With such a communion of prayer with contemplation of God, St. Tikhon was often delighted to the point of contemplation or amazement. What contemplation or amazement is, this is fully explained by St. Isaac the Syrian. "All kinds and types of prayer with which only people pray to God have a limit to pure prayer," he writes. "For sighing, and kneeling, and heartfelt petitions, and the sweetest cries, and all forms of prayer, as I have said, have a limit to pure prayer, and only have the opportunity to extend to it. And from the purity of prayer to the inward, as soon as the thought has crossed this limit, it will no longer have any prayer, no movement, no weeping, no power, no sorrow, no supplication, no lust, no pleasure in anything that is hoped for in this life or in the next. To this limit alone, every movement of prayer and all forms of prayer bring the mind by the power of freedom. That is why podvig is in prayer. And beyond this limit there will be amazement, and not prayer; because everything prayerful ceases, a kind of contemplation already sets in, and the mind does not pray with prayer..." "The saints in the age to come, when their minds are absorbed in the Spirit, do not pray with prayer, but with amazement dwell in the glory that rejoices them. So it happens to us. As soon as the mind is vouchsafed to feel the future bliss, it will forget itself and everything here, and will no longer have in itself any movement towards anything. Very few of the saints reach such a prayerful height.

"Just as out of many thousands there is scarcely one who has fulfilled the commandments and all that has been said with a slight defect and has attained purity of soul: so out of a thousand, only one is found, with great caution, who has been vouchsafed to attain pure prayer, to break this limit and receive this sacrament; because many could not be vouchsafed pure prayer; but very few were vouchsafed; but he who has attained that sacrament which is behind this prayer, is scarcely by the grace of God found from generation to generation."

St. Tikhon, by the grace of God, sometimes went beyond the boundaries of prayer in amazement, and as is evident from his own words, more than once. "The more times," he said, "with living faith we meditate on this great work, on our redemption in Christ, so many times will we be in wonder and a kind of ecstasy." Judging by these words, one can think that he had repeatedly been in such a state, a state of amazement. And indeed, such states happened to him often. "Sometimes in his cell, while reading the word of God, sometimes in the monastery garden, during walks and God-inspired meditations, he suddenly fell to his knees, pressed his hands to his heart, raised his eyes to grief, and his face was illumined with special joy and purity. And when such states passed, and for a long time afterwards there remained a gleam of heavenly joy on his face, and his lively, joyful disposition, his talkativeness and desire to share his feelings with others, showed that the soul of the saint was filled with admiration and involuntarily opened up in order to pour out the fullness of spiritual consolation."

Thus one morning he was walking along the garden path, and, lost in thought, suddenly stopped, as if struck by something. He fell to his knees, put his hands to his heart, looked up, as if he saw something. His face changed noticeably and brightened, depicting something unearthly and extraordinary. Seeing all this from the bell tower, the cathedral cleric, who had been announcing the news for the mass, in fear and bewilderment, immediately ran into the church and in a trembling voice, as if amazed, told the monks everything he had seen. [94] A similar incident is related to us by his cell-attendant. Often indulging in prayerful and contemplative feats in the monastery garden, the saint did not wish anyone to be a witness to his feats, and therefore he punished his cell-attendant, so that in case of extreme need, he would make himself known in advance by coughing. And so the cell-attendant did. But once it happened that, having an urgent need for Tikhon, the cell-attendant coughed many times before reaching him, but the worshipper did not hear and continued to stand facing the east, with his hands raised to heaven. Seeing that Tikhon did not hear him, the cell-attendant approached him and called out: "Your Grace!" The suddenness and unexpectedness of this sound struck him so much that even sweat appeared on his face, and he said to the cell-attendant: "Behold, my heart beat like a dove! After all, I have long ordered you to cough before reaching me." "I was coughing," the cell-attendant answered him. "Well, I haven't heard." In general, as soon as the saint noticed that the cell-attendants happened to be spectators of such states, he strictly forbade them to tell about it.

With such exercise and success in prayer and in general in spiritual feats of silence, St. Tikhon acquired filial boldness before God. Thus he prayed to the Lord to reveal to him the day of his death and received what he asked: "On the day of the week (i.e. on Sunday) will be your death," – it was said to him in a vision. Thus, he also prayed to the Mother of God that one of his friends would not leave him after death, and in a dream vision he received assurance from the Mother of God herself that it would be as he asked. Another time, in a dream vision, he also saw the Mother of God sitting on the clouds, and the Apostles Peter and Paul standing near Her. Kneeling before them, he asked for the continuation of God's mercies to the whole world, and he heard the voice of St. Paul. Paul: When they say, "Peace and security," then destruction will suddenly come upon them.

The prayer of the saint often exerted miraculous power. Thus, one of his servants, a man very devoted to the saint, caught a severe cold and fell so ill that he was already preparing for death. Wishing to bid farewell to the saint before his death and to receive from him the bishop's blessing, the sick man asked to be brought to him, and when he was brought in, among other things, St. To Tikhon: "Holy Vladyka! although I am completely dying, but if my weak and unworthy services are necessary for you and salvific to my soul, then I believe that the Lord God will hear your prayers and restore me to health." To this the saint said with tears: "Go, and God will have mercy on you." And indeed, through the prayers of the saint, the sick man was soon freed from the illness without any medicines. "He had a great and living faith in himself," the cell-attendant adds to this story, "and the Lord God listened to him on many occasions." [95]

During the time of prayerful feats, the Lord once vouchsafed His saint a vision of future glory. This was during one of Tikhon's visits from Zadonsk to the Tolshevsky Monastery. According to the custom he fulfilled here, at midnight Tikhon walked around the church and, kneeling before the altar, fervently prayed to God: "Show me what is prepared for those who love You." And then one day he saw that the heavens seemed to open and a light shone, illuminating the entire monastery, and a voice was heard: "Behold what is prepared for those who love God." From this heavenly vision he fell to the ground, and when the vision ended, from fear and sweetness of heart he could hardly crawl to his cell. [96] Once more, in a dream vision, he received a hidden revelation about his inclusion in the choir of the holy hierarchs. This was on the night before May 12, when the Church commemorates St. Germanus the Patriarch and St. Epiphanius, Archbishop of Cyprus. It seemed to him that he was in church and saw two standing hierarchs, one of whom was in patriarchal and the other in episcopal vestments. It was as if an archdeacon came out of the altar with a crystal censer, began to cense those who were present, and first censed to the archbishop, then to the patriarch, and then to himself. On this dream, St. Tikhon turned his attention and told about him as if it had happened to one of his friends.

In addition to these grace-filled gifts, St. Tikhon also possessed the gift of clairvoyance, which, although it was not revealed in him in such abundance, in such openness and vastness, as is the case with clairvoyants and soothsayers, who attract crowds of people to themselves for a word of blessing or prohibition – nevertheless, it dwelt in it constantly and from time to time revealed itself in it on various occasions. In this way he learned the qualities and dispositions of those who came to him, although sometimes the Lord did not reveal to him the heartfelt thoughts of some of them, such as the captain who deceived him, of whom we have already spoken. Sometimes he knew the spiritual needs of his friends and acquaintances in advance and came to them at the very time when they needed his spiritual help and guidance. Sometimes he saw the distant as near. Thus, in the autumn of 1777 or 1778, the saint, interrupting his soul-saving meditations, to which he indulged himself as he walked along the back porch of his cell, suddenly came to his cell-attendant and ordered him to write down that it was in this year and on this date that there was a great flood in St. Petersburg, which caused great destruction to many houses and people. [97]

Sometimes St. Tikhon saw the future. Thus, once, when he was in Yelets with the Rostovtsevs, and seeing a boy, the grandson of old Rostovtsev, running around the room, he called him to him and, patting him on the head and blessing him, said to him: "Get ready, Sasha, to the heavenly Jerusalem, get ready, my dear, to the heavenly fatherland." Three days later, the hitherto healthy boy died. Sometimes he saw into the thoughts of others. This is shown by the following case. Once he invited Nikandr Alekseevich, who was already in the rassophore, to dine with him. During the meal, the thought occurred to Nikandr: why did the Lord love the saint so much, and enriched him with intellect, faith, piety, and even outwardly adorned him with a handsome face and a full, beautiful beard, and deprived him of this beauty and hair on his beard (he had only two clumps of hair on his beard)? "Servant of God," Tikhon suddenly said to him, "why do you think so? Do you want me to name to you the beardless saints of God?" Nikandr was amazed at such clairvoyance of the saint, and rising from the table, he fell down at his feet, asking forgiveness for his sorrowful thoughts. Having received forgiveness, Nikandr turned to the saint: "How did you, holy master, foresee my thoughts?" – "It is necessary to perfect the inner eyes," the saint answered, – then the external ones will also be opened. For example, throw a handful of wheat into a glass of water, and look – the grains are visible. In the same way, our thoughts are visible to the seer." [98]

As can be seen in general from the entire life of St. Tikhon, he did not even think about acquiring the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, but was zealous for the highest gift, about which Apostle Tikhon. Paul, namely, the gift of love (1 Corinthians 12:31).

From constant exercise in contemplation of God, in the word of God and prayer, the Zadonsk ascetic became more and more inflamed with the fire of divine love, and the deeper he immersed himself in meditation on the love of God, manifested and constantly manifested to the human race, the more ardent his love for God became. "The works of love of our Lord Jesus Christ, and even more so the suffering of Christ, in which His incomprehensible love for us is revealed," writes St. Tikhon, "convince us to love Him in return. He loved us, He loved the unworthy, and we also will love Him, Who is worthy of all love. He is our Creator, He is our Provider, He is our Redeemer, He is our Lover, He is our Father.. Let us love Him as our highest goodness and blessedness, and out of love let us show Him obedience, let us keep His holy commandments, and let us abstain from every sin which He hates..."

So lofty, ardent and perfect was this love of the saint for God, that he desired nothing, sought nothing either on earth or in heaven, except God alone. Not for the sake of blessedness, not for the sake of the blessings promised in heaven to all who love God, did he strive for God, but solely for the sake of communion with Him, for the sake of the mere sight of the sweetest Jesus. "What are we in heaven? and what did God desire from Thee on earth? (Psalm 82:25) – the saint cries out in the words of the Psalmist. Let the earthly ones who philosophize be comforted. Let some be content with gold and silver, some with honor and glory, some with the wisdom of this world, some with luxuries and sweets, others with other treasures: let it be for them the consolation that they desire, that which they set for themselves as treasure. Nothing amuses me. My heart turns away from all this, and not only as it is earthly, but also in heaven I seek and desire nothing but Thee, O my God and my Creator! Thou art all to me, in Thee alone I find all that I do not find in all Thy creatures. Then I will be satisfied when I see You. Then I will cease to desire when I find You. Then I will be comforted when I come to Thee, then I will be satisfied when I appear to Thy face. About! When I come and appear before the face of God!" This time, desired for the saint of God, was approaching and was already near.