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."

Pdp. Isaac the Syrian

The Lord laid down the commandments out of His love for us, out of His ineffable mercy for our own benefit. Keeping these commandments is easy for us. The Lord Himself testifies to this in the Gospel of Matthew: "For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light. "Why is it difficult for us to fulfill them?" you ask. From our egoism, narcissism and unaccustomed to denying ourselves anything. We are all in ourselves, we do not have the love for God that we should have, we forget that we are Christians, soldiers of Christ. Our apostasy from the Lord is terrible and all-round. We often go over to the enemy's camp without even noticing it, or rather, not wanting to notice it.

In the sacrament of baptism, we denied Satan and all his deeds and promised the Lord to fulfill only His will, promised to deny ourselves and perform every step, every deed in the Name of Christ, according to the canons and rules of the Holy Orthodox Church. In fact, this is not the case with us at all. There are prayers for the sanctification of any thing and just in case – we neglect them, there are the sacraments of the Church – we do not approach them, there are Divine services and prayer rules – we do not participate in them, there is fasting and abstinence – we do not observe this: we neglect ourselves to such an extent that all this becomes unpleasant for us; hostility to everything ecclesiastical is becoming the norm of our life. We reject Christ, but He does not reject us.

Where do we start? What will be our first step towards Christ? The fear of the Lord, the beginning of our wisdom, is the foundation of correction. We must finally understand that not only our every step, every deed is known to God, but every thought, every inclination of our heart is not hidden from Him. The Lord knows everything and sees, the angels of God, our guardians, have departed from us for our sins, the demons have recorded all our deeds and transgressions in their charters... What are we waiting for, why do we not hurry to the Lord with repentance, why do we not hurry to cleanse our souls in the sacrament of confession?

Confession, sincere repentance is our second step towards God, our second step. Without any justification, with contrition of heart, with tears, we must accept this wondrous Divine gift, this Divine miracle, which can resurrect us, regenerate and correct us.

Having cleansed the inner temple, let's quickly move on to the outer one.

And Jesus said to him, "For today is the salvation of this house...