"... And I can't see anything! - someone will say. Orthodoxy is all about seeing why Christ came. This is what distinguishes Orthodoxy: it is all about knowing oneself. For only he who has seen what his illness is, can then correctly assess the means that are necessary for healing. It is not amusement that we seek in Christianity, nor rapture, nor bliss, nor pleasure. Christianity is therapy. Christ is the greatest Physician, full of love. He cannot touch my freedom - I must turn to Him myself. My face is amazed, but I know that the sunlight will heal it. It depends on me whether to expose my nose to the sun or not. I can substitute it for a minute, but the healing will happen when I am constantly in the sun.

This is the positive thing that characterizes Orthodoxy: attention to oneself, knowledge of oneself. Asceticism is the path of self-knowledge, through which a person really turns to Christ and the path of healing begins.

What is the main feature of it? A person becomes more and more humble. One of the most important criteria for the right path is that humility does not see itself as humble. ("The sacred dual," writes John Climacus, "is love and humility; The first lifts up, and the last supports the ascended and does not allow them to fall.")

This is a distinctive feature of Orthodoxy. I would not like to speak in negative tones about other Christian confessions, but I will turn to Catholicism as an example. Beginning with St. Francis of Assisi, the compassio, or sensual empathy with Christ's Passion, has developed. The main goal of this is to achieve love through empathy. In the book of Ignatius (Ignatius of Loyola (1491 (?) -1556) - the founder of the Jesuit Order, the author of the book "Spiritual Exercises") has one main chord: "Imagine!" His wounds, blood... In this way, a person brings himself to such a psychosomatic state that wounds similar to the wounds of Christ appear on the body. This phenomenon is called stigmata ("stigma" in Greek means "brand").

Orthodoxy, on the other hand, very carefully preserves the teaching of the Ancient Church. After all, all the fathers of the united Christianity (before the division of the Churches) of the first millennium: John Climacus, Abba Dorotheus, Cassian the Roman and Benedict of Nursia categorically forbid imagination, imagination, and daydreaming during prayer. After all, true communion with God is important for a person, for which cleansing from dirt is necessary, and not psychic experiments with one's imagination.

What are dogmas for?

And are dogmas so important for distinguishing religions?! Does it really matter to me how purgatory differs from the toll-houses? Or how does the birth of the Son differ from the procession of the Spirit? What is thefilioque? (I am naming the main dogmatic differences between Orthodoxy and Catholicism.) These are undoubtedly important, rational things by nature. Dogmas, in general the entire church discipline, are only a certain structure, a vector that indicates the direction of man's practical, spiritual life. Only by organizing a faithful spiritual life will man become able to at least touch the Mysteries of God.

It seems to me that at the beginning of the path it is not so important to know the dogmas about Christ. As long as a person looks at Christianity from afar, he can be sincerely mistaken. Do you remember how Gogol's Chichikov goes to one of the villages, looks at Plyushkin from a distance and is surprised: "Al muzhik, al baba?" So it's the same with spiritual things. We need to come closer, and then we will be able to give an objective assessment. It requires the manifestation of both the mind, the rational activity, and the heart. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Isaac the Syrian has a paraphrase: "The soul sees the Truth by the power of life." Therefore, people who sincerely sought the Truth from any religion, atheism, came to Christianity, they were pure in their sincerity. And a person who does not strive to live according to his conscience will never know Christ, even if you baptize him three times, ordain him... The unscrupulous does not know Christ. The devil knows everything about Christ better than all doctors of theology, but he remains the devil. It does not have what we call knowledge in Christian language. Cognition means unity. The devil cannot in any way become one with God. And only in unity does true cognition take place. And unity is possible only when there is a similarity. Like is known by like.

Recorded by Ekaterina LITOVCHENKO

Source: FOMA, No 2 (19), 2004

St. Ignatius on the Foundations of Spiritual Life

Speech delivered by Professor A. Osipov on October 14, 1992 at the Moscow Theological Academy

In connection with the republication of an increasing number of the works of the Holy Fathers at the present time, there arises an urgent need to have correct guidelines in their understanding, especially in the understanding of the foundations of spiritual life, discovered by the universal patristic experience, without the knowledge of which the spiritual life, at best, may turn out to be fruitless, and for the most part leads a Christian, especially one who struggles, to delusion and destruction.