I will also add an exclamation mark on my part, which expresses horror on my part rather than surprise at the views and concepts of our age!

13. Attention. "The demon is extremely jealous of the person who prays and uses all means to make it difficult for him to fulfill his intention," the great worker teaches

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of the God-moving prayer of St. Nilus of Sinai, "therefore does not cease to arouse thoughts about various things by means of memory, and by means of the flesh to set in motion all passions, in order to put obstacles in his excellent march and transmigration to God."

In addition to reminiscences, the fruits of our deliberate prayer are remorseful and stolen from us by the distraction and amusement of an extraneous environment, including the bites of mosquitoes and flies.48 Therefore, in church, prayer, with all its power and effectiveness, can lose, and does lose, many of its beautiful qualities simply because we have stood in the wrong place. Whoever wants to pray in the true sense of "immaterially"49 has no need to stand on the jura in order to -224-

they constantly walked in front of him, pushed him, asked questions, asked to pass candles and put him down, and so on.

But sometimes the demons make us angry if someone touches us and asks us to light a candle. And the demon of vanity immediately jumps on our tongue, and we, listening to what he inspires in us, blurt out: "What are you touching, disturbing, climbing (words are used, depending on the degree of irritability), you do not allow us to pray..." Or when we kneel down and someone passes by, touches us, we exclaim in the heat of the moment: "Where are you getting into (and he, of course, needs to go), you see, the man is praying.." But since the one we are rebuking is not impassive, sometimes he responds to our answer tenfold, and so the battle began.

And if only people knew what they are losing because of this! I think then not only would they have allowed themselves to step on their feet and calluses unhindered, but if they had knocked over a burning candlestick on their heads, they would not have even noticed what it was. But leaving such persons to their own care — and they are forgiven, since they have not tasted the gift of prayer, do not understand what it is, even in the simplest qualities — let the ascetic find a secluded corner in the church,50 so that he can see no one and nothing but the icon in front of him, and so that he will not be seen, if, by the grace of God, He will have to pray fervently. The latter, that is, in order not to be seen, must also be observed and foreseen, for demons are in the habit of distracting attention not only to candles, but also to the people around them; And moreover, there are almost more people who pray sincerely than those who stand in intricate hats and buns. But these rotosei make their observations, at best, not for their own instruction and denunciation, or for the reproach of their wretchedness and distraction, but in order to present their observation after the service to the praying person in the form of -225-

Praise. And vanity, like a steppe fire, burns the fruits that have just been gathered in the field of the heart. Let us run around these envious people, calling about our virtues in all the streets and crossroads, and at the same time, in the same conversation, mixing our name with dirt.

In order to free oneself from distraction and to concentrate one's attention, the Holy Fathers advise to stand in church with one's eyes closed,51 and to open one's eyes only when one is discouraged or sleep will weigh one down and incline one to slumber. Then you need to turn your eyes to the image and to the burning candle or lampada. It is clear that we should pray with our eyes closed if our thoughts are really gathered, and if not, then we can fall into hypocrisy.

But if we gain obvious benefits from praying with our eyes closed, there is no need to be confused by the temptation around us. People around us are offended: if a person sins, they condemn him; he begins to repent – he is condemned again, and even more than before: "He also climbs there, with a pig's snout in a Kalash row... Everyone knows what he was like..." Therefore, there is no need to be troubled — the world is adulterous, and so it did to the Lord (Mark 8:38; 6:3).

14. Constancy. Many do not believe in demons. Why? Because they do not lead a spiritual life, they do not have their own experience. They say: "Show me"... There is no need to show, not some kind of treasure, an innumerable multitude of them surround us, but take the trouble that the "nothingness" that you represent to the demons, and in fact what you are, would have at least a little prayer light in your heart and immediately begin to tempt. Their actions against constancy in prayer are clearly visible.

Sometimes (and when you let laziness take on yourself, it can always be) a person before getting up to pray has such a burden! And there it is impossible, and here it breaks, and most importantly, it does not want to, "turns the soul back". But I broke myself, decided to endure, even if the torment was a thousand times stronger, I stood up to pray – but there was no torment. As if it never happened. And in just a minute, in a second, there was even such an unexpected turning point that a person cannot restrain himself from surprise. What does this mean? "The demons attacked, and when they saw that you could not break a person, they departed. Why

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