Hl. 6 , vv. 3-10. Not in anything giving stumbling, but in all things imagining as God's servant, in much patience, in sorrows, in troubles, in straits, in wounds, in prisons, in disorders, in prubes, in vigils, in fasting, in purification, in understanding, in longsuffering, in goodness, in the Spirit of the Holy Spirit, in love without hypocrisy, in the word of truth, in the power of God, the weapon of righteousness with right hand and hand, glory and dishonor, divination and praise; As flattery, and true: as if we were ignorant, and known: as if we were dying, and behold, we live: as we were punished, and not killed: as if we were in sorrow, but ever rejoicing: as poor, and many as rich: as if they possessed nothing, but contained everything.

What did the apostles of Christ not offer as a sacrifice to faithful service to God and to human salvation? The holy Apostle, of course, has not yet expressed everything that happened to him, but how much has been said. Striving to serve the Lord faithfully and diligently, the Apostles at the same time took care by all means that no one should stumble in anything, so that the service would be completely blameless. Like ladders, and true. Of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Truth, the Pharisees said that He flatters the nations; Of course, people said the same about the apostles, seeing the fascinating pleasantness and power of their teaching; meanwhile, apparently, the ladders, they were in the highest degree true. For we do not know, and are knowable. As simple, ignoble people, the apostles were not distinguished by worldly fame, but as apostles of Christ the Savior, the Living God, as miracle-workers and preachers of wondrous faith, they were known everywhere and by everyone, so that their names became known in the course of time in all corners of the world. And most importantly, they were known by God, who wrote their names in heaven in the Book of Eternal Life. As dying, and behold, live. The circumstances of the external life of the Apostles were, as the Apostle has just said, so cramped that they may be said to have died several times, and the Apostle himself says that he was in many deaths. However, despite all the straits, God's Providence also supported the external life of the apostles; Allowing them to suffer, He did not allow them to die: so that they, as if they were being killed, nevertheless remained alive; but for the most part they remained alive and life-giving in their souls by the power of grace and faith, which dwelt abundantly in the chosen vessels of God. For they are punished, and not killed. The Apostle Paul in another epistle says of himself, that he was beaten with clubs, was swept with stones, and many other things. The Lord allowed the earthly authorities and people to punish His apostles, but never to kill them before their time. As sorrowful, but ever rejoicing. What a combination, a fellowship of sorrow and joy! The Apostles were in patience for many, in sorrows, in troubles, in distress, in wounds, in prisons, and yet what? They constantly rejoiced: as if they were in sorrow, but they were ever rejoicing. That is how good it is to grieve and suffer for and for Christ. And look at the people of the world: they seem to be having fun, living in every open space, and yet what? They are constantly dissatisfied with themselves and are often dull during the pleasures themselves: in general, it can be said that they are constantly grieving inwardly: they are poor, and many are rich. People looked upon the apostles as beggars, and indeed, following the example of their Teacher and Lord, they had nowhere to lay their heads; but the poor, the beggars according to the concept of the world, they were supremely rich according to the concept of heaven, while the rich and glorious of the world were mere poor according to the same concept. Apparently having nothing, because they hid their treasure in their souls, the apostles enriched very many with their spiritual treasure, so that those who were enriched by them were vouchsafed the Kingdom of Heaven. As if he possessed nothing, and contained everything. Apparently having nothing, the apostles had everything, one might say: heaven and earth. According to the concepts of the world, there are many or all of those who possess a great deal of money, land, and various possessions, which serve not only for the comforts and benefits of earthly life, but also for its various pleasures. For money, they can get everything and have everything. According to the concept of heaven, such people have nothing, because what profit is it to a man, if he gains the whole world, and forsakes his own soul (Matt. 16:26). And the rich of the world almost inevitably always neglect their souls, for which no ransom can be given. The Apostles had nothing in the worldly sense, but in the true sense they had everything: they acquired for themselves for ever and ever their souls, all the blessings of heaven and eternity; they had all the earth in their hands, because they could move its mountains from place to place, and command its elements. Glory to Thy power, O Lord! Glory also to you, holy apostles, faithful servants of Christ our God! Grant me, O Lord, the ignorance, sorrow, poverty, and the impartiality of Thy apostles to the world, so that I also may have their fame, their joy, their wealth, their possession of all that is necessary for my happiness, temporal and eternal salvation.

May 9, 1856. "Very well [21].

Thoughts when reading the Acts of the Apostles

Chapter 1. The Lord Jesus did everything for people to assure them of the truth of His Divine origin and mission. The most powerful proof of His Divinity was presented by Him in His resurrection from the dead: for it is no longer possible for Him to be from death, as the Life and Source of life for all. Having suffered unto death and having risen from the dead, He placed Himself alive before the Apostles, and after His Resurrection in many true, and not illusory and false, signs, He appeared to them in days and fourties, and spoke of the Kingdom of God, which He preached to people during His lifetime until His death on the Cross, and into which He wished to draw everyone. Among these signs, the most convincing for our sensual nature was that He ate bread, honeycombs, fish, and other food before the eyes of the apostles. Although, of course, not in order to strengthen His strength with food: the spiritual, glorified nature of His Divine body now possessed life and power, not elemental and deplete, but Divine, so that all solid and coarse matter now disappeared before the unapproachable power and glory of His Divinity. This was necessary precisely for the sensual nature of the apostles, who, not yet having received the Holy Spirit, looked at everything with sensual eyes. How many people there are even now who will not believe any spiritual truth beforehand, if they are not convinced of it by experience, if they do not see it with their own eyes! How, they ask, did Jesus Christ rise from the dead? How do we know this, make sure of it? We didn't see it.

To their hearts, which burned with the living flame of holy love: Is it not our hearts that burn in our hearts, when we speak on the way... (Luke 24:32).

Consider, slaves of sensual nature: what constitutes the highest degree of proof—our feelings, debilitated, coarse, earthly, perishable, or the Word of God and the sensations of the soul, spiritual, immortal, God-like? I think you will agree that the Word of God and the sensations of the soul. Believe this, then, and do not seek sensual proofs of the divinity of the Founder of our faith and of all the truths taught by Him for our salvation. These temporary, coarse feelings are not given to us to undermine our trust in holy, spiritual truths. They are elemental things, and therefore we will leave them to deal only with elemental objects; they have no right to bring the objects of the spiritual world under their own laws, for them there are others, their own laws — in the soul: the spiritual with spiritual — and it is necessary to reason, according to the Apostle. Well done! [22]

Hl. 2, verses 3 and 4. And there appeared unto them the tongues as of fire, and they were divided into one of them. And she was filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them to speak.

Know from this account of the coming of the Holy Spirit, all peoples, nations, and tongues, who you are and where you come from. You are weak creatures (weak, I say, because there are creatures of strength — angels), creatures of the Spirit of God, moved and life-giving <?> by Him; Your thoughts are expressed in this or that language, not only because your parents and compatriots speak in this language and not in another, since in this case it is still necessary to assume another reason: why they speak in this language and not in another, but because it pleased the Spirit of God, the all-sustaining and all-ordering, to clothe your thoughts in such a language, and not another form. Language is the outer shell of our thought, since the body is the external, material veil of the invisible, spiritual nature of our soul. Thought is a child of the soul, in every way similar to its mother, in itself the same spiritual, intangible, not subject to any external sense at all; The word, or language, is a garment, a veil of thought, which becomes in it, as it were, visible and tangible. The Spirit of God is the Creator of our rational, thinking, and free soul. He could have made (as indeed he did in the beginning) that all men should speak the same language, and thus, by the unity of the language itself, show the unity of their descent from one Creator. But since this unity served to the detriment of people because of their depravity, the Spirit of God took away from their thoughts the monotonous clothing and gave them variegated, multi-colored, so that by this diversity they could not recognize the native, common and essentially identical thought of all. Thus, if a commoner in simple clothes is dressed in the clothes of a warrior, it is very difficult to recognize him as a former commoner, although his former appearance remains of his face, his whole head, and, perhaps, other signs. But thought is completely covered by its own shell – the tongue – in such a way that, if I may say so, it hides its face under it.

In the Teaching of Creation [23]

Hl. 2. The apostles spoke the majesty of God in various God-given languages (v. 11). From this learn that with our tongue we must also glorify the greatness, goodness, and love of God. Rotten words must never come out of our mouths. The Word is the expression of the thought of a rationally free, immortal soul: let it always be prudent, free not for evil, but for good and immortal, that is, so that it does not die in the spirit of love, holiness and edification with which it is pronounced, like the all-creating thought of the Divine Spirit.

Hl. 3. On the healing of the lame man.

Art. 6. ... I have no silver and gold, but if I am an imam, I give you this: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk.

The gifts of God and of God's holy men are incomparably higher than our human gifts. But almsgiving also means a great deal in the eyes of God.