One of the most wise and prudent was John, a man of praise in all things, who surpassed many of his contemporaries in the comprehension of parables and divination, and the obscure sayings of both our own and external teachings; but when a spark of divine fire touched his heart, he immediately spat on everything that is considered to adorn the outer and inner man, and, following the God-speaking preacher, he imputed everything to him as "umet", so that he, like that (Paul), might gain Christ. Immediately freeing himself from all vain rumors and from all worldly disturbances, he strove with an unceasing desire for the transcendental zeal, always forgetting the hindsight, and prostrating himself in the past, desiring to attain the honor of the highest calling. For this purpose he chose complete silence, and having gathered all his minds and enclosed them within himself, he constantly imagined the invisible beauty of the Most Beautiful One more than all the sons of men, obeying the teaching of the Apostle, who says: "If you are risen with Christ, seek the highest, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God: be wise on high, and not on earth" (Col. 3:1, 2). What can be said about Dionysius the Areopagite? Did he not at once spit on all the teachings of all the wise external philosophers and rhetoricians, as a result of the meek popular teaching of the divine preacher, and immediately followed him, as a gentle lamb follows his mother, leaving at once the wisdom of Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle, and clinging firmly to the wisdom of fishermen and publicans, as the only one capable of assimilating his partaker to the most extreme desire? which is the most hypostatic Wisdom of God and the all-encompassing power and everlasting light—Jesus Christ, God above all. About this desire someone said: "It is good for me to cleave to God, to put in the Lord the hope of my salvation" (Psalm 72:28); Also: "If Thy dwelling place is beloved, O Lord of hosts, my soul desires and dies in the courts of the Lord, my heart and my flesh rejoice more vividly in God." Why is that? "Tell me, O most divine king! For this reason, he says, that the "bird" (sparrow), that is, the soul that is poor, feeble, and carnal, "shall find for thyself a tabernacle," and also "a turtledove nest for herself, where she shall lay her chicks, Thy altars, O Lord of hosts" (Psalm 83:2-4). A turtledove is a soul that loves purity and chastity, for it is said of a turtledove that after the death of her friend, she does not copulate with another, just as the male sex does not seek another after the death of the first, but remains the rest of the time in chastity. The "altars" of the Lord are here called the saints of His churches, which serve as refuges for both categories of people, that is, for both the sin-loving and the chaste, the one for the healing and healing of their long-term scabs, through their confession, and the other for the affirmation and preservation of themselves for the future in righteous corrections in the Lord. For by priestly prayers and the offering of the most pure Body and Blood of the immaculate Lamb of God, both receive the forgiveness of sins and the preservation of themselves in pleasing God.

Such are the parables and divination and obscure speeches that I have, which are very clear and useful to those who listen to them, but to those who despise them, not only are they useless, but very obscure. You are very rich and abound in all human and divine intelligence. Seek the perfection of this, "if thou wilt be perfect, go and sell thy possessions" (Matt. 19:21)... The rest is known. Do not seek or accept any other counsellor (except for the above saying), and not only will you find yourself above all philosophers, but you will also be recognized as such before the Creator and Master of all. Bless you!

Homily 14. To those who intend to leave their wives without a lawful reason and enter monasticism

Since you are in friendship with me in the Lord and partly reveal your thoughts to me, then I also considered it just, dear brother and friend, to heal your thoughts with a little writing, as far as Christ our God and Saviour, who sees our fellowship in the Lord, deigns to enlighten and enlighten my weak mind, to His glory, to His benefit and salvation. For there is nothing else that He, the All-Good, rejoices and glorifies so much as the salvation of those who believe in Him, for whose sake He voluntarily and with great zeal deigned to accept such a bitter death. No child-loving father cares and cares so much for his children as He who created us always cares for us, arranging in every way our appeal to Him, so that, turning us away from all evil, flattery and falsehood, from all carnal impurity and depravity, he may make us sons of God and heirs of the endless kingdom and unspeakable blessings, "whom the eye has not seen," as it is said, — and ear not heard, and it never entered into the heart of man" (1 Corinthians 2:9), which no one can receive except by the diligent fulfillment of the saving commandments of Christ. His many different commandments; but special care should be taken to observe three of them, which are: judgment, mercy and faith, for the non-observance of which the scribes and Pharisees are condemned by Christ the Saviour, who says: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you have made the copper and the cimen," and that which is most important in the law has been abandoned, that is, "judgment and mercy and faith" (Matt. 26:23). But if anyone diligently fulfills these three virtues, he will be found to have fulfilled all the divine Gospel in general. For whoever believes with all his heart in the words of the Saviour, which He daily speaks to us through His prophets and apostles and universal teachers, proclaiming the good things to come, that is, eternal life and an endless kingdom, which will be vouchsafed to those who have led this life piously and holy, will also believe with all his heart what He has told us about His dreadful (second) coming, and of the trial and incorruptible judgment that is to come, of the eternal torments in which the transgressors of His holy commandments are endlessly tormented, — whoever sincerely and without doubt believes in all these things, and constantly has them planted in the hidden cage of his heart: he constantly guards himself from all evil, from unrighteousness, covetousness, uncleanness, lies, flattery, envy, covetousness, appropriation of other people's possessions, but on the contrary, He has mercy on everyone, loves everyone, considers everyone better than Himself, helps the offended, and grieves for those who are offended, and to the best of His ability corrects them in word, deed, and prayer to God for them, and, in short, says: "Everything that is pleasing to God is honest, if it is righteous, if it is virtue, and if it is praise," according to the words of the holy Apostle (Philippians 4:10). 8), about this he thinks, and discusses, and does this, he always seeks this, by this he lives and rejoices, always hating with all his heart all untruth and all deceit. Such a one, boasting in the Lord, says to the righteous one: "Thou hast hated unrighteousness and abhorred it, but thou hast loved thy law" (Psalm 118:163); wherefore in another place he says the same: "The law of Thy mouth is good unto me, more than a thousand gold and silver" (Psalm 118:72). Whoever obeys this righteous man without hypocrisy, lives in this world as a stranger and a stranger, always remembering the future eternal life and desiring it, according to the words of the Prophet: "If Thy dwelling place is loved, O Lord of hosts, my soul desires and dieth in the courts of the Lord" (Psalm 83:2, 3). And in another place: "If I ask one thing of the Lord, I will seek that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may behold the beauty of the Lord, and that I may attend His holy temple" (Psalm 26:4). The speaker was a famous king, possessed of innumerable quantities of gold and silver, and surrounded by glory and honor; However, none of these perishable goods delighted him so much as the desire for the blessings prepared in heaven constantly inflamed his heart. That is why he says with the greatest zeal: "In the same way the deer desires the springs of water, and my soul also longs for Thee, O God. My soul is thirsty for the strong, living God." Then, as if bored that, having lived a long time in this life, he is deprived of the sight of the glory of God, he continues, saying: "When shall I come, and appear before the face of God" (Psalm 41:2, 3)? These God-loving men were such warmest zealots of divine glory and future blessings, although they lived with their wives and were surrounded by innumerable worldly cares, and what is most surprising is that they lived even before the coming of Christ the Savior and were instructed only by the law of Moses, which "did nothing," according to the words of the divine Paul (Heb. 7:19).

Having such true examples of God-loving life, we, too, being in a worldly calling, can please the heavenly Lord, if only we sincerely desire to receive the eternal kingdom and endless life and to avoid eternal torment. And we, like those blessed men, can by means of every virtue remove ourselves from the above-mentioned vices and hate them with all our souls, as well as all impiety, and hold fast with zeal to salvific and God-pleasing deeds and virtues, always having in mind the divinely inspired word, which says: "I hate unrighteousness and abhor it, but I love Thy law" (Psalm 118:163); also: "I have seen the Lord before me, as I am at my right hand, that I may not be moved" (Psalm 15:8). And so, if anyone constantly keeps all this in mind and believes it with all his soul, loves and at the same time fears the Saviour Christ, as a good and humane Lord and as a terrible Judge, Who without mercy gives transgressors His holy commandments to torment, such a one, because of his actions in accordance with the will of God, is truly blessed both in the present age and in the age to come; Having lived well and pleasing to God in this temporal life, he will hear in the future the divine voice, proclaiming: "Good, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord" (Matt. 25:21). Do not despair of your salvation, you who lawfully live with wives and bring up children, and do not seek divorce from them, contrary to the commandment of the divine Paul, who says: "If you are attached to your wife, seek not absolution" (1 Corinthians 7:27), for "marriage is honorable, and the bed is undefiled" (Heb. 13:4).

But if any of you, obeying your light-mindedness, does not listen to this teaching and thinks to devote yourself to the monastic life, and for this purpose to divorce, contrary to the commandment of the holy Apostle Paul, his wife; then such a person, not obeying the above, let him obey at least the following: let him first examine himself in worldly life — whether he can preserve the above-mentioned virtues and righteous deeds with the fear of God and sincerity. And if, with God's help, he keeps this according to the will of God, then even then let him not be separated from his wife, but let him, thanking God, continue in the performance of good works, fervently praying to God that He would arrange for him as He pleases. Moreover, let him know that the monastic life which he desires is nothing else but the diligent fulfillment of the salvific commandments of the divine and venerable Gospel of Christ, namely, this is all righteousness, all mercy, mercy, love without hypocrisy, humility of heart, meekness, chastity, contempt for perishing wealth, worldly glory and honor, the rejection of vanity and all covetousness. And if in worldly life someone fulfills these virtues in a way that is pleasing before God, then such a person is not removed from monastic life and blessedness. On the contrary, if one dressed in monastic dress, despising the commandments of the Saviour and the traditions of the fathers, disagrees with them and spends his life disorderly, constantly getting drunk and overeating intemperately, being overcome by love of money, covetousness, covetousness, and deceit, then such clothing differs only from the disorderly layman, according to the words of the Apostle: "Circumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God" (1 Corinthians 7:19). And so, whoever with diligence, undoubted faith, and the warmest desire fulfills the commandments of Christ the Savior with the intention of pleasing God, and not men, he will be recognized by Him and by Him and will be called a monk, even though he has ended his present life in a worldly calling. For it is not in the change of clothes and not in abstinence from certain brushes that Christian piety consists and is praised, but in a change from evil pagan morals and in abstinence from all evil and soul-damaging passions of the flesh and spirit. For "if you have," he says, "My commandments, and keep them (that is, do them by deed), that is, you will love Me" (John 14:21), that is, your dear friend to Me. And again: "Not every one shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, O Lord, but do the will of My Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 7:21). What is His will, the Apostle Paul taught us in brief words, saying in his Epistle to the Thessalonians: "This is the will of God, your holiness, to keep for yourselves from fornication, to acquire your vessel from holiness and honor, and not in lustful passions, as tongues that do not know God, and not to transgress (not to offend) and covetousness in your brother's goods" (1 Thessalonians 4:1). 3-6), that is, not only not to covet other people's wives and harlots, not only to guard oneself from abominable sodomy; but also to copulate with your spouses at times, and at times to abstain from them, "that ye may continue in fasting and prayer, and gather yourselves together," that is, copulate, as the same Apostle writes to the Corinthians, saying: "Let not Satan tempt you because of your intemperance" (1 Corinthians 7:5). By this the Apostle means the passion of lust, and pagan lust, that is, unbelievers, who do not fear God and do not know Him, whose whole life, all desire, all diligence and all podvig consist in insatiable fornication, in all uncleanness, in debauchery, with unrighteousness and covetousness. But you, he says, as Christians, having been sanctified by the enlightenment of the infallible knowledge of God and purified by holy baptism, awaiting the dreadful and incorruptible judgment, — do not be like them; but with the fear of God, spend your life in purity. He expressed this in the words: "Knowing from you his vessel," that is, his wife, "acquire in holiness and honor," which means to come to terms with abstinence, restraining dumb lust, fixing its measure, and not in such a way as to submit to it and always be led by it, like dumb animals. Then, truly and justly, it will be called "marriage honorable and the bed undefiled," when one who is moderate and abstinent uses it, setting for himself a measure of both copulation and abstinence, keeping himself pure at times to the one all-wise Creator and all-gracious God and Master of all, Jesus Christ, who has united us to Himself. To Him be glory and honor with His Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.

Homily 15. The Revelation of the Most Holy Theotokos to the covetous, the lecherous, and the doers of all evil, who hope to please Her by all sorts of canons and various hymns

O creation of the all-wise God! which you often sing to Me, "Rejoice," then it will be pleasing to Me when I see that you are fulfilling the commandments of Him Who was born of Me, that you have abandoned all evil in general, from fornication and falsehood, pride and flattery, and from the unrighteous theft of other people's opinions. And as long as you dwell in these affairs and enjoy them, as long as you gladly drink the blood of those who live in poverty with double interest and suck their brains out by countless forced labors, until then you are no different for Me from a foreigner, a Scythian and a Christ-killer, although you boast of baptism. I will not heed you in the least, even if you sing countless canons and stichera to Me in a pleasant voice. "I desire mercy," says the Lord, "and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God than burnt offerings" (Hosea 6:6). But you, like a swine, giving yourself up insatiably to every kind of scolding, and like a ravenous wolf, stealing other people's possessions and offending poor widows, abounding in everything and being full of lawless deeds, like a Christ-hating Tatar, engaged in games and getting drunk, always playing the harp and delighting yourself with the singing of foul and fornicatory songs, having finally expelled the fear of God from your soul, — do you think to please Me with a multitude of canons and stichera? singing them with a high cry? Do you not hear the preacher who clearly says that those who do such things do not inherit the kingdom of God, but rather those bitter eternal torments that are under the earth? Don't deceive yourself! But if you wish to be delivered from torment and inherit the kingdom of God together with all the righteous, then resolutely abandon all your lawless evil deeds and love with all your heart the virtues that are opposite to them, plant in your mind the fear of God, love and the desire for heavenly blessings. For otherwise there is no way either to get rid of the torment, or to please the dreadful Judge. But if you do not listen to these counsels of Mine, O fool, but continue to hold on to your lawless disposition, then you will know your folly when you are bound hand and foot with fetters, as if you do not have clothes worthy of spiritual marriage, and you will be cast into hell with endless fiery torments; when, together with worthless fish, you will be thrown out, as one who was brought up not in the pure streams of piety, but in the muddy swamps of sin, and fattened by fornication, considering for himself life the pleasure of lust; when you hear this saying: "Amen, I say to you, I do not know you," you workers of iniquity disappear from Me; when the mental chamber shall be shut to thee, because thou hast not taken oil into thy vessel, but, having been overcome by the love of money, hast never ceased to offend all unnecessarily, and hast hated the poor. Then, O foolish one, then you will know with certainty, and you will weep in vain and uselessly, when you fully understand that the promises of Him who was born of Me, by which He foretold of torments and eternal blessings, are not false, and that joy is prepared for those who always obey His word, and that fire is never quenched for those who disobey.

Therefore, if you sincerely desire to receive help from Me and to please God, the King of all, then with chastity and with generosity to the poor, try always to sing to Me: "Rejoice."