What can be advised to "those who fast pleasantly, pleasing to the Lord" is to join the life of some Orthodox monastery. After all, during Great Lent we are all monks. And how else can Orthodoxy be understood, if not from within the Byzantine, Eastern, long, most beautiful, exhausting, spiritualizing divine services? Therefore, everyone who thinks he is Orthodox should hasten to the Orthodox monastery closest to his place of residence or work, where, trembling like a burning candle, he will listen to the Great Canon and everything that he can contain, in order to really partake of the burning of the spirit that gave birth to Andrew of Crete, John of Damascus, and Jonah of Kiev.

Christ is with you!

244 The Price of Freedom

The time has come again for changes and good changes in the lives of a huge number of people. And yours as well, dear reader. This is the time of fasting, the time of spiritual spring, the time of release.

All the most important things in our life take place in the barely discernible darkness at the bottom of our hearts, where between the two poles of "sin" and "righteousness", as between minus and plus, burns a thread of the intensity of our life. Money, housing, clothes, dating, weather, illness, politics, news, all this is just a thin film on the surface of a deep lake, the name of which is the heart. There are creeping things, which are innumerable, small animals with great ones (Psalm 103:25). Life outside depends entirely on life inside, on whether you are free or bound, strong with inner strength or tired and drained of blood. Fasting time is a time to travel within. Like a speleologist in a cave, like a diver into the depths of the sea, a person will have a difficult descent into the heart. The poet said: "Oh, do not wake the storms of those who have fallen asleep - chaos is stirring under them." And we're just going to wake up the storms and disturb the chaos. Let's go fight the serpent coiled in the deepest depths.

First, let's arm ourselves. By the invincible power of the Life-Giving Cross and humility. Humility will be our shield, and the Cross will be a two-edged sword. And let us not be afraid. We will inevitably be wounded, even tormented and almost torn to shreds. Not a single one will remain safe after this fight. Everyone will lick their wounds. But the crown of the award, the future triumph is worth getting involved in the fight.

Fasting two-faced. One of his faces shines for man, the other looks frighteningly and menacingly at the evil one. Post for and against. For the heart, and against the evil one. For the heart, mind you, and not for the stomach, not for health, not for diet. The Lord said: "Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with gluttony, and drunkenness, and the cares of life" (Luke 21:34). That is why fasting is for the heart. And again the Lord said: "This kind is cast out only by prayer and fasting" (Matt. 17:21). That is why fasting is against the devil.

Our passions have bound us with a thousand cobwebs. And we lie like Gulliver, tied up by Lilliputians. Each of their ropes separately is ridiculous to us. Think about it, laziness. Think about it, he lay under the blanket for a long time, or ate too much, or listened to filth, or told nonsense. But gathered together, cobwebs become ropes. Fasting has the power to tear them apart. Troubles at work, coldness in the family, sucking anguish under the heart, a decline in faith, heaviness of mind, worldly failures – all this comes from there, from slavery to passions, from the demonic merry-go-round on which our thoughts spin. Hence all internal and external misfortunes.

Поэтому пост многое изменит. Многие цепи спадут, не только у тебя, но и у многих твоих сестёр и братьев. Это будет не твой личный подвиг, подвиг гордого одиночки. Это будет общее дело, сорокадневная непрекращающаяся литургия*, благородная битва всех тех рабов Христовых, которых ты знаешь и не знаешь. Их маленькие победы лягут в общую копилку и всех обогатят. Церковь опять вздохнёт полной грудью и обновится.

I * Литургия в переводе с греческого — «общее дело».

Конечно, со дна сердца поднимется такая муть, что не раз и не два руки невольно опустятся, и кто-то невидимый слева прошепчет: «успокойся, смотреть противно, как ты на небо лезешь». Но уже на следующий день или в тот же вечер ты прочтёшь молитву святого Ефрема и опять ободришься. Господь всякий раз будет говорить тебе: «Дерзай, чадо! Я близко».

Бескровные проповедники сладких сказок столетиями трудились над тем, чтобы превратить христианство в пресное и безвкусное месиво. А Церковь каждый год зовёт тебя на хорошую драку, потому что наград без войны, и войны без ударов, и ударов без боли — не бывает. Терпи боль и трудись над сердцем. Это цена свободы.

Пасха, к которой мы движемся, — это пир, на который нас пригласили. Мы стали перед зеркалом и с ужасом поняли, что в таком виде нас на пир не пустят. Не только одежда стара, но и шея грязна, и руки в смоле, и нос чумазый. Нам надо причесаться, вымыться и переодеться. Кто умоется слезой и оденется в добродетели — перед тем тихо и торжественно растворятся двери пиршественной залы. Он услышит своё имя, названное громко, и с замиранием сердца переступит порог.