In St. Macarius, in almost every conversation, one can find a reminder of the living communion of the soul with God. Thus, in the 46th discourse, he teaches that God created the soul of man in such a way that He might be His bride and companion, and that He might be with it one dissolution and one spirit. Therefore, "if the soul cleaves to the Lord, then the Lord, moved to it by mercy and love, comes and clings to it, and thus is one spirit and one dissolution, and one mind is the soul and the Lord. ' It is necessary for man," he says in another place, "that not only he himself be in God, but also that God be in him."

"Anyone would not think, however, that a living union with God is the disappearance of the soul in God with the violence of its independence and freedom. No, although the soul does stand under the Divine influence, touches God in a certain way and is imbued with His power, yet it does not cease to be a soul – a rationally free being – just as red-hot iron or coal, when imbued with fire, does not cease to be iron and coal. It acquires only through this communion the fullest and quickest power to act according to the will of God freely, but also unquestioningly.

On the other hand, it would not be true if anyone began to think that when communion with God is the ultimate goal of man, then man will be vouchsafed it later, at the end of all his labors. No, it must be an eternal, uninterrupted state of man, so that since there is no communion with God, since it is not felt, man must confess that he stands outside his goal and his destiny. A state in which a person realizes that the true God is his God and he himself is God's, that is, he says in his heart to God: My Lord and my God! (John 20:28), like the Apostle Thomas and to himself: "I am God, I am God" (Psalm 44:5) – such a state is the only true state of man, it is the only decisive sign of the presence in him of the beginning of a truly moral and spiritual life."

But look: when we spend a scattered life, swallowed up in the vanity of this world. Our thoughts are spread over the face of the earth and rush over the things and objects of this world, and the inner region of our spiritual being, in which God is present, unguarded by the mind and unguarded by the sobriety of the heart, is a fenced-off garden, which is freely and unhindered by mental herds of animals and beasts. That is why the place of our union with God is very far from us, and our spirit is suppressed by the earthly. And this, without a doubt, is the very thing that is said in the parable of the Prodigal Son, and which each of us indisputably feels when we do not have concern for our salvation: we have gone to a far country (Luke 15:13).

Now the question naturally follows: how is the very act of the inner spiritual life carried out?

To this Bishop Theophan answers quite satisfactorily.

We quote his words from the book: "The Path to Salvation".