Library › St John of Kronstadt › My Life in Christ

My Life in Christ

St John of Kronstadt, tr. Goulaeff, 1897

Part 2, 12. pp. 491–510

We see everywhere upon the earth the Artist-Spirit rejoicing His creatures with the fulness of joy, and revealing His infinite wisdom in the works of His hands. We see everywhere the Life-giving Spirit forming, like an artist or a potter, multifarious inanimate and animate vessels. Especially we see Him in holy men, as in His own grand and beautiful temples. But in the unbelieving and impious we see at almost every step the works of the evil spirit — all passions, disturbances, enmity, and opposition.

God is the being and life of everything that exists. This is why He is called That Which Is, as though the sole being, the first uncreated being, or as the Head from Whom every being comes. This is why the Apostle says of Him: “For in Him we live and move and have our being.”¹ We live in God, we move by His power, we exist by His Will, command, and omnipotence.

You do not understand how the Lord takes up His abode in the Holy, life-giving Mysteries. It is a mystery, like the mystery how the immortal and life giving Spirit takes up His abode in your body, adorning and strengthening it. The Lord is an incomplex Being, entirely distinct from matter, as incomplex as a thought or momentary movement of our heart or spirit. It is also a mystery, similar to the mystery of how He dwells entirely in your heart without the medium of any matter, but only through one lively thought of Him, through lively faith in Him or obedience to His Word. By His most perfect incomplexity He is necessarily wholly everywhere — “Who art everywhere present and fillest all things:”² “Do not I fill heaven and earth?”³ — and He cannot be divided, though dividing Himself amongst all, and communicating Himself truly and actually in various gifts, being Himself One and Indivisible, continually creating an infinite and diverse multitude of creatures, being wholly present in every creature, down to the last and smallest infusoria.

The whole air can be penetrated by the sunlight, is transparent, and is wholly, so to say, dissolved in the light, though this last, on account of its rarity, can always leave it. Light also penetrates and is dissolved in spring water, crystal, and glass. A multitude of bodies, capable of reflecting and refracting the rays of light, are suffused with, or shine by, the light of the sun or the light of fire, and receive its warmth into themselves. On garments embroidered with gold and silver every sparkle shines separately by the light of the sun. Likewise, the chosen human race or the souls of the righteous are penetrated by the mental Light — God, and shine forth in His light, being dissolved in Him. Thus, also, each particle of the life-giving Mysteries, becoming the Body and Blood of the Lord Himself, is all light, brightness, warmth, life; not a single, smallest particle remains unchanged into the light and life of the Godhead.

Observe how the Lord is always with you in every place, in His image and likeness, which are in yourself. You think by the Father, you speak by the Word, and you act in the Holy Ghost. What air and light are to the body, the same is the thought, or God the Father, to the soul; what food is to the body, the same is the Word to the soul; what breath and warmth are to the body, the same is the Holy Ghost to the soul.

Have you seen how the bees follow their queen-bee, or how the ants follow their king-ant? Thus should reasonable beings, endued with speech, follow God. Or do you not know that the minor planets follow the larger, and revolve around it? Thus should reasonable beings endued with speech follow the God of all. The family is a little image of the innumerable family of the powers moving around God and in God. An empire or a king and his subjects are larger images of the heavenly powers moving around the Almighty, the King of Glory.

As, during a conversation between men, the air, which is everywhere and fills all things, serves as a medium between the word of one and the word of another, and the words of one reach the hearing of another through the air, and it would be impossible to speak and hear without air — so in spiritual respects the Holy Ghost, “Who is everywhere present and filleth all things,”⁴ is a similar medium in our communion with the bodiless ones. We do not thoroughly understand how, by means of air, our words are heard by others, sometimes at a great distance, yet we know that they are heard; likewise, we do not understand how the holy angels and saints hear, in the Holy Ghost, the wail of our hearts; yet we know that it is heard. As in the first case we may be assured of our words having been heard by others from the answers, so in the latter we are similarly assured by the answers we receive. In the first case we see the person with whom we speak with our bodily eyes, and in the latter we see the person with whom we converse with our spiritual eyes. An image is presented to the bodily eye and to the spiritual eye — an invisible person or spirit. For corporal beings there is distance, whilst for the Holy Ghost it does not exist.

Represent the Angel of God to yourself as the image of the human soul — that is, think that an angel is like your own soul. This is why angels appear in human form, because they have a nature similar to that of the human soul, only sinless, holy, and higher.

How speedily God hears the prayer of two or three praying together with the whole heart! “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them,”⁵ says the Lord Himself.

Our Lord Jesus Christ’s purpose for us is to drive away from our hearts falsehood (flattery), pride, and diabolical malice, and to implant in the place of these His truth, love, meekness, and humility.

If we were to represent the Lord’s image upon every line of space, even then we should not be doing more than enough, because the Lord is actually and wholly present in every smallest and largest space. If we were to imagine and foresee the Lord everywhere, nothing more would be left to desire, we should only be doing justly; for God is ever at our right hand wherever we may be.

The Holy Ghost is called the “Comforter,”⁶ in accordance with His nature, which is peace, joy, and infinite blessedness, and also on account of His action upon the souls of believers, whom He comforts like a mother in their virtues, in their sufferings, sorrows, and sicknesses, and in their great deeds for the faith. He is also called the Comforter in contrast to the evil spirit of despondency that often attacks our souls. Every phenomenon has its cause. Thus having done any good action, you rejoice and find consolation in your soul. Wherefore? Because the Holy Ghost is in you, “Who is everywhere present and filleth all things, the Treasury of blessings,”⁷ Who comforts us. On the contrary, if you have done anything wrong, or even sometimes when you have not done anything wrong, you feel a deadly despondency in your soul. Wherefore? Because you have allowed the evil spirit of despondency to take possession of you. For instance, you begin to pray and you are overcome with despondency, whilst before you began to pray you did not feel it; or else you begin to read some book of a spiritual character — for instance, the Holy Scripture — and you are also overpowered with despondency, slothfulness, doubt, incredulity, and unbelief. Wherefore? Because you are tempted by the evil spirits of despondency, doubt, and unbelief, who are using their craftiness against you. Or you are in church, attending Divine service; but you feel dull, heavy, and slothful — despondency has fallen upon you. Again wherefore? Because the evil spirits of slothfulness and despondency are using their craftiness against you. Or, again, you begin to write a religious work — a sermon, for instance — and you feel darkness and coldness in your heart, whilst your body is overcome with weakness. Wherefore? Because the invisible enemies are warring against you. Therefore the Holy Ghost is absolutely necessary to us all in all our good works. He is our power, strength, light, peace, and comfort.

A visible proof of the omnipresence and of the providence of God is presented to us by vegetation. Where is it not to be found upon the terrestrial globe? It covers the plains, it climbs up the inaccessible heights of rocky mountains, it grows in the deserts, spreads its roots in the waters and amongst the waters, upon desert islands. And who is it that gives it growth and adorns it with beautiful varieties of shapes, colours, and flowers? The Lord God. “God so clothes it.” But if God so carefully clothes the grass, then shall He forsake and forget man, even for a minute? “Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?”⁸ If God at every instant vivifies the grass, and His life does not forsake it, then shall He cease to give life to me? No; if He clothes and gives life to the grass, then in me He dwells continually, as in His temple, if I do not voluntarily drive Him away by my sins. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”⁹ In reference to the temple, we may remark that the Apostle calls a Christian the temple, because the Spirit of God dwells in him. This signifies that God dwells continually in Christian temples. Hence the holiness of the temple; hence the reverence due to it. And the action of God dwelling in the temple is very perceptible upon the hearts of those who turn to Him in prayer.

“He shall call upon Me, and I will hear him.”¹⁰ O words most full of love! O words breathing lively trust into him who prays!

Up till now you have not learned to love your neighbour. You answer men’s dislike towards you by dislike on your part. But do the contrary; answer others’ dislike by heartfelt goodwill and love; the more dislike you see towards you, the more you should love. Dislike is a malady, and a sick person should be more pitied, should be shown greater care and greater love, exactly because he is ill. Do you not know that the bodiless enemy uses his craftiness against all, infects all with the poison of his hatred? And you, too, are not exempt from his craftiness. Do not serve him, then, the spirit of enmity, but serve the God of love with the utmost zeal. Remember that God the Word died for your brethren.

As the rivers flow into the sea, so the souls of men should flow towards God.

The spiritual and bodily lives go apart, do not accord. This is why we sometimes feel very well bodily, but not in spirit. You begin to pray, and you find that your heart has become gross, “Thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness: then he forsook God”¹¹ — and it is difficult for you to pray, though you may be bodily well and strong. As soon as you cease praying, you will again feel easy. But this is sinful ease.

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”¹² Know what those who pray in the temple are thinking of. They think of that to which their hearts are attached.

If our heart doubts in the life-giving Spirit, then there will be no life in us, but sorrow and straitness, and deservedly: for life comes from the life-giving Spirit. The affliction resulting from such doubt is a sure sign that this doubt is a lie, and proceeds from the Devil, the murderer.

Up till now I have lived in God (I have thought, felt, and been fed by Him); and in future I shall also live in Him. I put aside all restless cares, and trust in my hope, in my breath — in Christ

He that believes in Christ as he should do does not allow himself to doubt even for a moment in the truth of that which the Lord has said in His holy Gospel, in that which is taught by His pure bride, the Church. It is necessary to acquire such steadfastness of heart in faith that it should not in the least, not for one single moment, be shaken of our free-will, by duplicity, by an inclination towards the opposite side, in order that a Christian should not be like a “wave of the sea, driven with the wind, and tossed.”¹³ Our faith in Christ is “yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.”¹⁴

Remember that by believing heartily and steadfastly in Christ we are saved unto the life eternal. Remember, that the holy Church has not allowed a single one of her true followers to perish, but, by the grace of God, has saved them all. The works of the Saviour and those of the Church upon believers speak for themselves. The action of doubt and unbelief in a man’s soul, killing his soul and body, also speaks for itself.

As the Spirit of God is a terrible power, the fear and torment of demons, therefore the demons, with all their infernal wiles, resist the Spirit of God and blaspheme Him. As the Spirit of God is a saving spirit, a spirit of union, love, and peace, therefore by every means they oppose the union, love, and salvation of mankind. It was through them that the separation of the Churches into the Eastern and Western arose. Observe: this separation arose from the dogma concerning the Holy Ghost. By their efforts, again, arose the further separation of the Roman West, Lutherism, Calvinism and Anglicanism; through them arose dissent in our Orthodox Church. (By the way ought not needful and beneficial reforms to be introduced into the Church, on account of dissenters? It is necessary to do so; otherwise we shall be mocked at by the demons. Is it possible that we shall allow ourselves to be overcome by their evil? Let not this happen. And therefore the Bible ought to be translated into the Russian language. Otherwise, how many millions are deprived of its riches by reason of its being written in the old Slavonic language, not understood by many!¹⁵) Besides this, the demons endeavour by every means to uproot, and have partly succeeded in doing so, faith in the Gospel and in Christ’s Church from the hearts of Christians — which is also blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. They also endeavour by every means to plunge Christians into carnal works and carnal impurity, in order that the Spirit of God should not dwell in men, as was the case with mankind before the Deluge. And, indeed, do we not see that men are given over to covetousness, gluttony, drunkenness and profligacy to an enormous degree? What is this corruption that has fallen upon us? O! it will go ill with us, and perhaps very soon. The spirits of evil also attack the Holy Spirit in the thoughts and hearts of separate individuals, shaking their faith in Him. Woe unto us! Let us not blaspheme the life-giving Holy Spirit of God, the Spirit of unspeakable love, “Who maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered”¹⁶; let us ever remember, during all our life-time, to worship and praise Him as we worship the Father and the Son, with an undivided and equal honour. Let us also honour the universal symbol of faith — this saving guide in the faith for believers, of all times and places. Let us not offend, even by a single thought of doubt, the Spirit of God, dwelling in us and vivifying us — this fulness of God, infinitely loving us, as the Father and the Son.

“We have been all made to drink into one Spirit.”¹⁷ From this you see that the Spirit of God surrounds us upon all sides, like water or air. “The Spirit of the Lord filleth the world.”¹⁸ Faith is given unto us by the Spirit of God: “to another faith by the same Spirit,”¹⁹ says the apostle. “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost,”²⁰ says the same apostle.

How good it is to conquer the passions! After the victory one feels such lightness of heart, such peace and greatness of spirit!

“Is not the life more than meat?”²¹ Ah! immeasurably more, infinitely more. In our soul shines the image of the invisible God, of the Creator of all. I ought not to grudge not merely anything material, but not even my soul, my life, for the material or bodily, and especially spiritual profit of my brother. By lovingly serving my brother I serve God Himself. O! I feel in my heart this great and sublime truth: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.”²² Wherefore? Because, in the first place, every man is an image of God; and secondly, because Jesus Christ is God and man together, and is the Head of the Body —His Church. “We are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones,”²³ that is, we are members of Christ.

Do not believe your flesh when it threatens to you with weakness during prayer; it lies. As soon as you begin to pray you will find that the flesh will become your obedient slave. Your prayer will vivify it also. Always remember that the flesh is lying.

He who believes in the Saviour, and feeds upon His Body and Blood, has life eternal in himself; and this is the reason why every sin occasions painful suffering and disturbance of heart. But those who have not life eternal in them drink iniquity like water, and do not suffer, because life eternal is not in their hearts.

Glory to the Spirit of God, descending from the Father to give life to every creature, and filling the whole universe. Glory to Him, giving life to angels and men and to every creature. Glory to Him, our Power, our Holiness. Glory to Him, coeternal with the Father and the Son!

My carnal nature requires images. Therefore we rightly and justly make images and reverence them. What else is man himself but a living image of the living God? The Son of God Himself is a uniform impress of the Father, showing us the Father in Himself. If we ourselves are images of God, formed of a soul and body, then why should we not reverence God’s saints in their images made with hands? The inscription of the name upon the image means much to the believer. This name is as though it replaces the soul of the person represented on the image. Call upon the name of the saint with your whole soul; he will hear you, and will manifest his miraculous power in the image. The name of the Saviour, called upon with faith, works wonders. It drives away the demons, quenches the fire of the passions, heals sicknesses. The names of the saints, called upon with faith, by the grace of God also work wonders. And what is there astonishing in this? They are all in the Spirit of God, and the life-giving Spirit of God is everywhere present and fills all things. The saints all work wonders by the Holy Ghost, because the one Spirit of God is the Spirit of wonders.

Man is a small world. As the soul is in the body, so God is in the world. When the soul leaves the body it immediately crumbles to pieces. Likewise, when the Spirit of God leaves the world it will immediately crumble to pieces. The soul is throughout the body, but especially in the heart, and God is throughout the world, but especially in heaven and in temples. And therefore recognise at every step the presence of God.

Glory to Thee, all-holy, life-giving “Spirit, proceeding from the Father and ever resting in the Son,”²⁴ undivided from the Father and the Son! Glory to Thee, Son of God, Who castest out devils by the Spirit of God²⁵ and orderest our salvation, sanctifying, teaching, and strengthening us by the same Spirit!

Glory to Thee, Father, ever condescending to us in the Son by the Holy Ghost! Trinity in undivided unity, have mercy upon us!

Children, being the images of their father and mother, are near to their hearts; but still nearer are men — and especially Christians — the images of God, to the heart of God. The outward and often inward resemblance of children to their parents reminds us of our inward resemblance to God.

Every place is the place of God’s presence and sovereignty. Hence it is undoubtedly true that the Lord looks upon us with the eyes of the holy icons as with His own, and can speak to us by the mouths of the holy icons as by His own. Also, owing to the fact that the Lord is in every place, His cross, His name work miracles. His icons show themselves to be wonder-working, and are in every case places of His gracious presence.

My thought freely penetrates edifices and their walls, mountains, seas, heaven, and earth. By his thought man is the likeness of the Godhead, Which is an infinite and omnipresent Spirit. Does not God penetrate and fill all things, as the Creator of all?

Prayer breathes hope, and a prayer without hope is a sinful prayer.

Has each one of us a guardian angel? He has, and must have. The nature of a spirit is extraordinarily active, and cannot remain inactive; we see this in our soul. The nature of a good spirit necessarily seeks activity and the widening of the circle of this activity, and the spreading of the kingdom of truth and good; as, on the contrary, the nature of an evil spirit also seeks an activity corresponding to it, and the spreading of the kingdom of falsehood and of every evil. We feel in ourselves that the demons endeavour by every means to spread the kingdom of evil, and the Scripture, too, bears witness of this: “The Devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”²⁶ How, then, shall we not admit, in accordance with common sense, that the angels act everywhere throughout the world, striving to spread the kingdom of good and seeking the salvation of mankind? O, how true are the words that “joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth,”²⁷ and that as there is a devil near every man, so likewise there is an angel near every man! As we clearly feel the presence of the one, so we also feel the presence of the other, although, through self-love, we are in the habit of ascribing all good thoughts, feelings, dispositions, and intentions to ourselves and not to our guardian angel. Would the number of guardian angels be sufficient for every person to have a guardian angel? Abundantly sufficient. When the apostle Peter threw himself with a sword upon the high priest’s servant, in order to protect His Master and Lord, then the Lord said unto Him: “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He shall presently give Me more than twelve legions of angels?”²⁸ This signifies that the Lord ever has abundantly sufficient angels to protect every man (Elisha, Jacob), and, above all, to protect the incarnate Son of God. We also know that an angel of God appeared to the Saviour in the garden of Gethsemane to strengthen Him: “Angels came and ministered unto Him,”²⁹ after the forty days’ fast and the temptation in the wilderness. The Infant Saviour’s guardian angel appeared to Joseph in sleep and ordered his movements.

Holy Spirit, living, personal, ruling, living bond of the Father and the Son, have mercy upon me!

Holy Spirit, giving life to and uniting all creation, and, above all, to reasonable creatures — power of all creation, have mercy upon me!

When praying, a man must lay aside every worldly care and only care for the salvation of his soul.

We must trust in God in all temptations, in all desolate conditions of the soul. The Lord will deliver.

What a unity of being there is in the three Persons of the Godhead! The Son does not do anything without the Spirit, nor the Spirit without the Father, nor the Father without the Spirit and the Son, but All act conjointly. It is not thus with man. Sometimes he works by the mind without the heart’s participation, owing to which his deeds are often soulless. This discord is the consequence of sin. The three strangers: Abraham, two fulfilled the will of the third.

I think how all-perfect the Godhead is — what an infinite fulness of life there is in It! God the Father begat from Himself the creative Word and sends down the creative Spirit, and they supremely fulfil the will of the Father, as a man’s hands fulfil that which the head thinks and the heart desires. Wonderful art Thou, our God, creating all things by Thy personal Word, and accomplishing all things by Thy personal Spirit! What a fulness of life! Both the Son and the Spirit are equal to the Father — the Cause; both the Son and the Spirit are equally almighty, as the Father and the Son are one mercy and love, one will, one power, one Godhead and kingdom! What fulness of life! Both the Son is the Creator and the Spirit is the Creator. “Thy hands” (the Son and the Spirit) “have made me and fashioned me.”³⁰ What unity! Neither does the Son do anything without the Spirit, nor the Spirit without the Son, but together They accomplish the will of the Father, the Three forming one Being. Therefore, wherever you find the Son acting, there also the Spirit infallibly acts with the Son, also the Father, from Whom and to Whom They rise. “I glorify the might of the Father and the Son, and hymn the power of the Holy Ghost, the undivided, uncreated Godhead, the Consubstantial Trinity, reigning unto ages of ages.”³¹

Lord our Saviour, Thy Divine greatness consists in the fact that the life of every creature is in Thee, as in the hypostatic Life, “that all men should honour Thee, even as they honour the Father.”³² Thy greatness, life-giving Holy Ghost, consists in the fact that Thou sanctifiest, strengthenest all, and livest together with the Father and the Son, that all men shall honour Thee, even as they honour the Father and the Son. Thy greatness, Holy Ghost, lies also in the fact that the only-begotten Son of God, being consubstantial with Thee, created powers and wonders by Thee, and, likewise through Thee, sanctifies, strengthens, and guides us to His Father. “Through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.”³³

“The blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.”³⁴ He who denies the personal being of the Holy Ghost — especially he who was himself many times a receiver of the Holy Ghost — blasphemes against Him; and unless he amends, he shall not be forgiven either in this world or in the next. Life-giving Holy Ghost, Spirit of grace, have mercy upon us!

Those who pray little are weak in heart, and thus, when they wish to pray, their hearts become enfeebled, also their hands, body, and thoughts, and it is difficult for them to pray. It is necessary to overcome oneself, to strive to pray with the whole heart, for it is a good and happy thing to pray with the whole heart.

Trust in the intercession of the Mother of God, of the angels and saints, is a form of Christian hope. They are powerful in intercession for us, both by the grace of Christ and their own virtues. We do not pray to Them in vain; through their intercession we trust to obtain mercy, the forgiveness of sins, and salvation, as well as temporal blessings — such, for instance, as health, the salubrity of the air, deliverance from misfortunes and sorrows. By praying in the Spirit and by the Holy Spirit to the Saviour, to the Father, to the angels and all the saints, our prayer will become ardent, and tears will stream from our eyes — sweet and happy tears. Glory to the Holy Ghost the Comforter! And what a comfort He is to the soul!

The Saviour and the Comforter, two Persons of the Godhead: the One ever saves from sins, and the Other comforts him who is saved. Their very names are taken from Their deeds, and are always actually justified. He comforts! The Holy Ghost comforts the believing soul, as a mother comforts her child.

God sovereignly changes, by the Holy Ghost, ordinary bread and wine into the life-giving Body and Blood of His Son. From this we clearly see that He is also the Author and Nourisher of our bodily life, and that our bodily life is less important than the spiritual one; because the ordinary bread and wine, nourishing and strengthening our bodily nature, are changed into a better bread — the bread of spiritual life, and the wine into spiritual drink.

The Spirit of God is everywhere. Travel mentally throughout the whole world, everywhere you will see His deeds. By Him men are endued with a higher life. He also gives life to animals, birds, fishes, plants. Everywhere the Body and Blood of the Saviour equally work miracles; everywhere the sacraments have power, and their power is the Holy Ghost.

Concerning honouring and invoking the saints in prayer (on the day of St. Nicholas). What is it founded upon? They are in God; they are rich in spiritual gifts; they are in the land of the living, and in the land of abundance; whilst we are in the land of death and of spiritual hunger. God has taken them unto Himself to preserve our life. “God did send me before you to preserve life,”³⁵ said Joseph to his brethren. Abraham — Noah. The rich man in hell begged Abraham to send Lazarus. Noah, the deliverer from the deluge. “Blessed is he whose race is in Sion, and who hath kinsmen in Jerusalem.”³⁶

I rejoice and delight in the infinite perfection of the Godhead; I rejoice and delight that the Godhead is in three Persons, and that each Person is self-hypostatic, and is all-perfect God — One in Three; that the Father is almighty, the Son is almighty, and the Holy Ghost is almighty; that the Father is omnipresent, likewise the Son, and likewise the Holy Ghost; that the Father is life, the Son is life, and the Holy Ghost is life; that the Father is love, the Son is love, and the Holy Ghost is love. I rejoice in God the Father, I rejoice in God the Son, and I rejoice in God the Holy Ghost — in one Godhead, the one nature and power, the one Saviour, God, Who loves us. I rejoice that to each of the three Persons of the Godhead, as God, special ruling actions are proper: to the Father, thought and benevolence; to the Son, the realisation of the Father’s thought and benevolence; and to the Holy Ghost, accomplishment and quickening.

The Devil sometimes acts in the mind as a troublesome questioner concerning the incomprehensible, as an audacious infringer upon the unapproachable mysteries of the three Persons of the Godhead and their mutual relations. It is necessary to think reverently and most cautiously concerning the Trinity of the Godhead.

Prayer refreshes and enlivens the soul, like outer air refreshes the body. When praying we feel braver and brighter, similarly as we feel physically and spiritually braver and fresher while walking in the fresh air.

“All things that the Father hath are mine.”³⁷ All things that the Spirit hath are also His, excepting the proceeding from the father. Speak equally of the Father and the Son, only separating Their Personal nature. By reason of Their consubstantiality, there is a community of nature.

Learn to pray; force yourself to prayer. In the beginning it will be difficult; but afterwards the more you force yourself, the easier it will be for you to pray. But in the beginning it is always necessary to force oneself.

“O most holy Bishop, Father Nicholas, pray to God for us!” What is the reason that we ask the prayers of the Saints for ourselves? Do they really pray for us? and is their prayer effective? God Himself plainly declared His will to some persons not having nearness to Him, chiefly to sinful men, that they should ask God’s people to pray for them. For instance, Abimelech, who took Abraham’s wife, was commanded to ask Abraham to pray for him; Job prayed for his friends, in accordance with the evident revelation of God’s will; Moses, Samuel, Elijah, and all the prophets prayed; the Lord Himself, in accordance with His human nature, prayed to the Heavenly Father for Peter and for all the disciples. The Saints are worthy of being intercessors for us before God, by their virtues, by their merits, and as those who pleased Him. If earthly justice requires that a certain man nearer to God (for instance, a priest) should pray to God for others, then why should it not be the same in heaven? All the Saints live in God and for us; in God they see our needs, they sympathise with us, they are ready, in accordance with our prayers, to help us. Why in accordance with our prayers, and not otherwise? In order to strengthen us in faith and prayerfulness. Besides, why do even living men wish that others who need their help should ask them for it?

As the Devil wounds the soul in an instant by presenting some unlawful desire or some unrighteous idea to the heart, so God and His guardian angel vivify the soul by an instantaneous flow of holy desires and thoughts. We must be attentive and grateful to the Lord for His spiritual gifts of light.

What does the daily invocation of the Saints signify — of different ones each day, during the whole year and during our whole lifetime? It signifies that God’s Saints, as our brethren, only perfect, live and are near us; that they hear us and are ever ready to help us, by the grace of God. We live together with them — in the one house of the Heavenly Father — only on its different halves. We live on the earthly, they on the heavenly half; but we both have a means of communication with each other: for us the prayer of faith and love, for them their spiritual nature, always ready for active help, owing to the love with which their souls are permeated.

“Faith is given to man by the Holy Ghost; therefore no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost.”³⁸ The Holy Ghost was revealed to us by Jesus Christ, Who was conceived and born by the Holy Ghost, Who grew and was strengthened by the Holy Ghost, Who cast out devils by the Holy Ghost, and Who rose from the dead by the Holy Ghost. The apostles, martyrs, the venerable men and prelates, preached concerning the Holy Ghost, and very many of them sealed their teaching concerning the Holy Trinity with their blood.

I myself am all infirmity, misery. God is my strength. This conviction is my highest wisdom, making me blessed.

When Christians come to church to pray to God, then it would seem that they have not one God, but many gods and many idols (and thus they sin against the first and second commandments). Some have themselves for idols of self-love: “Where their treasure is, there will their heart be also.”³⁹

As you borrow your breath from the air and emit it into the air again — so that you are always surrounded by air, and it penetrates you — so also your soul comes from God and will return again to God, so that you are always in God, and are surrounded on all sides and inwardly filled with Him as with air. This is the meaning of the words “filled with the Spirit.”⁴⁰

As you breathe every minute by means of air, so every minute you are mentally either with God or with the Devil, according to your inward disposition. What air is to the body, the spirit of God is to the soul. As you breathe from the air the elements required to nourish your body, so likewise you breathe into yourself from the Spirit of God good inclinations and thoughts.

When I read the Gospel, then it is not I that speak, but the Lord Himself; He Himself is in these words. For He is the Spirit, the Wisdom, or the infinite personal Thought; it is He Himself Who is in these wonderful thoughts and words of the Gospel. Only the word is ours, human; or, rather, even the word is also His; whilst the thought, its essence, truth, is the Lord Himself. I see the same, for instance, in the image of the Saviour or His cross. Again, He Himself is there — my omnipresent Lord is in them, in this image or in that cross, as in the word of the Gospel. His image on the icon or on the cross is only an outward appearance, whilst the essence is He Himself — manifesting Himself everywhere, in everything and through everything, and especially through the images and signs upon which His justly-worshipped Name is inscribed or His representation is drawn. So also He is in the priest’s blessing by the sign of the cross, in which He Himself appears, and as though Himself blesses. Hence the importance of a priest’s blessing. And even our customary making of the sign of the cross has also God’s power, if only we make it with faith. Thus everywhere we may find and feel the Lord.

“If he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.”⁴¹ As the Searcher of hearts, the Lord knows that men are liable to very frequently trespass, and that, having fallen, they often rise up again; therefore He has given us the commandment to frequently forgive trespasses, and He Himself is the first to fulfil His holy word. As soon as you say from your whole heart, “I repent,” you will be immediately forgiven.

The whole Gospel is the gospel of the kingdom to which Christians are predestined, and forms as though one single promise (all the parables, all the prophecies and miracles); the epistles of the Apostles reveal in greater detail the promises of Christian hope.

“Thy kingdom come” — that is, Thy perfect reign in our hearts!

By my body I am merely earth and ashes, whilst my soul lives and finds its rest in God alone. He is both the clearness of my thought and the strength of my heart; I myself am nothing.

The saints fulfilled the word of the Lord; the Lord fulfils their word; they worked for Him — He does so for them. The Lord Himself said: “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”⁴² This is why the Lord speedily fulfils the prayers of the Saints for us.

When praying, we must truly sorrow for our sins, and truly repent of them. When enumerating the sins specified in the prayers, we must say them feeling them in our heart as if they were our own. Also we must have an ardent desire not to sin in future by the same sins.

Having the intention of speaking concerning Christian hope, I should reveal to you the promises given by God to us, and the wiles and snares in which the enemy entangles Christians, in order to divert their gaze and trust from priceless hope; they are — the flattery of riches, of earthly pleasures, and of honours. In speaking of Christian hope I should reveal to you the treasury of the blessings promised to us in Christ, to show you the incomprehensible, infinite mercy and the innumerable bounties of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; of the Father — our trust; of the Son — our refuge; of the Holy Ghost — our protection. My God! the infinity of blessings promised to Christians presents itself to my gaze, and at the same time the infinite carelessness of Christians towards these promised blessings, their little faith, and, finally, their unbelief and coldness, trampling under foot the Blood of the Testament and neglecting the mystery of salvation. But may the Lord give me a mouth and wisdom,⁴³ that I may speak with fiery tongues, that with His help I may light the fire of trust in hearts that are cold! Book of the immutable Covenants! tell us of God’s promises to the righteous and to the sinful.

Concerning hope in God after having committed sins, whatever they may be — that is, hope of being reconciled to Him after we have given way to anger, or have fallen into despondency, anguish of heart, or have sinned through the passions. It would seem that the hope of the sinner in the forgiveness of his sins and in salvation is nowhere so clearly and powerfully expressed as in the prayers before Holy Communion, in the canons to the Sweetest Lord Jesus, to the Mother of God, to the Guardian Angel, and in the canons to the Saints of the day.

Hope also requires a life corresponding to the hope. Those who hope must not live “as others who have no hope.”⁴⁴ “Having therefore these promises... let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit.”⁴⁵ “Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you”⁴⁶ — this is what I ask of God.

“Where I am, there shall also My servant be”⁴⁷ — “with Me in My Throne;”⁴⁸ “shall be caught up together with them in the clouds... so shall we ever be with the Lord”⁴⁹ — such is our hope!

Take away from each one the visible thing which he loves above all; ask or take away money from the covetous, dainty food from the glutton, his prerogatives from the ambitious and proud man, call him by an evil name, and you will see what constitutes the hope of each one, what treasure, what passion is his! O, what shameful passions one sometimes meets with! Sometimes a man attaches himself with an impure love to a person of the opposite sex, breathes by it — so to say, feeds on it. O shameful hope! O unclean heart, withdrawn from the Lord! O man, setting his carnal, weak trust in an insignificant creature like unto himself, I will show you Whom you must love! You who burden your hearts by surfeiting and drunkenness, I will show you Who ought to fill your hearts! Money-lover, I will show you of Whom you ought to buy silver tried in the fire! You who seek after pleasures and honours, seek the honour of the heavenly calling. You who love fine raiment, buy of Him “white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed with righteousness.”⁵⁰ Despair, despondency, and presumption are sins against hope.

The punishment for sin, and the peace of the conscience after repenting of it, visibly prove that there is one Judge, the Life-giver and our God, Who can save or destroy us, Who has given us life and the laws of life, and chastises us for their violation, and that He is unchangeable.

The holy prophet David calls the soul an eye (“Mine eye is consumed because of my grief”⁵¹), hearing, a tongue, a hand, a foot or steps (“Thou shalt make me hear of joy and gladness; that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice.... my tongue shall sing of Thy righteousness.”⁵² “He will not suffer thy foot to be moved”⁵³). The eye of the soul is not closed even at night.

Take me captive, Lord, in the sweet captivity of Thy Holy Ghost, so that my words may flow “as the rivers in the south”⁵⁴ to Thy glory and to the salvation of Thy people! Grant me this sweet and powerful inward impulse to set down upon parchment the fulness of spiritual visions and feelings! Let “my tongue [be] the pen of a ready writer”⁵⁵ — of the All-Holy Spirit!

A deep feeling of spiritual poverty, a lamentation at the existence of evil, a thirst after salvation, are to be found in every straightforward and humble soul.

The ringing of bells is a call to converse with God, of children with their Father — a call to appear before Him.

What do we love most in the world? Life and health. Who is our life and health? Jesus Christ. Therefore, if you wish to live, and to eternally live and be blessed, believe in Jesus Christ, and please Him by living in accordance with His Gospel.

Love is God. If you love God, God dwelleth in you, and you in God.⁵⁶ Malice is the Devil. The instant you begin to feel malice against your neighbour, the Devil is in you, entering into you like a needle, and endeavouring to become a mountain within you, so greatly does he spread, and so heavy is he! And therefore continually love God and your neighbour. Do not admit malice into your heart, even for a single moment; consider it as an illusion of the Devil. Amen.

“Charity suffereth long, and is kind;”⁵⁷ whilst malice is impatient, quick to anger, and exacting. Malice is quick to punish, whilst love is quick to indulgence and forgiveness. Charity looks at its own defects, and is reluctant to notice them in others; whilst malice is sharp-sighted to notice the smallest defects of others, and is blind to its own great defects. We see the mote in our brother’s eye, and not the beam in our own; this happens often, and most often, notwithstanding God’s inward teaching.

Fear malice as you fear the fire; do not admit it into your heart, even upon any plausible pretence, and still less by reason of anything disagreeable to you; malice is always an evil, a child of hell. Sometimes malice enters the heart under the pretence of zeal for the glory of God or the good of our neighbour. Do not believe in your zeal in this case; it is false and unwise; rather be zealous that there should not be any malice in you. God is glorified by nothing so much as by the “charity that beareth all things,” and is dishonoured and offended by nothing so much as by malice, under whatever fair appearance it may hide itself. It was under the mask of caring for the poor that Judas, hiding his malice against his Lord, sold Him for thirty pieces of silver. Remember that the enemy unwearyingly seeks your destruction, and attacks you at the time when you least expect it. His malice is infinite. Do not bind yourself by self-love and sensuality, lest they take you an easy prisoner.

God is inexhaustible in his gifts to men. During already 7403 years⁵⁸ He abundantly feeds all creatures. Everywhere we see plenty and joy; only the greedy rich lay their hands on and keep in their treasuries too many of God’s gifts, which might plentifully nourish hundreds and thousands of poor. Man! believe firmly in God’s inexhaustibility in His gifts, and willingly “deal thy bread to the hungry;”⁵⁹ the more you give, the more shall God send you. Such is God’s law: “with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”⁶⁰

Learn always to remember and to pronounce the name of God with great faith, reverence, love, and a grateful heart. Never pronounce it heedlessly.

Speak and do everything right undoubtingly, boldly, firmly, and decidedly. Avoid doubts, timidity, languor, and indecision. “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love.”⁶¹ Our Lord is the Lord of powers.

Breathe by faith (by certitude in God’s truth), by trust in God, and by love for God and your neighbour. And how can you help yourself in this? By unbelief in the durability of everything earthly; by not putting your trust in earthly blessings, such as food, drink, money, riches, and earthly ties; by not caring for, by being indifferent to everything earthly and perishable. Do not let your heart cling to anything, do not attach yourself to anything. “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”⁶²

God is love, and I am an image of God; therefore I ought to be all love. God is the most perfect good, free from the least shadow of evil; I am an image of God; therefore I ought also to be perfectly good, without even a shadow of evil. If the enemy will tempt you by food or drink, say to him, “My food and drink are the Body and Blood of my Lord; they cannot be taken from me. As long as I am a priest, I can communicate of them every week and for the greater part several times a week. Besides this, if I seek in myself the kingdom of God, by putting my trust in Him, my Lord, then everything earthly that is needful for me shall be added to me, in accordance with the Scripture.” “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”⁶³ My God is faithful. Inculcate these words into your heart deeply, by meditation.

Do not let yourself be angered by anything; conquer everything by love — all caprices and offences, all kinds of family unpleasantnesses. Know nothing but love. Always sincerely blame yourself, acknowledge yourself as the cause of any unpleasantness. Say, “It is my fault; I am the sinner.” Remember, that as you are infirm, so also is your neighbour, and one infirmity is annulled by the other; therefore it is useless to blame the infirm and sinful, if they acknowledge their infirmity. We must blame the Devil, who is so powerful in evil.

The heavenly Father so greatly cares for me, for my life, my salvation, that He did not spare even His only-begotten Son, but sent Him into the world to suffer and die, and feeds me with His Body and Blood. Is it possible, then, that He should not care for me in less important things, and should deprive me and mine of sufficient means of subsistence? This has not happened until now, and shall not be. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”⁶⁴ “The very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore.”⁶⁵

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