Fraternity! Fasting is the renewal of the soul; For the Apostle says: To the extent that the body faints and withers from the Lenten asceticism, to that extent the soul is renewed day by day, and becomes beautiful, and shines with the beauty which God gave us from the beginning. And when it is purified and adorned by fasting and repentance, then God will love it, and will live in it, as the Lord also says: "I and the Father will come, and we will make our abode with him" (John 14:23). Therefore, if such is the dignity of fasting and such is its grace, that it makes us the dwelling place of God, then we must meet it with great joy and gladness, and not lose heart because of the scarcity of food, knowing that our Lord Jesus Christ, when He blessed five loaves of bread in the wilderness, fed five thousand people with bread and water. He could have commanded, if he had wished, that all kinds of phenomena should appear there; wherefore He gave us an example of abstinence, so that we might be concerned only with what was necessary. Fasting now seems difficult for us at first, but if we apply diligence and compulsion day by day, then with God's help it will be easier for us. However, if we want our fasting to be true and pleasing to God, then with abstinence in food, let us also abstain from all sin, spiritual and bodily, as the stichera teaches us, in which it is said: "Let us not fast fasting, but alienation of all sinful passions" [59]. Let us guard against laziness and negligence about our cell rule and church services, and most of all from vanity, envious jealousy, hatred out of malice and enmity, since these are secret passions that kill the soul; let us guard against ill-temper and self-will, i.e., let us not appropriate things and fulfill our will. For the devil loves nothing so much as if he finds a man who does not question another and does not consult with someone who is able to guide him to good; then the enemy conveniently seduces the self-initiator, and catches him in everything that he does and considers to be good.

Let us be vigilant, especially regarding carnal lust; for even now, when we fast, the manifold serpent devil wrestles with evil thoughts. The fruit of sin is beautiful to look at and pleasant to the taste, but it is not so in fact. As sometimes an apple seems beautiful on the outside, but when you cut it, you find rottenness inside; so the lust of the flesh seems to contain pleasure, and when sin is committed, it will be more bitter than gall, and like a two-edged sword. This was suffered by our forefather Adam; he was deceived by the devil, he ate of the fruit of disobedience, and hoped to receive life through this, but he found death. This has been endured by all from that time to this day, who have been deceived by the evil desires of carnal passions from the ancient serpent. For the devil is darkness, but he is transformed and appears as an angel of light. Thus Satan, the inventor of evil, shows evil to be good, and bitter to sweet, and dark to light, and ugly to beautiful, and death to life, and by this he deceives the world and torments it. But we, brethren, will have special attention, so that he does not ensnare us with many of his own and evil snares, so that we do not suffer like birds that are caught in snares and nets because of food. Let us carefully test with our minds the tricks of malice, and in any case recognize evil where it is hidden, and guard against it. In addition to this, let us have diligence and thoroughness in psalmody and church services; let us diligently listen with our minds to what is read. For just as the body, being nourished by bread, is strengthened and grows, so the soul is nourished by the Word of God. Let us make genuflections every hour, each according to his strength, and as many as are assigned to him; let us also be occupied with our needlework; for he who does nothing, according to the words of the Apostle, is not even worthy of food (2 Thessalonians 3:10). Let us help each other; for the one is weak, and the other is strong; let us not be contentious, but let us only do good; let us be sweet-talking, peaceful, forgiving, merciful, meek, submissive, full of mercy and good fruits. And may the peace of God preserve our hearts and minds, and may it vouchsafe us the kingdom of heaven, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to Whom belongeth glory and dominion with the Father and the Holy Spirit. By the Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

INSTRUCTION 48[60]. On the Friday of the first week. That we should adorn our eternal abode with divine virtue

Brothers and Fathers! If a layman wants to build a large and magnificent house, he has no rest at all, day or night, he labors, cares, and endures needs until the construction of the house is completed. They have such diligence and diligence in this matter, that their minds and thoughts, day and night, are occupied with nothing else but how to make the roof more beautiful and elegant, and how to decorate and decorate the whole bottom and everything else in such a way that everyone who looks at it will desire to have this house. And if anyone wanted to restrain them from this work, it would be as difficult for them as to bear a great offense.

What do I mean by this to your love, most honorable brethren? For each of us builds and builds for his own soul, not a sensual and perishable house, which is made of stones and wood, but a heavenly abode, incorruptible and eternal, which is built from the virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit. Tell me, shall we be more slothful and lazier than those who build temporary houses? Would we not suffer a heavy loss? Moreover, since a perishable and temporary house receives carnal people into itself, and after many owners of the house have changed, it itself becomes old, ruined, and giveaway; and our spiritual house, which is built of virtues, receives the Holy Spirit. As the Apostle says: "You are the temple of the living God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you" (1 Corinthians 3:16). And when the time comes for us to leave this world, He will follow us to heaven, and we will be there forever.

The beginning of the creation of virtue is the fear of God, just as the Divine Scripture says: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Psalm 110:10). And then the four great virtues, i.e., wisdom, courage, chastity, and righteousness, and the rest with them, copulated one with the other and built up by the union of love, grow into the holy temple of the Lord. Let us, brethren, build this monastery and adorn it with virtues, so that we may be vouchsafed to have the Holy Spirit within us, and that we may rejoice the holy angels, and benefit people through the accomplishment of virtues. And since abstinence is one of the great virtues in which we now struggle, let us give glory to God, Who has vouchsafed us to complete one of the races of Holy Week. Our faces have changed and become pale, but shine with the grace of abstinence. From the bile that has risen as a result of the fast, bitterness is felt in our mouths, but our souls have delighted in the hope and grace of salvation. For these two, i.e., soul and flesh, by nature fight one against the other, and when the one is strengthened, the other is weaker. And so, brethren, let us rejoice that we have made the better side, that is, the soul stronger.

Perhaps someone will say: eat every day, but will not one day violate the perfection of abstinence? No, this is not to be feared; for if it were so, then Christ would not command us in the Lord's Prayer to ask for the necessary food for every day, or the raven would not bring food to the Prophet Elijah every day, as well as to the divine Paul of Thebes; and Anthony the Great would not have considered it better to eat a little every day than to remain in fasting for three, four, and seven days.

Thus, the daily use of food, according to the rule and order we have indicated, is not the work of the imperfect, but also of the very perfect: nevertheless, everything is established by the Divine Fathers well and God-pleasing. Oh, that the Lord would grant us even more health and strength of soul and body, to serve the living and true God, and to await us the last day of recompense, in which ye may shine like the sun with all the saints of eternity, having received the heavenly kingdom as an inheritance, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is due glory and dominion with the Father and the Holy Spirit. By the Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

HOMILY 49[61].On the First Sunday of Orthodoxy. On not asceticizing beyond one's strength in Divine feats, and in order to nourish the soul with spiritual contemplation[62]

Brothers and Fathers! Just as any good deed is difficult at first, so the beginning of the Holy Spirit. The Forty Days brought us a certain burden, because of the change of food and church services. But in the course of time, from habit, this work, with God's help, will become easy for us, just as the Divine Scripture says: "Every chastisement in the present time bringeth sorrow, but it also recompenses the fruit of righteousness and peace" (Heb. 12:11). So now labor seems hard to us, but labor goes on and goes; Later, when we learn what benefit abstinence has brought to our souls, we will be filled with great joy. And since, with the help and grace of God, we have been vouchsafed to spend one week of fasting, let us apply even more diligence and thoroughness for the rest of the time of the forty days, knowing that diligence gives strength to the soul and body, and makes the heavy easy and the uncomfortable comfortable; On the contrary, laziness and negligence make the light heavy, and the comfortable uncomfortable. However, in the matter of asceticism and labor, let us have measure and discernment, in order to preserve our bodily health. For what is the use of first striving beyond one's own strength, then, gradually getting tired, abandoning one's podvig? For this reason the Fathers also said that it is better that which is small and everlasting, than that which is much and which is short. Such should be our labors and feats according to God. But since the length of the day brings upon a person burdensome and faint-heartedness, let us spend the daytime keeping in our minds and thoughts spiritual thoughts and reflections, by which the soul is nourished and comforted, and we will not allow our minds to be occupied with worldly affairs, which are all filled with confusion and bitterness; but let us meditate on the Divine, in which lies sweetness and joy.

Let our minds, brethren, always abide in God, in heavenly contemplations, in the beauties of paradise, in the eternal abodes, in the ranks of angels, in this abode. Let us meditate on where the souls of the righteous are now, and where the souls of sinners are; what will be the fear and trembling when this second coming of Christ comes, in which, according to the words of the Divine Scriptures, these heavens pass by with a noise and a great cry, the four elements will be destroyed, but the earth, and the works in it, will be burned up (2 Peter 3:10); and this sea shall be dried up by that great and terrible flame; how then each soul will be reunited with its body, with which it lived in this world, and what a multitude of people there will then be who were from Adam to the end of the world. And again, how terrible will be the glorified face of the Lord, and will shine like the seven suns, and shed rays more abundantly than the sun; and what voice shall we hear from Him, meek, sweetest, and joyful: Come ye to the blessing of My Father, or that terrible one: depart from Me by the curse (Matt. 25:34, 41). After all, what will be this end, when the righteous will be called to the heavenly kingdom with great honor and glory, and the accursed sinners will be sent with great dishonor and sorrow to eternal punishment and torment.

This, brethren, is what we ought to have care and care for, and this is what we ought to meditate on, as strangers in this world, for our dwelling is in heaven, and far from carnal and peace-loving people. From these good reflections come tears and enlightenment of the soul, and from that time man has lived in peace and without confusion, having spiritual joy and hope in receiving future and heavenly blessings, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to Whom belongeth glory and dominion with the Father and the Holy Spirit. By the Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

HOMILY 50[63]. On Wednesday of the second week. About guarding the soul from deadly passions

Brothers and Fathers! Having spent the first week in fasting, we now see in each other a change as if before that: our faces are emaciated, and have become pale and yellow. But if our outward man decays and diminishes, as the Apostle says, so does the inner, i.e., the soul, grow and renew itself day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16). For just as the body becomes fat and flourishing from contentment in life, so the soul becomes brighter and more courageous from abstinence. And it is by this suffering of our body that we have increased in ourselves spiritual beauty and splendor, that is, that beauty which the Holy Spirit desired. The Prophet David prayed to God to grant him grace, saying: "Lord, by thy will give strength to my kindness" (Psalm 29:8). Through this splendor of abstinence, our souls are betrothed to the mental Bridegroom Christ, as Blessed Paul says: "Betroth you to one man, a virgin, to present Christ purely." But I am afraid, but not for the serpent deceive Eve with his wickedness, so your minds will also be corrupted by simplicity, which is in Christ (2 Corinthians 11:2, 3) Do you see the greatness of the gift? We have been vouchsafed to have Christ as our bridegroom. Do you see how I and the great Apostle Paul fear and tremble for us, lest our enemy the devil deceive us and bring us down from such a great dignity? Our soul is like a virgin girl who is betrothed, and hides herself and is kept from the eyes of young men, so that they do not see her, and watchfully guards herself, so that she may keep her virginity pure and undefiled, until the time of marriage and union comes. In the same way, the soul must keep itself pure from sin until the very hour of death. And then, when she leaves the body, as if from a royal chamber, if she is beautiful and shines with the virtues of virginity, which she has preserved in this world, then the holy Angels will rejoice over her, seeing her beauty and splendor; but if she is ugly and blackened by sins, then she will bring joy to the demons to the reproach of Christ. And this is such a thing that it is scary to talk and listen.