5.

If a man, having entered a hospital in order to receive healing, in his foolishness makes his wounds there worse and more dangerous, then, of course, it would be much better for him not to enter it at all. But again, how can you remain without prayer?! Too close to both. Take upon yourself the diligence and take upon yourself the struggle to correct and heal your mind beforehand, so that you will not be in danger of falling into the worse, if you sing, glorify God, and pray without correcting yourself and healing beforehand. For it is impossible for an impure mind to stand before God, although it is evident that someone stands before Him in body and prays with his lips. And in general, there is no possibility of truly glorifying God from oneself, but the grace of Christ, which dwells in us, glorifies and sings to God and prays in us.

Men, when they converse with one another, know what they are talking about: both those who speak know what they are saying, and those who listen understand what they hear. And it would be sheer foolishness not to have due attention when someone converses with another.

From what has been said, everyone can understand what it means that the devil mentally circles the mind of a person suffering from this difficult illness. That is why it behooves such a person first of all to make every effort for his soul, trying to provide it with spiritual healing and healing, so that Jesus Christ, the only Physician of souls and bodies, seeing his diligence and labor, would heal his so great weakness. And if he does not do so, then in vain and uselessly he sings psalms and reads prayers to God. Therefore, whoever prays inattentively, let him groan and weep that he does so, and correct himself, and think that he has ever prayed. If he does not weep and grieve over his own inattention, then what hope of salvation is there for him?

6. The word of Scripture says: "Praise is not beautiful in the mouth of a sinner" (Sir. 15:9). And it does not say this about the godless and unbelievers (for how can an unbeliever pray to God whom he does not know?), but about him who knows God and believes in Him, but is ungodly because of his evil deeds, and an enemy of God because of his sins.

For it is impossible that, while praying to God, someone should not think about inappropriate and shameful things, if he has not first made friends with God through repentance and confession. The union of God with the soul is the secret visitation of God to it. And a sign that the grace of God has visited the soul is if it prays with fear and reverence, stands at prayer decently and has great attention to what it is praying for. For no one can speak of the Lord Jesus by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3). Why are those who do not pray in this way still far from God, whether they be priests and spiritual fathers, be teachers of the people and their mediators before God? If the sun, being warm, naturally warms the one who sits under its rays, then how can God, Who is holy, not sanctify those who converse with Him through prayer? And yet, it does not happen so, and from what? From the fact that those who sit in the sun know that they have sat down to warm themselves, which is why they adapt themselves so as to feel its warmth, while those who pray without attention do not themselves know what they are praying for and what they are asking for, that is, they do not stand before God properly; why God does not give them anything, and will not give them, even if they pray in this way for a hundred years.

Therefore, since those who sing and pray without having been sanctified by the grace of God labor in vain, then they must go to pious teachers and experienced spiritual fathers and learn from them how to pray and what to ask in prayers. But if they do not want to learn these things, and do not learn them, then, be wise or ignorant, they will end their lives unclean and defiled. God does not listen to those who do not know what they are asking for. Therefore, so that we also may not suffer and remain forever unclean, let us take care from this hour to learn how to pray and what to ask of God, so that our prayer may be acceptable to God, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to Whom be glory, honor and worship forever. Amen.

Homily Seventeen. 1. Whatever good a person has done, it is good for him himself. 2. How do we know if God has accepted our fasting, prayers, and almsgiving? 3. How should we sing and pray? 4. Sanctification and freedom are given to the soul through faith. 5. The soul of psalmody should be humility. 6. How is the grace of God extinguished?

Brother! When you hear that the Holy Fathers tell us to fast or give alms, or do some other good for God, keep in mind that they say so out of condescension to our weakness, for God has no need of any of our good, as He is all-satisfied and lacking in nothing. Whatever good deeds we do in this life, they all turn to our benefit, but they give nothing to God, and He has no need of them. Whoever fasts, suffers evil, keeps vigils, gives alms, does all this in order to gain favor and mercy with God. For if in the field of the present life, gloomy and full of sin, we do not arbitrarily console ourselves with fasts, vigils and other sufferings, and do not show mercy to other people, then God will not want to have mercy on us and forgive us our sins. Whoever himself is unmerciful to others, how can he expect mercy from a righteous God? Whoever, while committing sins, does not grieve over them and, not fearing God, does not repent of them, does not oppress himself for them with fasting and vigils, and does not pray to God for them, do not expect forgiveness from the merciful and gracious Judge God. Therefore, let no one think that he does any good for God, but for his own salvation.

Whoever thinks in this way and holds the conviction that he does good deeds for his own salvation, will in no way do any good for the sake of people, but will do everything, so that we may see the one God, Who knows the innermost things of the heart. A Christian who strives in good works, if he does not keep in mind that he does not intend to lend God in any way, then he destroys his work.

And as long as anyone thinks that he is serving God in any way, know that he has not yet begun to enter his path of salvation. Such a one, let him fast, spend nights without sleep and bear other deprivations, let him fast and pray, let him do alms and other good deeds, let him preach the word of God and teach the truth, he will never have a part with God. For whoever does such good works should do them in order to gain favor with God, and not to serve God. For all, as the divine Paul says, having sinned and falling short of the glory of God, are justified by His grace (Romans 3:23-24), when, of course, they seek and begin to pray, that they may find mercy and that the door of God's mercy may be opened to them to receive mercy in Christ Jesus the Lord. For even so, it is absolutely necessary to ask, to seek, to push, so that whoever does not ask, seek, or push, according to the determination of Christ the Almighty, will not find and receive the mercy of God, and the door of God's mercy will not be opened to him. Having ears to hear, let him hear!

2. Whoever therefore fasts, prayers, and alms (for by means of these three Christians is saved), let him not look at the days of his fasting, nor at the labor of vigil and prayer, nor at the amount of almsgiving, that is, at how much he has given for alms, or how long he has not slept and stood at prayer, or how many days he has fasted, and about this alone he thinks, whether all this is accepted by God. If he accepts it, then Divine grace will be sent to him, and when he receives the grace of God, he will find himself contrite, humble, attentive to himself, touched and repentant of all the evil deeds that he has done before. And then, by means of such a dispensation within, he comes to know how great his weakness is and how useless and shameful his sins are, realizing that they are peculiar to irrational animals alone, but to the rational soul they are unseemly and far from man who has knowledge. Such is the first grace and the first enlightenment given to the soul from God! Having come to such a feeling and knowing that such are precisely her sins, the soul begins to hate them and abhor them as from things worthy of all hatred and abhorrence. And this is the true way of salvation! And whoever does not know himself and does not feel in what a poor state he is (and does not seek it), the fasts and alms that he performs will be wasted. For a sacrifice pleasing to God is only a broken spirit, and only for such a sacrifice is the remission of sins given, just as for such a sacrifice there is fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. This is the sacrament of Christian life, and this is how every Christian should act! Fasting, prayers, almsgiving, arbitrary poverty, sleeping on the bare ground, and everything else that a person does, he must do in order to become friends with God. If all this does not lead him to this friendship, then what is the use of it?

3. A soul that is friends with God is meek and humble, and when it prays, it thinks that it is standing before the face of God, and does not allow itself to wander here and there; so that the soul, which is not in such a state, has not yet made friends with God, is still under the power of the devil, although it sings and prays. Thus, it is necessary that the soul, in prayers and psalms, should seek communion with God more and above all. If she is not in harmony with God and does not seek such companionship, then she cannot hope for any other way of salvation. Those who sing psalms and pray, but are not in harmony with God (and do not seek it, and do not sing and pray for this), are in self-deception and in vain cry out into the air, inciting God to indignation and anger. For such, praying with their lips to God, think with their minds about what belongs to the realm of His enemy the devil, and for this God hides His face from them.

4. Thus, the sanctification of the soul and its deliverance are not given by fasting, prayers and alms by themselves, but before these virtues are given by faith in God, when one believes that only Christ the Lord can sanctify and deliver him. We have a visible testimony and action of this in the sacrament of the most pure Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Almighty, Who commands those who are in bonds: "Come forth, and to those who are in darkness: be revealed" (Isaiah 49:9). These Most-Pure Mysteries are united with the soul and body of the one who partakes of Communion in due course, and unite and make him friends with God. When someone is thus united with God through faith and the Holy Mysteries, is it possible for him to remain a slave of the devil and unclean? Is it possible that such a person continues to sin as long as he remembers such great blessings of God and clings to God? Sin occurs after the deprivation of God's grace and sanctification. This deprivation is caused by pride; pride comes from forgetting God; forgetfulness of God comes from neglect of the sanctification which God has granted, and of pleasing God, the Giver of it. Whoever forgets God, Who sanctified him, ceases to remember who is the one who sanctified him and keeps this sanctification in him, and falls into self-conceit, as if he had all this from himself. For this, God's grace departs from him; then the enemy comes with temptation, draws him away, and here is sin, and after sin is destruction. All because I forgot God, stopped thanking Him and humbling myself before Him. And how great is wickedness, and how great is unrighteousness! Someone fell into the sea. If someone else delivers him from this misfortune, and he comes out of the depths of the sea alive, as if he were rising from the dead, then what thanksgiving he will have to his deliverer, and what humility before him! The same is true here. And whoever is such, God will never forsake him, as the Prophet David says: "In our humility the Lord will remember us" (Psalm 135:23).