Discourse I. Exhortation at the Onset of the Holy Forty Days

I rejoice and rejoice to see now that the Church of God adorns itself with a multitude of its children, and that all of you have gathered together with great joy. When I look at your radiant faces, I find in them the clearest proof of your spiritual joy, as the Most Wise One said: "The heart rejoices, the face blossoms" (Prov. XV, 13). That is why I have risen today with great zeal, having in mind and participating with you in this spiritual joy, and at the same time wishing to be for you the herald of the coming of the Holy Forty Days, as the healing of our souls. And the Lord, who is common to all of us, as a loving father, desiring to cleanse you from the sins we have committed at any time, has granted us healing in holy fasting. And so, let no one grieve, let no one be sad, but rejoice, rejoice, and glorify the Guardian of our souls, Who has opened to us this beautiful path, and accept his coming with great joy! Let the Greeks be ashamed, let the Jews be ashamed, seeing with what joyful readiness we welcome its coming, and let them know by their very deeds what a difference there is between us and them. Let them call drunkenness, all kinds of unbridled and shamelessness, which they usually produce, festivals and celebrations. And the Church of God, in spite of them, let the feast call fasting, the contempt (of the pleasures) of the belly, and the following virtues. And this is a true feast, where there is salvation of souls, where there is peace and harmony, from which all worldly pomp is banished, where there is no shouting, no noise, no running of cooks, no slaughter of animals, but instead of all this there reigns perfect tranquility, silence, love, joy, peace, meekness and innumerable blessings.

It is about this, I say, feast that we will converse a little with your love, asking you beforehand to listen to our words with complete calmness, so that you may depart from here for home, having brought good fruit. We are not gathered here simply and not in vain, so that one may speak and the other applaud the words of the first, and then all depart from here, but that we also may say something useful and necessary for your salvation, and you may receive fruit and great benefit from our words, and with this we departed from here. The Church is a spiritual hospital, and those who come here must receive the appropriate actions, apply them to their wounds, and leave here with this. And that hearing alone, without being fulfilled in practice, will not bring any benefit, listen to Blessed Paul, who says: "For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in the sight of God, but the makers of the law will be justified" (Rom. II, 13). And Christ, in His sermon, said: "Not everyone shall say to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but do the will of my Father, who is in heaven" (Matt. VII, 21). Therefore, beloved, knowing that it will be of no use to us to hear if it is not followed by fulfillment in deed, let us not only hear, but also doers, so that the deeds corresponding to the words may serve as the foundation of the animated word. Open the bowels of your soul and accept the word about fasting. As those who are preparing to receive a chaste and beautiful bride adorn the bride-room on all sides with veils, cleanse the whole house, do not admit a single worthless maid into it, and then lead the bride into the bridal chamber, so I desire that you, having purified your souls and parted from amusements and all intemperance, receive with open arms the mother of all good things and the teacher of chastity and all virtue, i.e. fasting - so that you also enjoy great pleasure, and it (fasting) gives you proper and appropriate healing. And physicians, when they intend to give medicine to those who wish to cleanse their rotten and spoiled juices, command them to abstain from ordinary food, so that it does not prevent the medicine from working and exerting its power; How much more should we, preparing to accept this spiritual medicine, i.e. the benefits arising from fasting, purify our minds and lighten our souls by abstinence, so that it, mired in intemperance, does not make fasting useless and fruitless for us.

2. I see that our words seem strange to many; but, I beg you, let us not foolishly fawn on habit, but begin to arrange our lives in accordance with reason. Indeed, will it be of any use to us to spend the whole day in gluttony and drunkenness? What do I say: benefit? On the contrary, (from this will come) great harm and irreparable evil. As soon as the mind is darkened by the immoderate use of wine, then immediately, at the very beginning and at the first step, the benefit of fasting ceases.

Drunkards, it is said, will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. VI, 10). What can be more pitiful than these people who, for a brief and disastrous pleasure, are expelled from the thresholds of the kingdom? But let no one of those gathered here be carried away by this passion; on the contrary, that all of us, having spent the present day with all wisdom and chastity, and having been freed from the storm and agitation which drunkenness usually produces, may enter into the harbor of our souls, that is, during fasting, and may receive in abundance the blessings bestowed upon them. As intemperance in food is the cause and source of innumerable evils for the human race, so fasting and contempt (of the pleasures) of the belly have always been for us the cause of unspeakable blessings. Having created man in the beginning, and knowing that this medicine was very necessary for his spiritual salvation, God immediately and at the very beginning gave the following commandment to the primordial one: "From every tree that is in paradise thou shalt bring down food: but from the tree, if thou knowest good and evil, thou shalt not take away from it" (Gen. 2:10). II, 16,17). The words: "Eat this, and do not eat this" concluded a certain kind of fasting. But man, instead of keeping the commandment, transgressed it; yielding to gluttony, he disobeyed and was condemned to death. The evil demon and enemy of our race, when he saw that the first-created one lived a sorrowless life in paradise, and, clothed in the flesh, lived on earth like an angel, decided to seduce and lure him to fall with the promise of even greater blessings, and thus deprived him of what he already possessed. This is what it means not to remain within one's limits, but to seek more. Pointing to this, the Most Wise One said: "To the envy of the devil death shall enter into the world" (Wis. II, 24). Have you seen, beloved, how death came from intemperance in the beginning? See how afterwards the Divine Scripture constantly condemns amusements, and says in one place: "And the people eat and drink, and rise up to play" (Exod. XXXII, 6), and in the other: "And poison and drinking, fattening, fattening, and denying the beloved" (Deut. XXXII, 15). And the inhabitants of Sodom, in addition to other crimes, incurred the inexorable wrath of God. Listen to what the prophet says: This is the iniquity of Sodom, as in the satiety of the bread of sensuality (Ezek. XVI, 49). (This vice) is, as it were, the source and root of all evil.

3. Do you see the harm of intemperance? Now look at the beneficial effects of fasting. Having spent forty days in fasting, the great Moses was vouchsafed to receive the tablets of the law; And when he came down from the mountain and saw the iniquity of the people, he threw down these tablets, which he had received with such effort, and broke them, deeming it incongruous to communicate the commandments of the Lord to a people who were drunk and did wickedness. Therefore this wonderful prophet had to fast for another forty days, in order to be counted worthy again to receive from above and to bring (to the people) the tablets broken for their iniquity (Exod. XXIV, XXXII, XXXIV). And the great Elijah fasted for the same number of days, and escaped the dominion of death, ascended in a fiery chariot as it were to heaven, and to this day he has not experienced death (2 Kings 2:10). II, 1, 11). and the man of desires, having spent many days in fasting, was vouchsafed that wondrous vision (Dan. X, 3); but he tamed the fury of the lions and turned it into the meekness of the sheep, not changing the nature, but changing the disposition, while their brutality remained the same. And the Ninevites rejected the Lord's decree by fasting, forcing the dumb animals to fast together with men, and thus, having abandoned all evil deeds, they disposed the Lord of the universe to love mankind (Jon. III, 7). But why else should I turn to slaves (after all, we can count many others who have become famous for fasting both in the Old and New Testaments), when it is necessary to point to our universal Lord? And our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, after fasting for forty days, entered into a struggle with the devil and set an example for all of us to arm ourselves with the same fast, and, having acquired strength through this, to enter into battle with the devil (Matt. IV, 2). But here, perhaps, someone with a sharp and lively mind will ask: why does the Lord fast for as many days as the slaves, and not more than them? This is not done simply and not in vain, but wisely and according to His ineffable love for mankind. In order that it should not be thought that He appeared illusory, and did not take upon Himself flesh, or did not have human nature, for this purpose He fasted for the same number of days, and not more, and thus stops the shameless mouths of the hunters to dispute. If even now, when this has already happened, they still dare to say this, why would they not dare to say it, if (the Lord) in His foreknowledge did not take away from them the reason (for disputes)? For this reason He was pleased to fast not more, but as many days as the slaves, in order to teach us by His very deed that He was clothed with the same flesh (as we are) and was not alien to our nature.

4. Thus it has become clear to us, both from the example of the servants and from the example of the Lord Himself, that the power of fasting is great, and that it is of great benefit to the soul. Therefore, I ask your love, so that, because of the benefit of fasting, you do not lose it through negligence, and at its onset you do not grieve, but rejoice and rejoice, in accordance with the words of Blessed Paul: "If our outer man decays, both the inner man is renewed" (2 Cor. IV, 16). In fact, fasting is food for the soul, and just as bodily food fattens the body, so fasting strengthens the soul, gives it an easy flight, makes it capable of rising to heights and thinking about heavenly things, and places it above the pleasures and pleasures of the present life. As light ships are more likely to cross the seas, and those burdened with a large load are flooded, so fasting, making our mind lighter, helps us to quickly cross the sea of present life, to strive for heaven and heavenly things, not to treasure the present, but to consider it more insignificant than a shadow and dreams. On the contrary, drunkenness and gluttony, burdening the mind and fattening the body, make the soul a prisoner, enveloping it on all sides, and not allowing it to have a firm basis in judgment, force it to rush along the cliffs and do everything to the detriment of its own salvation. Let us not, beloved, be careless in arranging our salvation, but knowing how much evil arises from intemperance, let us try to avoid harmful consequences from it. Luxury is forbidden not only in the New Testament, where wisdom is more required, great feats, great labors, numerous rewards and ineffable crowns are offered, but it was not allowed in the Old Testament either, when they were still under shade, used a lamp and were taught little by little, like children fed with milk. And lest you think that we so condemn merriment without reason, listen to the prophet who says: "Cruel to those who come in the day of evil, to those who sleep on beds of elephant bones, and to those who are affectionate on their beds, who eat goats from the flocks, and the calves are fed with milk from the midst of the flocks, who drink the strained wine, and are smeared with the first stench, as if they were standing, and not as fleeing" (Amos. VI, 3-6). Do you see how the prophet denounces luxury, and moreover he says to the Jews, who are insensible, foolish, and daily indulge in gluttony? And note the accuracy of the expressions: having denounced their immoderation in eating and drinking wine, he then added: as if she were standing, and not as fleeing, showing that the pleasure (of food and wine) is limited only to the larynx and lips, and does not extend further.

Pleasure is short-lived and short-lived, and sorrow from it is constant and endless. And this, he says, knowing from experience, they considered everything as if they were standing still, and not as running, i.e. flying away and not stopping for a minute. Such is everything human and carnal: before it appears, it flies away. Such is joy, such is the glory and power of man, such is wealth, such is the well-being of the present life in general; it has nothing solid in it, nothing permanent, nothing solid, but flees rather than the streams of the river, and leaves empty-handed and with nothing those who cling to it. On the contrary, the spiritual is not like that: it is firm and unshakable, not subject to change, and abides forever.

Amen.

Discourse II: At the beginning of creation, God created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 2:10). I, 1)

1. I am filled with great joy today, seeing your dear faces. And truly, it is not so much that child-loving parents rejoice and rejoice when their children surround them on all sides and give them great pleasure with their decorum and their helpfulness, as I now rejoice and rejoice when I see how this spiritual assembly of yours has flocked here with such decorum and with a lively desire to hear the word of God, and how you, despising the food of the flesh, hasten to the spiritual feast, and by your very deeds justify the words of the Lord: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but also by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matt. IV, 4).

If we do not do this now, when there is fasting, contempt (of pleasures) of the belly, and such a proper mood of thoughts, then when will we be able to offer it to your love? Is it then, when there are amusements, immoderation in food and great carelessness? But then we cannot do this properly, and you, flooded by the waves of thoughts, as if by some kind of cloud, will not be able to accept any of the proposed teachings.

But if there is ever a time for such teachings, it is now, when the servant no longer rebels against his mistress, but, having become quiet, shows great obedience and obedience, taming the impulses of the flesh and remaining within his limits. And fasting is the calming of our souls, the adornment of the elderly, the instructor of young men, the teacher of the chaste; He adorns every age and sex as if with a kind of diadem. Nowhere today is there any noise, no shouting, no cutting of meat, no running of cooks; all this has ceased, and our city now resembles an honest, modest, and chaste wife.