3.

Blessed Augustine thus bemoaned the misfortunes of his youth: "I wandered in such blindness that I was ashamed not to have so much shamelessness as my companions had; I became more vicious day by day, only in order not to be known as a dishonest man among my comrades for my honesty. My god! Thou hast seen with what pleasure I walked through the streets of Babylon, and how I delighted, wallowing in the mud of vice, as if it were the most precious balm... The invisible enemy trampled me under his feet and led me at will, and I, poor man, followed him everywhere with joy." Why did such blindness occur? "O hostile friendship! Augustine continues, "you corrupt the hearts of young people so much that they do evil not for their own benefit, not to harm others, but without intention, for the sake of a joke alone... Oh! sometimes they would only say: "Come with us; we will do this or that," and I was ashamed not to indulge in all the pranks.."

(From the works of Blessed Augustine)

87. Can every dream be trusted?

Dreams are of three kinds: some of them come from God or good angels, others from evil angels or the devil, and still others are ordinary dreams from nature.

Our dreams, which we see every night, are for the most part ordinary: we dream for the most part what we see or hear in our ordinary life, and for this reason, for example, the rich man has his own dreams, which the poor man does not see; the poor man has his own, which the rich man does not see; women have their own, children have their own, etc. It goes without saying that such dreams should not be believed, because what is there to believe? Many will say that "it sometimes happens that dreams are fulfilled exactly as they are interpreted." It is true that it happens, but it only happens sometimes, and not always. And if each of our dreams were to mean something, then not sometimes, but always, it would have to be fulfilled in practice. In addition to ordinary dreams, there are other dreams: some from evil angels or demons, and others from good angels and from God. That there are dreams from the devil, from which God save us, here is an example. There lived a certain monk on Mount Sinai and there he asceticized a lot, but for all his piety he had the fault that he fully believed in dreams. So the devil took advantage of this, and once imagined to him in a dream that on one side were the holy Apostles, martyrs and all Christians were in darkness – in hell, and were enduring the most terrible tortures, and on the other – the Jews, and in the light they enjoyed bliss. The poor monk woke up, believed the dream, went to the Jews, and not only accepted the Jewish faith, but also married a Jewess... But the Lord also punished him; Three years later, the former righteous man, still alive, began to rot, his body was eaten away by worms, and in such an unfortunate situation he died. Such are the pillars that the power of demons can shake! And it is not surprising: after all, the devil "walks like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour," and therefore he is ready to take advantage of any opportunity to do us some harm; and then in a dream he has a convenient opportunity to inspire our soul with various sinful thoughts and desires, since a dreamy person cannot drive it away from himself in any way, neither by the Cross nor by prayer, because at that time he can neither pray nor be baptized. But the Holy Church, like a tender mother, takes care of us in order to warn us against this dangerous enemy: she commands each of us, before lying down in bed, first to kiss his Cross on his chest, then to cross his bed from head to foot and in all directions, and at the same time to read the prayer "May God arise, and His enemies shall be scattered." All this prayer is directed against evil spirits, for example, "let the demons perish from the presence of those who love God... Rejoice, O Most Honorable and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, Thou who castest out demons," and so on. And the devil fears prayer and the sign of the cross like fire. Thus, once he appeared to Saint Simeon the Stylite, who was saving himself on a pillar, and appeared to him in the form of a bright Angel, and moreover with fiery horses and a fiery chariot, and, tempting him, he began the following speech with him: "Behold, Simeon, thou hast pleased God as Elijah the prophet has, and therefore I have been sent hither to earth, to rapture thee as Elijah, in this chariot to heaven." The saint believed, but as soon as he crossed himself and said: "Lord bless" (i.e. to move from the pillar to the chariot), then suddenly there was no angel, no horses, no chariot – everything disappeared. Thus, there can be dreams from the devil, and such dreams, of course, should not be believed, because the devil will never tell the truth. And so that he could not tempt us in our sleep, for this we must pray before going to bed, and cross our bed, reading the prayer "May God arise."

How can one know that such and such a dream is from the devil? This can be recognized by two signs. The first sign is if you dream of something contrary to the faith, or to the Holy Church, or to a pious life, or something similar, and yet before going to bed you had nothing of the kind in your head. The second sign is if, after waking up from such a dream, some kind of confusion of the soul, some kind of anguish in the heart is done to you. Now, if these two signs are present, then one can think that such a dream is a diabolical delusion.

Let us now pass on to dreams from good angels and from God Himself. That there are such dreams, it seems that there is nothing to say about it. There are so many such examples in the Holy Scriptures that it would be difficult to convey them all at once. We will cite only a few of them. For example, the holy Patriarch Jacob, when he was going to Mesopotamia and went to sleep in the desert, he saw in a dream a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, the angels of God ascending and descending on it, and at the top of it stood the Lord Himself, Who blessed Jacob and promised to give this land to him and his descendants. And this promise was fulfilled. This patriarch had 12 sons; one of them was Joseph, whom the brothers hated because his father loved him more than they did, because of his simplicity and innocence, and therefore secretly sold him to a distant land. But God will arrange all His own; before this, Joseph himself had two remarkable dreams: one was that he was tying sheaves with his brothers in the field, that his sheaf had become erect, and that the sheaves of his brothers had surrounded his sheaf and worshipped him. This dream meant that his brothers would bow to him. Another dream is that the sun, moon and eleven stars bowed down before him. This meant that not only his brothers, but also his father and mother would come to him with a bow. Both dreams came true in their time. Of course, these were righteous and holy people, but you will tell us, sinners, where to see such dreams? True, such extraordinary dreams can most often be experienced by the righteous, because even in reality they are incomparably closer to God, Who sends them such dreams. However, God is so merciful to everyone that sinners can have similar dreams. For example, let us take Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon: he was a great sinner, and he also had wonderful dreams. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, was also a great sinner, and he also had an extraordinary dream. "So let us remember that dreams are of three kinds: one is from God and good angels, and such dreams must be believed; others from evil spirits should not believe in such dreams; and still others are from ourselves, and such dreams should not be believed either, although sometimes it happens that in a dream our soul can have a premonition of something, only in this case we need to be very careful, because the wise son of Sirach said: "... As thou shalt eat behind the wall, and drive the winds, so thou shalt eat faith in sleep. Magic and charm and dreams are vain; Unless it be sent from the Most High to visit, do not give it into your heart: for many have been deceived by sleep, and have fallen away, trusting in it" (Sir. 34:2, 5, 7). This means: believing dreams is the same as grasping at the shadow and chasing the wind. Magic, fortune-telling, and dreams are vain, and if dreams are not sent from God, then do not believe them. you have a spiritual father, who, although he is not a saint, nevertheless knows more than we do, and understands the matter, moreover, the soul sees the dream, and the soul is entrusted to it from God, and therefore it is to him that you can turn in such cases with a request, and not to fortune-tellers or healers, who know no more than the rest of us, and only deceive simple-minded people.

(Из "Душеполезного чтения", 1881)

Когда сон бывает легче и приятнее?

1). После говения и поста.

2). После усиленной и теплой молитвы.

3). После сердечного примирения с врагом.