The thought of St. Ignatius constantly turns to the words of the Gospel: "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick" (Matt. 9:12). That is, only those who are able to see the illness of their soul, its incurability by their own efforts, take the path of healing and salvation. From this state of humility they turn to the true Physician who suffered for them – Christ. Without this state, which the Fathers also call self-knowledge, a normal spiritual life is impossible. "On the knowledge and awareness of weakness rests the whole edifice of salvation," writes Bishop Ignatius (I, 532). He repeatedly quotes the remarkable words of St. Peter of Damascus: "The beginning of the enlightenment of the soul and the sign of its health lies in the moment when the mind begins to see its sins, in their multitude like the sand of the sea" (II, 410). That is why the saint repeats again and again: "Humility and repentance born of it is the only condition under which Christ is accepted! Humility and repentance are the only price at which the knowledge of Christ is bought! Humility and repentance are the only moral states from which it is possible to approach Christ, to assimilate to Him! Humility and repentance are the only sacrifices that God seeks and accepts from fallen humanity (Psalm 50:18-19). Those who are infected with pride, erroneous opinions about themselves, who recognize repentance as superfluous for themselves, who exclude themselves from the number of sinners, are rejected by the Lord. They cannot be Christians" (IV, 182-183).

How does man acquire this salvific knowledge of himself, of his old man, which reveals to him all the infinite significance of Christ's Sacrifice? Let us listen to Bishop Ignatius: "I do not see my sin, because I am still working for sin. He who enjoys sin, who allows himself to taste it, even with thoughts and sympathy of the heart, cannot see his sin. Only he can see his sin who has resolutely renounced all friendship with sin, who has stood on good guard at the gates of his house with a drawn sword – the word of God, who repels and cuts sin with this sword, in whatever form it approaches it. Whoever accomplishes a great deed – establishes enmity with sin, forcibly tearing away from it mind, heart and body, God will grant him a great gift: the sight of his sin" (II, 122). In another place he gives the following practical advice: "Whoever has refused to condemn his neighbors, his thoughts, naturally, begin to see his sins and weaknesses, which he did not see while he was engaged in condemning his neighbors" (V, 351). St. Ignatius briefly expresses his main thought in the following words of St. Symeon the New Theologian: "The careful fulfillment of the commandments of Christ teaches a man his weakness" (IV, 9), that is, it opens, shows him a true sad picture of what is and what is happening in his soul.

In essence, the question of how the vision of one's sin, or the knowledge of oneself, one's old man, is acquired is central in spiritual life. St. Ignatius beautifully showed its logic: only he who sees himself as perishing needs the Savior; the "healthy" do not need Christ. Therefore, for those who wish to believe in Christ are right (and the demons believe and tremble (James 2:19)), who strives for salvation, in other words, for those who wish to lead a correct spiritual life, this vision is the main task of the podvig and, at the same time, the main criterion of its truth. On the contrary, a podvig that does not lead to such a result is a false podvig, and a spiritual life without it is a false spiritual one. The Apostle Paul expresses precisely this idea when addressing Timothy: "But if any man strive, he shall not be crowned, if he strive unlawfully" (2 Tim. 2:5). St. Isaac the Syrian speaks about this even more definitely: "Retribution is... not virtue and not labor for its sake, but the humility born of them. But if it is lost, the former will be in vain."

The last statement reveals another important aspect in the understanding of spiritual life and its laws: it is not virtues in themselves and not labors that bring to man the good of the Kingdom of God, which is within us (Luke 17:21), but the humility that flows from them. If humility is not acquired, all labors and virtues are fruitless and meaningless. At the same time, only the feat of fulfilling the commandments of Christ teaches a person humility or, in the words of St. Simeon, his weakness, through the knowledge of which the gates of paradise are opened to man. This is how one of the most difficult problems in theology is clarified: the relationship between faith and so-called good works.

St. Ignatius pays great attention to this issue. He considers it in two aspects: first, in terms of understanding the necessity of Christ's Sacrifice, and, second, in relation to Christian perfection. His conclusions, which express the very essence of patristic experience, are at the same time very unusual for many who are unfamiliar with the writings of the Fathers. He writes: "If good deeds brought salvation according to the feelings of the heart, then the coming of Christ would be superfluous" (I, 502). "Supposedly good works, according to the attraction of fallen nature, grow in man his 'I', destroy faith in Christ, and are hostile to God" (I, 513). "Unhappy is he who is satisfied with his own human truth: he has no need of Christ" (IV, 24). "Such is the nature of all bodily feats and good visible deeds. If, in doing them, we think to offer sacrifice to God, and not to pay our immense debt, then good deeds and feats are made in us the parents of soul-destroying pride" (IV, 20). Bishop Ignatius even writes thus: "The worker of human truth is full of self-conceit, arrogance, self-deception... with hatred and vengeance he pays those who would dare to open their mouths to the most thorough and well-intentioned contradiction to his truth; recognizes himself as worthy and worthy of awards, earthly and heavenly" (V, 47). Hence the natural call: "Do not seek Christian perfection in human virtues: there is none here; it is mysteriously preserved in the Cross of Christ" (IV, 477-478). Thus, the truth and virtues of the old and new man turn out to be not complementary to each other, but mutually exclusive, for the former exalt man in their own eyes, blind him and thus "deprive" him of Christ, the latter, on the contrary, reveal to man his fallen nature, humble him and bring him to Christ.

In other words, virtues and podvigs can be extremely harmful if they are not based on the knowledge of one's sin and, in turn, do not lead to a deeper vision of it. "It is necessary," instructs St. Ignatius, "first to discern one's sin, then to wash it away with repentance and to acquire purity of heart, without which it is impossible to accomplish a single virtue purely, completely" (IV, 490). As an example, the saint cites the ascetics' assessment of their feats and virtues. "The ascetic," he writes, "has just begun to fulfill them, when he sees that he fulfills them very insufficiently, impurely... Intensified activity in the Gospel reveals to him more and more clearly the insufficiency of his good works, the multitude of his deviations and motives, the unfortunate state of his fallen nature... He recognizes his fulfillment of the commandments as a distortion and desecration of them" (I, 308-309). "For this reason," he continues, "the saints washed away their virtues, as if they were sins, with streams of tears" (II, 403).

Let us turn to another important principle of spiritual life, revealed in the works of St. Ignatius. It consists in the fact that the actions of both passions and virtues are in a natural mutual influence and strict sequence, the violation of which can lead to the most serious consequences for the ascetic. All this is conditioned, let us say in the words of the saint, "by the affinity of both virtues and vices with each other." "Because of this affinity," he writes, "voluntary subordination to one good thought entails natural subordination to another good thought; the acquisition of one virtue introduces into the soul another virtue, akin and inseparable from the first. On the contrary, voluntary submission to one sinful thought entails involuntary submission to another; the acquisition of one sinful passion draws into the soul another passion, akin to it; the voluntary commission of one sin leads to an involuntary fall into another, the sin born first. Malice, according to the sayings of the Fathers, does not tolerate being unmarried in the heart" (V, 351). A serious warning! How often Christians, not knowing this law, treat the so-called "minor" sins carelessly, arbitrarily, that is, without the violence of passion, sinning in them. And then, in bewilderment, with suffering and despair, already like slaves, they involuntarily fall into grave sins.

The necessity of strict observance of the law of consistency in the spiritual life is evidenced by the following words of the most experienced instructor in the spiritual life, St. Isaac the Syrian, quoted by St. Ignatius: "The All-Wise Lord has blessed us that we should eat spiritual bread in the sweat of our brow. He established this not out of malice, but so that indigestion would not occur and we would not die. Each virtue is the mother of the one that follows it. If you leave the mother who gives birth to virtues and strive to seek daughters before acquiring a mother, then these virtues become vipers for the soul. If you do not reject them from you, you will soon die" (II, 57-58). In this regard, St. Ignatius sternly warns: "Premature impassibility is dangerous! It is dangerous to receive the pleasure of Divine grace prematurely! Supernatural gifts can destroy an ascetic who has not been taught his weakness" (I, 532). Amazing words! For a spiritually inexperienced person, the very idea that some virtue can turn out to be premature, especially fatal for the soul, snide, will seem simply strange, even blasphemous. But this is precisely the reality of spiritual life, such is one of its strict laws, revealed by the great experience of the saints. In the fifth volume of his works, which the saint called "An Offering to Modern Monasticism," in Chapter Ten, "On Caution in Reading the Patristic Books on Monastic Life," he writes bluntly: "The fallen angel tries to deceive and draw the monks into perdition, offering them not only sin in its various forms, but also offering them uncharacteristic, most sublime virtues" (V, 54).

These thoughts are directly related to the understanding of the most important in the Christian, especially in monastic, podvig of prayerful activity. Bishop Ignatius, in agreement with all the saints, calling prayer the mother and head of all virtues (I, 140), strongly emphasizes the conditions under which it is such only if certain conditions are met. On the contrary, without observing these conditions, prayer either turns out to be fruitless, or becomes a means of the deepest fall of the ascetic. St. Ignatius quotes, for example, the words of the Russian ascetic, the hieromonk Dorotheus, whom he greatly revere: "Whoever prays with his lips, but cares for his soul and does not guard his heart, prays to the air, and not to God, and labors in vain, because God hearkens to the mind and zeal, and not to many words" (II, 266). At the same time, the saint pays special attention to the Jesus Prayer. In view of the great importance of this prayer for every Christian, we will make a brief excerpt from his wonderful article "On the Jesus Prayer. Conversation between the Elder and the Disciple".

"In the exercise of the Jesus Prayer there is its beginning, its gradualness, its endless end.

It is necessary to start the exercise from the beginning, and not from the middle and not from the end...

Those beginners begin in the middle who, after reading the instruction... given by the Fathers to the silent... thoughtlessly accept this instruction as a guide to their activities. Those begin in the middle who, without any preliminary preparation, strive to ascend with their minds to the temple of the heart and from there to send up prayer. Those who seek to immediately discover in themselves the grace-filled sweetness of prayer and its other grace-filled actions begin with the end.

One must begin from the beginning, that is, pray with attention and reverence, with the aim of repentance, taking care only that these three qualities are constantly present in prayer... Special care, the most thorough care, must be taken for the well-being of morality in accordance with the teaching of the Gospel... Only on morality, brought into order by the Gospel commandments... can be erected... an immaterial temple of God-pleasing prayer. In vain is the labor of him who builds on the arctic fox: on light morality, wavering" (I, 225-226).

From this quotation it is evident how attentive and reverently cautious the attitude towards the exercise in the Jesus Prayer should be. It must be done not in any way, but correctly. Otherwise, the exercise in it not only ceases to be a prayer, but can also destroy a Christian. For it is not prayer in itself or any other podvig that makes the life of a believer spiritually lawful (2 Tim. 2:5), but the right disposition of the soul. In one of his letters, St. Ignatius says what this mood should be: "Today I have read that saying of the Great Sisoi, which I have always especially liked, which has always been especially close to my heart. A certain monk said to him: "I am in the unceasing remembrance of God." The Monk Sisoy answered him: "This is not great; great will be when you consider yourself worse than all creation." A lofty occupation is the unceasing remembrance of God! But this height is very dangerous when the ladder to it is not based on the solid stone of humility" (IV, 497).