But if we open this door, then we are obliged to fulfill spiritual laws and commandments, and not betray Christ at every step, trying to gain something, to facilitate something...

Let us put on the armor of courage, patience, and humility, and then we will understand that the burden of Christ is easy to bear. All our difficulties and sufferings are due to the separation of the soul from Christ, this source of grace and life. Let us unite with Him, let us nourish our souls with joy and peace, let us receive the words of eternal life: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." [Matt. 12:28.] If not... No one else will do this work for us. This must be done by us, together with Christ.

To help us, this book will be specially intended for people who begin their spiritual life with the burden of sorrows and illnesses.

Let us not grumble about pain and suffering, we ourselves are guilty of them. Thank God that He has not abandoned us and is still waiting for our repentance. Let us hasten to Him for liberation from the heavy fetters of sin, let us be delivered from the enslavement of the devil and gain the joy of spiritual life.

Who, who lives in the terem?

The woman who came to the church and asked for help was very excited, frightened and all in tears: "Help, something incredible is happening with the apartment, it's scary to be there!"

Very often we have been hearing such requests lately. The consecration of restless dwellings becomes one of the main needs, on which priests spend a lot of time and effort and, at times, inopportunely. We wave our fists after a fight: it turns out not to consecrate an apartment or a house, but to cleanse it of undesirable tenants, all sorts of spiritual abomination.

In the trebniks of the Russian Orthodox Church, the sequence of our actions is directly indicated: first, "Prayer for the foundation of the house," then, "Prayer when someone enters the house new," and only then, if necessary, "Prayer for the tabernacle chilled by evil spirits." Moreover, there is a rite for the foundation of a city, a rite for the consecration of a place for a cemetery. All this our ancestors knew and performed, so it was rare for evil spirits to move into houses, baths or threshing floors and toka, they wrote and reported about it as a curiosity. Now it's not like that...

What would you do if, when you came to the house, you saw strangers in it, disposing of it without your permission and request? And what should the Creator and Lord of the cosmos and earth do when He sees how we trample on all spiritual laws and rules, live as we please, and do not value Him, the Creator, in anything, do not know, and do not want to know?! He allows unclean spirits to inhabit us, our houses and dwellings, animals, so that, seeing this, we come to our senses and correct ourselves, beginning with repentance and weeping for ourselves and our foolish actions. Only instead of weeping and repentance, we, the priests, hear murmuring and indignation: "We did not know!"

"Intimacy with the Lord is known not by carnal kinship, but by thoroughness in fulfilling the will of God."

St. Basil the Great

"For those who love God, the labor of fulfilling the commandments is convenient and pleasant, because the love of God makes the podvig easy and desirable."

Pdp. Macarius of Egypt

"The commandments of God are above all the treasures of the world."