Love

The life of the heart is love, and its death is malice and enmity. The Lord keeps us on earth so that love may fully penetrate our hearts: this is the purpose of the existence of our temporal world.

Love for God is manifested in us and acts when we begin to love our neighbor as ourselves: when for him, this image of God, we spare neither ourselves nor anything earthly, when we try to serve him for salvation with all we can; when we renounce, for the sake of pleasing God, the pleasing of our belly, this carnal sight, when we submit our carnal mind to the mind of God. The Holy Scriptures teach: "He who does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he does not see?" (1 John 4:20; Gal. 5:24)

Remember that the Lord is in every Christian. When your neighbor comes to you, have great respect for him, for the Lord is in him. Often through people the Lord expresses His will: "God works in you both to will and to act according to His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). Spare nothing for your brother as for the Lord. Be sincere to everyone, kind and cordial to everyone.

Remember that man is a great and dear creature to God. But this great creature after the Fall became weak, subject to many weaknesses. Loving and honoring him as the bearer of the image of the Creator, endure also his weaknesses – various passions and unseemly actions – as the weaknesses of the sick. It is said: "We, the strong, must bear the infirmities of the powerless and not please ourselves... Bear one another's burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ" (Rom. 15:1; Gal. 6:2).

If you want to correct someone from his faults, do not think of correcting him by your own means alone. We ourselves spoil more than we help, for example, with our pride and irritability. But cast your sorrow on the Lord (Psalm 54:23) and pray to Him with all your heart that He Himself enlighten the mind and heart of man. If He sees that your prayer is filled with love, He will surely grant your request, and you will soon see a change in the one you pray for. "This is the change of the right hand of the Most High" (Psalm 76:11).

Union with Christ

Having Christ in your heart, be afraid not to lose Him, and with Him peace of heart. It's hard to start again. Efforts to cling to Him again after falling away will cost many bitter tears. Hold on to Christ with all your might, and do not lose your holy boldness before Him.

In his diary, Father John wrote as follows: "The Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit for me and for all are breath and light, life, power, justification, wisdom, holiness, all wealth, help, healing from all diseases, prayerful fire, source of tenderness, preservation, security, every good... Does your heart beat with joy and trembling at the remembrance and pronunciation of the most holy Name of the uncreated and all-created, All-Good and All-Blessed Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? O wondrous Name! O all-sweet and all-life Name! O beautiful, essential and eternal Trinity, who gave ineffable beauty to the entire created spiritual and material world.. The only and only-begotten Son is only the Son of God, and the only life-giving Spirit is the Spirit of God... Glory to Thee, O Lord, Who hast revealed to us the mystery of the Holy Trinity, as befits Thee. Amen."