Крест твой изменяется в Крест Христов, когда ученик Христов несет его с деятельным сознанием своей греховности, нуждающейся в казни, когда несет его с благодарением Христу, с славословием Христа. От славословия и благодарения является в страдальце духовное утешение; благодарение и славословие делаются обильнейшим источником непостижимой, нетленной радости, которая благодатно кипит в сердце, изливается на душу, изливается на самое тело.

Крест Христов, только по наружности своей, для плотских очей, есть поприще жестокое. Для ученика и последователя Христова он поприще высшего духовного наслаждения. Так велико это наслаждение, что скорбь вполне заглушается наслаждением и последователь Христов среди лютейших томлений ощущает одно наслаждение [857].

Говорила юная Мавра юному супругу своему Тимофею, который терпел страшные муки и приглашал ее принять участие в мученичестве: «Боюсь, брат мой, чтоб мне не устрашиться, когда я увижу страшные муки и разгневанного игемона, чтоб не изнемочь мне в терпении по молодости лет моих». Ей отвечал мученик: «Уповай на Господа нашего Иисуса Христа, и будут для тебя муки елеем, изливаемым на тело твое, и духом росы на костях твоих, облегчающим все болезни твои» [858].

Крест — сила и слава всех от века святых.

Крест — целитель страстей, губитель демонов.

Смертоносен крест для тех, которые креста своего не преобразили в Крест Христов, которые с креста своего ропщут на Божественный Промысл, хулят его, предаются безнадежию и отчаянию. Несознающиеся и некающиеся грешники на кресте своем умирают вечною смертию, лишаясь нетерпением истинной жизни, жизни в Боге. Они снимаются с креста своего только для того, чтоб снизойти душами в вечный гроб: в темницы ада.

Крест Христов возносит от земли распятого на нем ученика Христова. Ученик Христов, распятый на кресте своем, мудрствует горняя, умом и сердцем жительствует на небе и созерцает таинства Духа во Христе Иисусе, Господе нашем.

If anyone wants to follow Me, said the Lord, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and come after Me. Amen.

Dew

Across the blue, cloudless sky, on a beautiful summer day, the magnificent luminary made its usual way. The golden crosses of the cathedral's five-domed church, erected to the glory of the All-Holy Divine Trinity, were burning; its silver domes reflected the dazzling radiance of the sun's rays. The shadow showed the onset of the tenth hour, at which the Divine Liturgy usually begins. Numerous crowds of people hurried from the main road to the peaceful monastery of the monks: it was a Sunday or a feast day – I do not remember.

Behind the fence of that monastery, to the east side, lies a vast meadow. Then it was covered with thick, delicate grass, heterogeneous wild flowers, which bloomed and smelled carelessly in freedom and freedom. That day abundant dew fell on him. Innumerable drops of it were visible on every flower, on every stem and small leaf, and in each drop the sun was clearly depicted; each drop emitted rays similar to the rays of the sun. The meadow looked like a wide-spread velvet carpet, on which a luxurious hand scattered an innumerable multitude of multi-colored precious stones with an excellent sheen, play, rays and radiance over the bright dense greenery.

At that time, the hieromonk, who was preparing to celebrate the Divine Liturgy, came out with deep thought from the side solitary gates of the monastery [859] and, having taken a few steps, stopped in front of a vast meadow. His heart was quiet; Nature responded to the silence of the heart with inspired silence, that silence with which the beautiful morning of June is full, which is so conducive to contemplation. Before his eyes is the sun in the azure clear sky, and the innumerable imprints of the sun in innumerable drops of dew in the vast meadow. His thought was lost in a kind of infinity, his mind was without thought, as if deliberately prepared, attuned to the reception of a spiritual impression. The hieromonk looked at the sky, at the sun, at the meadow, at the glittering drops of dew, and suddenly before the eyes of his soul there opened before the eyes of his soul an explanation of the greatest of the Christian mysteries, that explanation which can explain the incomprehensible and inexplicable, the explanation by a living likeness, by a picturesque picture, which was before his eyes.

It was as if someone had said to him: "Here! the sun is wholly depicted in every humble but pure drop of dew: so Christ, in every Christian Orthodox Church, is wholly present and offered at the sacred Table. He imparts light and life to His communicants, who, having partaken of the Divine Light and Life, themselves become light and life: thus the drops of dew, having received the rays of the sun, begin to emit rays of their own accord, similar to the rays of the sun. If the material and perishable sun, the creation of the Creator, which cost Him one effortless wave of His will to come into being, can at one and the same time be depicted in innumerable drops of water, why should not the Creator Himself, omnipotent and omnipresent, be present at one and the same time with His Most Holy Flesh and Blood, united to them by the Divinity, in innumerable temples? where, by His command and decree, the all-powerful, all-holy Spirit is invoked to bread and wine to perform the greatest, most salvific, most incomprehensible Mystery?..

Carrying a deep and strong spiritual impression in his bowels, the servant of the Mystery returned to his cell. The impression remained alive in his soul. Months have passed, years have passed, it is as alive as it was on the day of the initial sensation. Sharing with my neighbor benefit and edification, now, after many years, I depict him with word and pen. A meager image! Pen and word are weak for a complete and accurate depiction of spiritual mysteries.