Why did trouble begin after ordering a sorokoust?

Hieromonk Job (Gumerov)  

Dear Natalia! It is quite understandable that after prayer for you begins in the Church, temptations often arise. There is no need to be embarrassed. If we are faint-hearted, then the enemy of our salvation will not allow us to do a single good deed. God allows temptations to strengthen our faith and to gain spiritual strength. The Lord does not leave His children without care. Do not be afraid, little flock! For it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom (Luke 12:32).

What does it mean to be holy?

Hieromonk Job (Gumerov)  

Holy (Hebrew kadosh; Greek agios) means separated, pure, chosen by God (Isaiah 4:3). In the exact sense, only God is holy, who has nothing to do with sin and impurity. When the Lord says: "Be holy, for I am holy" (Lev. 11:44-45; 19.2; 20.7, 26; 1 Peter 1:15-16), He calls all people to that righteous life that can be achieved only by the exact fulfillment of the Divine commandments. "Holy is he who has been purified and sanctified according to the inner man" (St. Macarius the Great, Spiritual Conversations).

What is secret eating and misappropriation?

Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) Secret eating is the eating of food in solitude in order to hide one's intemperance. Misappropriation (from Ts. — slav. m'shelъ — profit) — the acquisition of things that are unnecessary for a given person.

Is it true that if the Lord wants to punish a person, He takes away reason?

Hieromonk Job (Gumerov)  

The thought given in the letter belongs to the realm of Hellenic pagan wisdom. It is first encountered in a fragment of a tragedy by an unknown ancient Greek author that has come down to us: "When the Deity prepares misfortune for a person, it first of all takes away from him the mind with which he reasons." There is a Latin version: "Quos Deus perdere vult dementat prius" (Whom God wants to destroy, he first deprives of reason).

The words of an unknown Greek poet, quoted by the Athenian orator Lycurgus (390-324 B.C.) in his speech against Leocrates, help to understand the idea contained in this aphorism correctly: "When the wrath of the gods befalls a man, the deity first of all deprives him of common sense and gives a perverse direction to his thoughts, so that he does not realize his mistakes." As we can see, there is no reason for any mental illness to apply this saying. The punishment does not consist in the fact of deprivation of reason, but in the fact that, having lost reason, a person can take some wrong step that leads him to death.

The simple opposition of people to the rational and the devoid of reason, characteristic of pagan philosophy, was completely overcome in Christianity. The divinely revealed religion of the New Testament does not set reason as the measure of everything, but holiness, which is accessible to all: the sick and the healthy, the reasonable and the unwise. The Holy Scriptures clearly and definitely distinguish the state of absence (or weakening) of reason as illness and madness, as a blind and reckless denial of God. The text of the 13th and 52nd Psalms convinces us that the Word of God's foolishness is identified with godlessness: "He is a fool in his heart: There is no God" (Psalm 52:1). The state in which most people live is truly tragic.

A spiritual or mental illness that befalls a person who lives with faith is not a tragedy, but a cross. It is especially difficult for the people closest to him. It is necessary to treat this with full confidence in the Divine will, unshakably believing that it leads to salvation, both for the sick himself and for relatives who show active Christian love. Hidden from us in the Wisdom of God is that which is known only to the Lord. Relatives must realize that the illness of a loved one is a test of their Christian virtues and a spiritual school, without which it is difficult to be saved.