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.

The proposed article deals with this important issue. Its revelation is given on the basis of the works of St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov, 1807-1867), who briefly and accurately expounded the patristic ascetic teaching of the Church, taking from it all that is most valuable and necessary for our time.

The 600th anniversary of the memory of the "second sun" of ancient Russia – St. Sergius of Radonezh – provides a rare opportunity in the rays of this great jubilee to remember and properly appreciate the "small" date associated with the memory of his faithful follower on the path of Christ – the 125th anniversary of the repose of St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov). This remembrance will not concern the Life of the great teacher of spiritual life, but his thoughts, the knowledge of which is especially necessary for a modern Christian.

"People usually consider thought to be something of little importance, so they are very undiscerning when accepting thoughts. But from the accepted right thoughts is born all that is good, from the accepted false thoughts all that is evil is born. Thought is like a ship's rudder: from a small rudder, from this insignificant plank dragging behind the ship, depends the direction and, for the most part, the fate of the entire huge machine" (IV, 509) [1], wrote Bishop Ignatius, emphasizing the serious importance that our thoughts, views and theoretical knowledge have in general for spiritual life, that is, for the healing, transfiguration and regeneration of the soul by the Holy Spirit. Spiritual life, as we know, includes not only the correct dogmatic faith and evangelical morality, but also that which most characterizes it precisely as spiritual – knowledge and strict observance of the special laws that determine the development of the new man (Ephesians 4:24). In other words, the correct theoretical understanding of spiritual life in many respects predetermines the process of the regeneration of the passionate, carnal, old man (Ephesians 4:22) into a new one.

However, the theoretical understanding of this issue itself is not as simple as it may seem at first glance. The variety of so-called spiritual paths that are now offered to our compatriots for the purpose of their "salvation" by uninvited "enlighteners" from all corners of the world, including Christians of various confessions, is one of the illustrations of the complexity of this problem. In this regard, a question of exceptional importance arises: what is true spirituality characterized by? And although it seems to us that the two-thousand-year experience of the Church in the person of her saints speaks enough about this, in reality the perception of it by a modern person, who grew up in the conditions of a completely soulless civilization, encounters considerable difficulties. They are as follows.

Instructions on the spiritual life by the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church were always given in accordance with the level of those to whom they were intended. The fathers did not write "just like that", "for science". Therefore, many of their advices, addressed to ascetics of a lofty contemplative life, or even to those who in antiquity were called novices, are unacceptable in full for a modern Christian, a spiritual infant, since they may turn out to be beyond his strength, premature and therefore extremely harmful. On the other hand, the very variety and ambiguity of these tips can mislead and completely disorient an inexperienced person. It is very difficult to avoid these dangers when studying the spiritual heritage of the Holy Fathers, without knowing at least the most important principles of spiritual life. But at the same time, even without the guidance of the Holy Fathers, a correct spiritual life is inconceivable. In the light of this seemingly insoluble contradiction, the full significance of the spiritual heritage of those Fathers, mostly those closest to us in time, who "translated" the previous patristic experience of spiritual life into a language accessible to modern man, who is little familiar with this life and does not have, as a rule, a proper guide.

Among such saints, St. Ignatius, an ascetic of faith and a deeply spiritual writer, stands out. The special value of his works lies in the fact that, being the fruit not only of the most thorough theoretical study of the patristic experience, but also of its personal realization, they give the modern Christian seeking salvation an impeccably true "key" to the understanding of the entire patristic heritage.

What exactly do we find in the works of St. Ignatius? First, a deeply spiritual explanation of the most important concept of the Christian religion – faith in Christ. He writes: "The beginning of conversion to Christ consists in the knowledge of one's sinfulness, one's fall; from such a view of oneself a person recognizes the need for a Redeemer and approaches Christ through humility, faith and repentance" (IV, 277). "He who is not aware of his sinfulness, his fall, his perdition cannot accept Christ, cannot believe in Christ, cannot be a Christian. What good is Christ to him who himself is both rational and virtuous, who is satisfied with himself, who recognizes himself worthy of all earthly and heavenly rewards?" (IV, 378), I would like to draw attention to the discrepancy between the above words and the generally accepted theological thesis about faith as the initial condition for accepting Christ. The saint seems to emphasize: it is not in the intellectual faith that Christ came, suffered and rose again, "the beginning of conversion to Christ", but, on the contrary, faith itself is born from the knowledge of "his own sinfulness, his fall", for "he who is not aware of his sinfulness... cannot believe in Christ." This statement contains the first and most important proposition of spiritual life. In the Orthodox understanding, only a person can and is a believer who sees his spiritual and moral imperfection, his sinfulness, suffers from it and seeks salvation. Only a person who has humbled himself within himself is capable of correct, that is, saving, faith in Christ. (From this, by the way, both the absurdity of a purely rational and ceremonial, legalistic faith, which grows self-satisfaction and pride in man, and the true dignity of true humility become obvious.) The thought of St. Ignatius is quite clear: he who sees himself as rational and virtuous cannot yet be a Christian and is not one, even if he considers himself so. As an argument, the saint cites the story of the earthly life of the Lord Jesus, when Christ with tears of repentance was received by simple, self-aware Jews and with hatred was condemned to a terrible execution by the "intelligent", "virtuous", respectable Jewish elite.