The Book of Genesis is silent about the further circumstances of Joseph's life: probably, his life passed in silence and indestructible well-being. The Scriptures only say that Joseph spent the rest of his days in Egypt, saw the grandsons of Ephraim, saw the sons of Machir, the eldest son of Manasseh, and died at the age of one hundred and ten. Departing into eternity, he bequeathed to his people: "I am dying. God will visit you and bring you out of this land into the land He promised to give you. Then, when you are migrating, take my bones with you from here to the promised land." Having made this will, he reposed; His body, protected from decay, was placed in a box, prepared for the commanded transfer. And for three centuries the body of Joseph awaited the transfer, of which the will was given and accepted with such faith.

Let me die and be buried in Egypt, the land of my sojourn. But I bequeath to my children, being childless, I bequeath to my family, that they should move to the Promised Land and carry my body there with them. Children and tribe I call the thoughts that are born in my mind, the feelings that are born in my heart. My children! My Family! Leave the land of Goshen, its rich pastures, only convenient for cattle breeding. Migrate from Egypt, from this lower world, where flesh and sin reign, move to Heaven! Let my body descend for a time into the ground from which it was taken. When, stirred up by the trumpet of the resurrection, it arises from the sleep of death, you, my thoughts and feelings, winged by the Spirit, lift up the resurrected body to heaven! Heaven is promised by God to all man; not only to his soul, but also to his body! So! The time will come when God will visit man, gather his body, crumbled into dust, mixed with the earth, and revive this body. And if a person's thoughts and feelings are worthy of heaven, anointed, sealed by the Spirit, then his body will change, be glorified, take wings, and fly up to heaven together with his soul.

Epistle

to the brethren of the Sergius Hermitage

from the Babaevsky Monastery

Most beloved fathers and brethren!

Thank you for your remembrance of me, a sinner, for your love for me. May God's blessing rest upon you and upon all those who cross the sea of life for the purpose of salvation, for the purpose of attaining the Divine harbor. Whoever sees only the benefits, advantages, and pleasures of the transitory world, I have no word for him.

During my journey from the Sergius Hermitage through Moscow to the Babaevsky Monastery, I visited many monastic monasteries and saw from experience what the Holy Fathers describe in their divinely inspired books. I saw that in every place, both in the solitary wilderness and in the midst of a noisy crowd, those Christians who delve into the Word of God and try to realize it with their lives, fill their muscles – their minds and hearts – with parting words to blessed eternity. On the contrary, those who neglect to exercise in the Word of God, to fulfill God's holy commandments, remain in the sorrowful darkness of sin, in captivity to sin, in complete barrenness, despite the fact that they live in a deep wilderness. Wilderness life, not combined with spiritual occupations, nourishes, fattens, and strengthens sinful passions [52]. This is how the Holy Fathers instruct us; This is how it really is. The Word of God is eternal life: he who feeds on it will live forever [53]. Wherever a person is nourished by the Word of God, whether in the desert or in the midst of many people, everywhere the Word of God preserves its holy attribute: the attribute of eternal life. And therefore no place prevents this eternal life from imparting spiritual life, the one true life, to those who partake of it. Being with you, I have always reminded you, exhorted you to study the Word of God: it can bestow upon our noisy monastery the dignity of a solitary monastery; it can build a spiritual fence around our monastery, which has no material fence. This spiritual fence will be stronger and higher than any fence erected of bricks and stones; no vice will penetrate into our monastery, no virtue will be lost from it. Being absent, I find nothing better than to repeat to you in writing what I have said with my lips. Fraternity! do not spend your life in vain occupations; Do not squander the earthly life, the short life given to us for eternal gains. She will run, rush and never return; the loss of it is irreparable; those who spend it in vanities and games deprive themselves of the blessed eternity prepared for us by God. Use it to study the will of God, good and perfect, set forth in the Holy and Holy Scriptures. For it is not slothful for me to write to you, said the holy Apostle, but it is firm for you [54].

When the merciful Lord, having granted me some improvement in my bodily health, returns me to your blessed company and vouchsafes me to behold your faces as the faces of holy angels, then my word to you will be the same as it was before. And before I exhorted you, that you, enduring the refuge given to us by God, seek spiritual peace in the Word of God, not being carried away by vain thoughts and dreams, which promise to give peace and take it away. "The part of a fool is small in his sight" [55], said the great Isaac. On the contrary, in the soul that accepts God's gifts with thanksgiving, the value of these gifts increases. Thus I speak of our refuge, the Sergius Hermitage. Thanks be to God for this harbor can make the harbor quieter and more pleasant; the confused looks of murmuring and discontent convey their murkiness, their gloom, and what in all fairness should be thanked, glorify God.

{p. 47}

A tree transplanted from place to place wastes its strength, even though it is strong by nature, and is deprived of the opportunity to bear fruit. In our patience our Divine Teacher commanded us to gain our souls [56]. He proclaimed that those who produce fruit produce it in patience [57]. He declared: "He who endures to the end, he shall be saved"[58]; but whoever wavers, He has finally declared, My soul is not well pleased.

I immerse myself in the contemplation of the field of Christ. How many seeds were sown on it, how many ears of wheat grew! How beautifully green they are, make a comforting and delightful noise, stirred by the wind. For these ears comes the time of maturity, the time of harvest; They leave the field in which they were born and raised, gather on the threshing floor, dry, thresh, winnow. That's exactly how our life is. How many different upheavals are needed for a person to see all the vanity of the world, all its insignificance, and finally reach, like a threshing floor, the bowels of the holy monastery. Heavy, fruitful grain, no matter how it is winnowed, always falls on the threshing floor, and the tares and grains, powerless, empty, light, are carried away from the threshing floor by the wind; at first they appear as a cloud, something significant; Then they thin out, thin, lose sight of them, disappear. The sorrows encountered in society cannot be an excuse for cowardice. A life and a place without sorrow on earth is an impossible dream, which is sought by minds and hearts that are alien to Divine enlightenment, deceived by demons. We are commanded to seek spiritual peace in the mutual bearing of infirmities. It is not by changes of place, born solely of the condemnation of one's neighbors, that the law of Christ is fulfilled. No! bear one another's burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ [60]. He who flees from the fulfillment of the law of Christ madly seeks a place without sorrow. A place and life without sorrow are in heaven: from there all sorrow and sighing will flee away. The earth is a place of sighing, and blessed are they that sigh in it: they shall be comforted in heaven. A place and a life without sorrow, when the heart finds humility, and through humility enters into patience.

All this, everything that is good and salvific, is taught to us by the Word of God. And therefore the Lord Himself commands, {p. 48} all the Prophets and Apostles, all the Holy Fathers exhort, command, beseech to abide constantly in the Word of God, which is the source of all blessings, which is life, which is light on earth, in this vale of weeping, famine, darkness, death. And the light shines in darkness, and darkness does not envelop it. Led by the ray of this light, the earthly pilgrim goes out into the salvific and spiritual pasture, and from here he begins eternal life. Accept, brethren, my words, which are nothing but an echo of the teaching of all the saints. Thus the desert wild cave — the abode of reptiles and all kinds of impurity — echoes the inspired sounds of Divine hymns.

Asking for your holy prayers and entrusting himself to your holy prayers