What is this for? But not how, he says, I am flowing, or flowing (Gal. 2:2). When we see that self-wisdom itself, our Lord, Jesus Christ says of Himself: "Come down from heaven, not that I may do My will, but the will of Him who sent Me the Father" (John 6:38), and of the holy and life-giving Spirit He declares that He does not speak of Himself, but if He hears to speak (John 16:13).

Looking at this beneficent rite, which contains all that is both heavenly and earthly, we are seized with trembling, amazement, and horror at the thought of our weakness and sloth, and of the dangerous situation of those who, through frivolity and self-conceit, decide to live arbitrarily, or, what is also the case, without any rank, to ruin and ruin themselves. Truly terrible is this feat, robbers are innumerable on it, pirate ambushes are incessant, and shipwrecks are innumerable. Why very few out of many are saved. "But let them march as they will; For whatever is written, as it is written, fire will tempt (1 Corinthians 3:13). Or not just as they want, but as befits them, and let them want and let them live. May the Lord give understanding of all things (2 Tim. 2:7). And you, and everyone who desires to live according to God, according to these sayings of the Scriptures, as if by fringe, having understood all the golden and spiritual fabric of blessed obedience, strive to find for yourself, as indicated before, a teacher who is not lost and perfect. And the perfect, according to Christ-bearing Paul, are solid food, and those who have senses are taught by long study in the discernment of good and evil (Heb. 5:14). Seeking by this means, that is, with difficulty and with faith, you will not infallibly attain the goal you have assumed. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who interprets it will be opened, says the Divine Scripture (Matt. 7:8). And he, the found teacher, will teach you everything that is proper and pleasing to God in order and order. He will also guide you, and to something more pleasing to God and more spiritual, such as is not within everyone's power, and not accessible to everyone, if He sees that you willingly adhere to moderation in everything, simplicity and poverty, in brushes and drinks, in veils and garments, and are content with what is required by the time, what is decent and necessary, without seeking anything superfluous. pampering and delighting only the senses, as do those who live unreasonably, and unsheathing the sword against themselves and their salvation. For the great Apostle says: "If we have food and clothing, we shall be content with them" (1 Tim. 6:8).

But you also wish to learn from us, and to have from us a written exposition of everything concerning the beginning, middle, and end of life according to Christ. The question is praiseworthy, but it is not easy to answer it quickly. However, Christ will stretch out His right hand to help us to resolve your question, and we will do this, on the most honorable and perfect obedience, as on a firm and unshakable foundation, building the many-sung house of all spiritual dispensation, i.e. God-created silence. "And so, affirming ourselves on the sayings of the fathers, prophesied by the movement of the Spirit, we say thus:

16) Sincerely, and according to God, Who desires to be silent, in the Orthodox faith one must strive to be fulfilled with good works, and so on.

a) The Saviour says: "Not everyone shall say unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but do the will of my Father, Who is in heaven" (Matt. 7:21). Why do you, beloved, if you do not desire God-created silence only in naked words, which gives those who sincerely approach it here also to clearly accept the manifestations of God's kingdom of heaven, and in the age to come even more fully and perfectly), but in truth and deed you love it, striving in the Orthodox faith to be filled with good deeds as well. And at the same time, be at peace with all, as far as it depends on you (Romans 12:18), do not entertain yourself with anything, do not be too careful. that is, do not allow yourself to be overwhelmed by vain cares, be silent and quiet, grateful for everything, and conscious of your weakness. Over all this, watch over the eye that does not slumber and is alertly attentive to all the various and manifold temptations that happen to you every day, struggling with patience and good humor against every anxiety and with every sorrow that comes upon you.

As for the first and second, i.e., that in the Orthodox faith one should adorn oneself with good works, then the most glorious brother of God will be a teacher of this manifest to you, who thus says: faith without works is dead, as are works without faith; and: "Show me thy faith by thy works" (James 2:26, 18); and even before him, the Instructor of all and the Teacher, our Lord Jesus Christ, who said to His disciples: "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that is commanded" (Matt. 28:19, 20). And the Theologian (Gregory) says that "God demands of every person who has baptism the following three virtues: right faith from the soul, chastity from the body, and truth from the tongue."

b) Faith is twofold.

Note that the faith according to the God-given words is twofold: one, common to all Orthodox Christians, in which we were first baptized, and with which we will finally depart, and the other is the property of rare people, such who, through the fulfillment of all the God-created commandments, having ascended to the state of being in the image and likeness of God, and thus enriched by the divine light of grace, have established all their hope in the Lord, and to such an extent that, according to the word of the Lord (Mark 11:23), during prayer they do not at all meditate in their hearts on their petitions to God, but with faith they ask and readily receive what they need. But such firm trust was acquired by these blessed ones, as those who resolutely rejected from themselves all knowledge, reflection and hesitation, and all care, and all who were wholly immersed in the divine ecstasy of faith, hope and love for God, and, according to the divine David, were changed by a better and blessed change of the right hand of the Most High (Psalm 76:11).

Of the first faith it is now at length to speak to us, not in time, but of the second, which, like a kind of divine fruit, is born and blossoms from the first, very opportunely. "This faith is, as it were, a kind of root and head of the eminent God-created silence. "If the silent man," says Climacus, "does not believe, then how will he become silent?" (Verses 27:68). And the divine David says: "Believe, with the same cry" (Psalm 115:1); and the great Apostle Paul declares: "For there is the faith of those who trust, the conviction of things not seen" (Heb. 11:1), and "the righteous shall live by faith" (Heb. 10:38). And the Saviour, when His disciples asked His disciples to add faith to them, thus said: "If ye had faith as a grain of peas, they said to this buttock, 'Be raptured, and sit down in the sea, and I would hear you'" (Luke 17:7); And another time: If you have faith, and do not doubt, do not only make a fig tree, but if you say to this mountain, 'Move and turn into the sea, it will be.' And whatsoever ye ask in prayer believeth, ye shall receive it" (Matt. 21:21, 22). St. Isaac also writes: "Faith is more subtle than knowledge, as knowledge is more subtle than sensual things. All the saints who have been vouchsafed to attain this life — a tremendous reverence before God — by the power of faith abide in the delight of this prenatural life. And we do not understand the faith by which one believes in the distinction of the worshipped divine hypostases, of the one all-transcending nature of the Godhead, and of the pre-dispensation in the incarnation through the assumption of our nature, although this faith is also extremely exalted, but the faith which shines forth in the soul from the light of grace as a testimony of the intellect, which affirms the heart to be unshaken in the faithfulness of hope, far from all conceit, which does not manifest itself in the inclination of the ears, not in the contemplation with spiritual eyes of the mysteries hidden in the soul, the riches of grace, hidden from the eyes of the sons of the flesh and revealed by the Spirit to those who are nourished at the table of Christ in the squatting of His laws, as he said: "If ye keep My commandments, I will send you the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, Whom the world cannot receive, and by Him ye shall teach all truth" (John 14:17, 26). He points out to man this holy power, which dwells in him at all times, always covering him and repelling from him all that is harmful. It is this power that the spiritual mind senses with the eyes of faith. She is the Comforter Himself, by the power of faith, as with fire inflames the powers of the soul, — and the soul aspires to grief, neglects every danger in hope in God, on the wings of faith rises above every visible creature, and always remains as if intoxicated, in amazement before the Divine care for us and in pure contemplation of the divine nature. For until that which is the celebration of the sacraments comes and we are not vouchsafed clearly the revelation of them, until then faith between God and the saints sacredly acts the ineffable sacraments (i.e., receives, contains and contemplates these sacraments), which, by the grace of Christ, may we also be vouchsafed, here as in pledge, and there, in the kingdom of heaven, in the most real truth" (Verse 28, pp. 190-192).

c) You must be at peace.

As for the third, that is, that you should be at peace with all, the saying of Blessed David gives you a strong suggestion, and the word of the Christ-bearing Paul is louder than the trumpet: "Peace be unto them that love Thy law, and they shall not be offended" (Psalm 118:165), and "With them that hate the world be at peace" (Psalm 119:6), and "Seek peace, and marry" (Psalm 33:16). 15); and this says: "Have peace and holiness with all, but they except none shall see the Lord" (Heb. 12:14), and "If it is possible from you, have peace with all" (Rom. 12:8).

d) You must not be distracted.

About the fourth, i.e. that you should not be distracted, the Monk Isaac admonishes you, saying: "If lust is a product of the senses, then let those who assert that they preserve peace of mind even in vain amusements for many be silent at last. Do not have fellowship with such restless people."

e) You should not be too caring and caring too much.