All eight issues of the correspondence of St. Theophan the Recluse are collected here.

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1. The humble response of the saint about his leadership. The Answer to the Questions About Labor at the Will of the Superiors and About Inner Work

May God's mercy be with you, Most Reverend Fr. Archimandrite!

Why are you asking me? I am a very narrow-minded person in the spiritual discernment of things, and I can very easily call black white, and white black. Therefore, do not look at what I write as a good decision.

"Do you ask if you are not sinning by continuing to bear the yoke of authority?" No. You are obliged to carry it until your superiors say: enough. Since it not only does not say this, but on the contrary imposes a new task on you, knowing your bodily infirmities, then it is not at all possible for you to take into mind the question: should you not abandon your labors?

It would be possible to find a reason for abandoning - the preference of internal work to this external work - this is a very weighty reason: for there is no price for internal work and nothing should be preferred to it; but even for his sake it would be possible to abandon the labors that lie down and are imposed on you in such a case, when these labors hinder him and ruin him. And this cannot be said. You have an unceasing prayer to the Lord. Didn't current affairs prevent her from forming? It must be assumed that they will not interfere if a small fraction is added to them. These deeds are only seemingly mundane, and in essence they are not of an earthly nature. Therefore, by working on them, it seems that one can not be alienated from the Lord. In addition, the soul's abiding with the Lord, which is the whole essence of inner work, does not depend on us. The Lord visits the soul, it is with Him, and plays before Him, and is warmed by Him. As soon as the Lord departs, the soul becomes empty, and it is not at all in its power to return to itself the Good Visitor of souls. But the Lord departs, torturing the soul; and it happens that he departs, punishing not for external deeds, but for something accepted by the soul internally. When the Lord departs, torturing the soul, then when it cries, He soon tosses and turns. And when he departs punishing, it is not soon, until the soul realizes the sin, and repents, and weeps, and bears penance. Now, if you leave the work, and thereby go against the will of the Lord, do you think that He will remain with your soul? If it be a sin against Him, and He becomes angry, He will depart and not return. And it will come to pass that what is done for the good of inner work will turn to its harm, and even to its complete destruction. So, in my opinion, it is better to pull the yoke until the owner pulls it against your will.

What you have replaced the Optina Rule with, I think, is better than it. In the Savvaite Monastery, which is near Jerusalem, an hour before matins, a sign is given, and the monks, each in his cell, perform prostrations, with the Jesus Prayer: 150 earthly and 1500 waist. Those who do not have time, supplement during the day. But not in the form of power, but in the spirit of prayer. What you try to feel in prayer is the most suitable thing for prayer. To feel condemned in the hour of prayer, one of the Fathers put it in the essence of prayer. Somewhere, I don't remember, there is a question: what is the best way to stand in prayer? And the answer: "Stand as in judgment, fixing your gaze on the mouth of the Lord, from which the last decision is ready to come out for you: come or go." And cry out: Lord have mercy! And that's what happens to you. It also seems to me that with the one Jesus Prayer it is possible to observe all the rules, as long as it is not only in the word, but also in the deed (in the mind and heart).

"I believe that all the saints in heaven make up one body. They all pray together for us, although we extend our prayers to one or the other. And the Mother of God stands before God for us with everyone. When you ask the saints to join their intercession before the Lord to the prayer of the Mother of God, you do not do anything special. In heaven it is always so.

What reverence is filled with all that is heavenly before the hidden God. If only a little bit would come to us from this reverence.

Our debility draws us to the earth and makes us insensitive. And forgetfulness, and the emanation of thoughts with trifles, and dissipation, and empty in some way, distorted and most evil of all - fatness and thickness - spiritual satiety, and also fraternity with God, still alien appropriation, and it is impossible to count how many trashy things.

Have one thing: "Always be with the Lord." Then define everything else expromptum at every minute. And with regard to sleep, it is better for you to act in this way: when you have no strength, lie down and fall asleep, not to please the flesh, but to satisfy a need, in order to act more vigorously later.

And with regard to commemoration: once a week remember all of them by name, and on other days in part, and sometimes even with a general prayerful commemoration: "Remember, O Lord, all those whom I commemorate," and do not repeat the names of those who are commemorated, but only mentally review them all. For God sees the thought, not the word.