about yourself and another thing to repeat some saying that does not reach your heart.

It was once revealed to Anthony the Great that a certain man in Alexandria, a tanner, had succeeded more than he. Then he came to him and found out that the man had deep humility and believed that everyone in that city would be saved for their good deeds, and only he would perish for his sins. And Anthony, as already a very experienced ascetic, appreciated his high success, the significance of his work, which proceeded from the deepest humility, and he himself began to imitate him. He also took up this feat - to consider himself perishing with all his heart, as if he had condemned himself to perdition. From that time on, this thought began to be called the thought of St. Anthony. After some time, perhaps after one generation of monks, a certain ascetic, I have forgotten his name, said of himself: "Who can now bear the thought of St. Anthony? However, I know one person who can do this." The ascetic, of course, had himself in mind, but out of modesty or humility he did not want to say it aloud. That is, he believed that in his time - and this was the so-called "golden age" of monasticism - there were no more people capable of bearing this idea. This does not mean that people could not repeat the words of St. Anthony in their minds. Yes, we can repeat them. But if we sincerely begin to think of ourselves in this way, we will fall into such despair that not only will we not receive any benefit, but we may perish from such an unbearable burden, from that spiritual burden that we are not able to take upon ourselves. This is what it means to carry such a thought. To do this, you need to have grace, strength of spirit. And if we do not have them, then it will lead us not to salvation, but to destruction. If already in that generation, in ancient times, in the fourth or fifth century, the ascetic believed that there were no people capable of holding such a thought, then what can we say about us who weep because someone in the cell slammed the door. What kind of mind is there to keep in hell. We should keep our minds in the monastery so that it does not fly away somewhere. In addition, it is necessary to understand such an important thing: the doing of St. St. Anthony or the like is not humility itself, but only a means to achieve it. After all, the most important thing is that there is humility of heart. The Saviour said: "Learn from Me, that I am meek and lowly in heart" (Matt. 11:29), and again: "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts" (Matt. 15:19). The heart is the source of human life. If a person is convinced of something in his heart, it means that he is really convinced of it. If you are humble in heart, then you are truly humble. You may not express any thoughts, you may not have any images, but humility will be there. And vice versa, you can convince yourself as much as you like that you are dust and ashes, as the righteous Abraham said (Gen. 18:27), or, like the prophet David, that you are a worm and not a man (Psalm 21:7), but in fact you will think: "Behold, I am a worm, and not a man, therefore I am better than all these people. After all, they do not think of themselves as worms and not people, but I think that is why they are worms, and I am a man." And from this we can conclude that you should not force yourself so unwisely, but you need to humble yourself more in your heart.

Question. Can a novice have a crown from God if he does not yet have a real struggle with the passions?

Answer. If a person truly sincerely, seriously, with extreme compulsion struggles with self-will, then by this struggle alone, by his obedience alone, he cuts off all other passions, which, in the final analysis, all come from self-will, because any passion is a deviation from the will of God. By voluntarily submitting himself to the will of a monastic more experienced than himself, a person thus cuts off his will and destroys all the consequences of its corruption, that is, passion. Then he can be saved without a struggle with the passions. Abba Dorotheus writes beautifully about this. He lived in the monastery completely without sorrow, because he told everything to the elders and completely obeyed them.

Question. In the "Revelation" of John the Theologian it is said that in the coming age those who will be among the saved will be given a new name. I will give him a new name written, which no one will hear, but accept it (see Rev. 2:17). What is this name?

Ответ. Мое мнение таково, что новое имя, которое будет дано человеку и которого никто не будет знать, - это не то формальное, которое мы теперь носим, представляющее из себя случайное сочетание звуков, а имя, которое будет соответствовать сущности человека. Оно как бы откроет его личность. Имя будут знать только он и Бог, потому что личность человека - это тайна. Мы можем попробовать только как бы "вычислить" какого-то человека, например сестру И. мы выясняем, где она училась музыке, какие музыкальные произведения любит, почему именно их. И оказывается, что это произошло потому, что она находилась под влиянием таких-то педагогов, что жила в таком-то городе, что какие-то ноты, допустим, у нее были, а каких-то не было. И вот мы постепенно вычисляем, вычисляем и видим, что в ней есть собственно индивидуального, а что в нее было привнесено и от нее не зависело. Видим, в чем человек, выражаясь философским языком, детерминирован, то есть предопределен. И выясняется, что все в характере сестры И. детерминировано, предопределено обстоятельствами, а собственно свободного проявления ее личности и не было. Свободы не было. А вот в будущей жизни человек благодаря христианской жизни, христианскому подвигу становится настоящей личностью. Он становится самим собой, неподражаемым, неповторимым существом, которое, при всей бесчисленности человеческих существ, человеческих ипостасей, все-таки является чем-то особенным. Вот в этом смысле, может быть, и надо понимать, что ему дано будет новое имя.

Вопрос. Батюшка, я знаю несколько случаев, когда люди, имевшие непрестанную молитву, совершали мерзкие поступки. Получается, одна непрестанная молитва еще ничего не значит, надо что-то еще иметь?

Ответ. Непрестанная молитва - это дар Божий. Этот дар Божий еще надо оправдать, как бы ответив на него соответствующими трудами. А что еще нужно? Нужно бесстрастие, или любовь. Любовь, понимаемая как совокупность всех совершенств (см. Кол.3:14), по слову апостола Павла, то есть не как только одна добродетель из многих, а как всеобъемлющая добродетель, вмещающая в себя все прочие в виде частностей. Человек, обладающий даром такой любви, уже не будет совершать мерзких поступков, просто не сможет их совершить. Поэтому те, кто имеет какое-то преуспеяние в молитве - в непрестанной или просто очень внимательной, - пусть не думают, что этим все заканчивается, будто бы они уже чего-то достигли. Если они так подумают, то действительно смогут и что-нибудь мерзкое совершить и потеряют благодать. Нужно трудиться над очищением своего сердца, а не думать, что теперь у нас осталась только одна цель - получить духовное утешение.

Вопрос. Разве Иисусова молитва, которую мы повторяем целый день, не приводит к смирению и не убеждает в том, что рая мы недостойны?

Ответ. Понимаешь, это все только слова, за которыми нет сердечного чувства. Мы можем говорить себе: "Да, мы знаем, что должны думать о себе то и то. Да, мы знаем, что мы такие-то и такие-то". Но мы знаем это умом, а отнюдь не сердцем. Конечно, Иисусова молитва самим смыслом своих слов должна нас располагать и понуждать к покаянию. Тот, кто нуждается в помиловании, кто считает себя грешником, безусловно, должен считать себя недостойным рая и вечного блаженства, поэтому, собственно, он и просит о помиловании без конца, целый день. Теоретически так, но на деле оказывается, что и этим можно загордиться, т.е. говорить слова Иисусовой молитвы: "Господи, Иисусе Христе, Сыне Божий, помилуй мя грешнаго", - а при этом думать: "Раз я повторяю эту молитву, то я не такой, как прочие люди: хищницы, неправедницы, прелюбодеи или якоже сей мытарь (см. Лк.18:11), который молитвы Иисусовой не повторяет". Бывает такое? Бывает, и очень часто. Поэтому если святые отцы или, может быть, даже апостолы составили слова Иисусовой молитвы таким образом, чтобы она всем своим смыслом располагала к смирению, то это не значит, что всякий повторяющий ее уже автоматически смирился. В принципе, может быть, ты и права теоретически - подчеркиваю: теоретически - в том, что Иисусова молитва сама по себе - достаточное средство для смирения. Однако если бы все было так просто, то святые отцы: Лествичник, Авва Дорофей и многие, многие другие, и великие, и менее известные, - не писали бы всех своих книг. Зачем писать, когда можно было бы сказать: "Читайте все Иисусову молитву и будете смиренными". Так ведь? Значит, они считали, что необходимы еще какие-то наставления об этой добродетели, и теме о стяжании смирения посвящали многочисленные рассуждения, уделяли этому большое внимание.