Chapter 4. The Church, Treasury of Salvation

The Holy Church is the greatest, the holiest, the most gracious, the most wise, the most necessary establishment of God on earth: this is the true tabernacle of God, which the Lord pitched, and not man—not Luther, not Calvin, or Mohammed, or Buddha, or Confucius, or other such sinful, passion-ridden men. The Church is a God-established union of people, joined together by faith, teaching, sacred hierarchy, and Mysteries; this is Christ’s own spiritual army, armed with the whole spiritual armor against the armed, countless host of the devil: for «our battle is not with blood and flesh, but with the principalities, and with the powers, and with the world-rulers of the darkness of this age, with the spirits of wickedness under heaven» (Eph 6:12). This is a spiritual Infirmary, where mankind, sick with the wound of sin, is healed by the gracious remedies given by God—by repentance and Communion of the holy Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ, and by the word of God, and by the instructions, counsels, and comforts of the shepherds of Christ’s rational flock; this is the common font of cleansing, rebirth, and sanctification; this is the sanctuary of God, in which all are sanctified by the Holy Spirit, through baptism, chrismation, and the other sacred rites and divine worship; this is a spiritual sun in the world, enlightening and quickening all who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, and who have been put to death by sin.

In nature there exists a law of the attraction of small bodies by great ones, and of these by still greater ones, and likewise a law of cohesion (the cohesion of the various soft, hard, and liquid parts of organic bodies, and also of inorganic stones, metals, minerals, and fossils); and by this the existence, the firmness, the order, the usefulness, the beauty, the mutual bond, and the variety of every creature is conditioned. The cause of this is the boundless wisdom, goodness, and infinite almighty power of the Creator, who has made so wondrous, so majestic, so beautiful a world, presenting, in its infinite variety and wondrous grandeur, a single, harmonious, beautiful, unbreakable whole creation.

In the spiritual world too there exists a law of mutual attraction and unity. The world is one—God is one, the faith is one, and the Church of God is one, for her Head is Christ God, and her Helmsman, animating the whole body of the Church, is the Spirit of God, the Giver of life, who also fills and quickens the whole universe.

With what wondrous, most tender, most loving care has the heavenly Father favored the human race, perishing in its sins; what an extraordinary means has been granted to people for their salvation from sin, from the curse, and from eternal ruin! What a wondrous, mighty Champion (Christ) has been sent down from heaven to earth against the strong, cunning, all-malicious wrestler of the human race—the devil! What a Church has been founded on earth—unbreakable by any power of hell, a stronghold and a fortress, in which all who truly believe and are devoted to this Church may be safe from this wrestler! What saving Mysteries have been given! What, and how many, rational instruments and channels of the grace of God have been set up in this Church for people! But what, then, must people bring to the Lord in return for His many cares for their salvation? Their own faith, their own labor, their own repentance, their own self-denial, a diligent struggle against sin, the exercise of works of virtue, a perfect obedience to the Lord and to His holy Church.

The Church is one; her Head is one; her flock is one; her body is one, with many members. Without her Head, Christ, the Church is not a Church, but a self-willed gathering. Such are the Lutherans, the Russian schismatics, the Pashkovites, and the Tolstoyans.

«I am with you always, even to the end of the age» (Mt. 28:20). The Lord Himself is always present to His own Church; what need, then, is there of a vicar, a pope? And can a sinful man be the Lord’s vicar? He cannot. A viceroy of an emperor, a vicar of a patriarch, in some city, can exist, and does exist, but no one can be a vicar, a substitute, for the Lord, the eternal King and Head of the Church. This is true. The Catholics are in error. Inspire them, O Lord, that those who so assert are absurd, and are clothed with pride as with a necklace.

The most harmful thing in Christianity, in this God-revealed, heavenly religion, is the headship of a man in the Church—for instance, the pope—and his supposed infallibility. It is precisely in his dogma of infallibility that the greatest error lies, for the pope is a sinful man, and it is a misfortune if he should imagine of himself that he is infallible. How many enormous errors, ruinous to human souls, has the Catholic, the papal church devised—in its dogmas, that is, its rites, in its canonical rules, in its divine worship, in the deadening, malicious attitude of Catholics toward the Orthodox, in its blasphemies and slanders against the Orthodox Church, in the abuse directed at the Orthodox Church and at Orthodox Christians! And for all of this the supposedly infallible pope is to blame, and the doctrine of him and of the Jesuits, their spirit of falsehood, of double-mindedness, and of every wrong means, ad maiorem Dei gloriam (to the supposedly greater glory of God).

We are members of the Holy Orthodox Church, members of the Body of Christ, whose Head is Christ God Himself, and each of us individually is a member of it; and Christ, the Head of the body, is holy, and the members must be holy.

Christians are members of the Church, and the Church is the Body of Christ, with Christ Himself as Head, and the Holy Spirit as her Enlightener. «Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her… that He might present her to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish» (Eph 5:25-27). You are a holy and chosen flock, you are members of the Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. What, then, is required of you? What holiness, what righteousness! What attention to yourselves! What spiritual contemplation and secret labor! What conduct, what virtues, what faith, what hope, what love! What self-restraint, mercy, care for one another, and spurring one another on to virtue!

After the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, described in the Book of their Acts, one is often reminded of the all-providing action of the Holy Spirit in the Church, of His all-ruling guidance of the Apostles, of their saving preaching and their actions in the Church. This is that «other Comforter» (Jn 14:16), all-good and all-true, whom the Lord Jesus Christ promised to send to the Apostles. Glory to You, Holy Spirit, life-giving Comforter, acting without ceasing and everywhere in the Church of Christ. Turn, O Lord, by judgments known to You, the wandering peoples—Jewish, Mohammedan, pagan, and, within Christianity itself, the heretical and schismatic peoples and tribes; expose and root out their vices, guide them to piety, and enlighten them; expose the impiety and depravity of Orthodox Christians, and guide all onto the path of salvation; give understanding and guidance to the young, preserve childhood, raise up and guide infancy by Guardian Angels, give understanding, enlightenment, and strength to men and to elders, and strengthen and guide all and everyone, by Your own all-good, all-wise, and all-powerful dominion, unto every virtue, driving away, like a mist, the passions of sin, for the sake of Christ our Lord, by the good will of the Father. Amen.

Mighty, all-powerful, is the intercession before God of the Holy Church, clothed in the merits, the power, the righteousness, and the splendor of the Son of God, her all-good and almighty Head. To her intercession all things are possible. No other-believing church possesses such power of intercession, being wrongly minded, being headless.

The Christian must, without fail, care for his own spiritual formation, for which he was reborn in the holy font by the Holy Spirit, and received a spiritual regeneration, and was sealed with the seal of the Holy Spirit, and was counted worthy of the right to partake of the most pure Blood of Christ. By God’s own intention, the Holy Church is the first and the most rightful educator of Christian souls. There is no work more important than the work of Christian formation. Judge and understand for yourselves how precious to God are these rational, immortal souls, redeemed by the Blood of the Son of God Himself, called from the darkness of ignorance to the light of the knowledge of God by the Lord Himself, betrothed and joined to the Lord, as pure virgins to their most pure Bridegroom! How precious is the salvation of these souls, to whom He offers, for food and drink, His own most pure Body and most pure Blood, whom He has taken it upon Himself to form spiritually, through these wondrous, fearsome, life-giving, and deifying Mysteries! Occupy yourselves, all of you, with your own spiritual formation, with all attention and diligence; occupy yourselves with the contemplation of God, with prayer, with self-examination, self-condemnation, and the amendment of yourselves in every respect; exercise yourselves in the virtues of meekness, humility, obedience, patience, mercy, chastity, simplicity, freedom from malice, and cut off every sinful thought, desire, habit, and passion.

Astonishing is our own carelessness, our negligence, our laziness concerning our own salvation; for how many means, powers, and conveniences to salvation have been given us by the most merciful and all-generous Lord! First, our own natural thirst for salvation, for peace and blessedness in the soul; the light of reason and the striving of our own will toward everything true, good, beautiful, pure, and exalted; the abundance of grace, given us for salvation, and flowing, like rivers, in the Church, and filling souls that thirst for salvation; the nearness and readiness of the Lord to save us at every time and every hour; the intercession of the Holy Spirit with groanings which cannot be uttered (Rom 8:26); the assistance and cooperation of the Guardian Angels toward salvation, the daily divine service in church, the saving Mysteries, the prayers and intercession of the Mother of God and of all the saints. It is astonishing, with all this, how we can perish, and not all of us be saved. Of course, there is much opposition to salvation: temptations from the passion-ridden flesh, from the adulterous and sinful world, from the devil, who has set snares everywhere for our ruin; a natural corruption, a sinful conception and birth in sin; inclinations and habits toward sin. But there are far more means to salvation than to ruin! For He who is in us (Christ) is greater than he who is in the world, the devil (1Jn 4:4), and all the saints overcame these obstacles and were saved. And what of us? We slumber and sleep! It is shameful, sinful, painful, lamentable. Sin gains power over us because it has buried itself and taken up residence deep within us, in our own heart, has made for itself, in our own passion-ridden flesh, a stronghold out of our own passions—self-love, love of pleasure, ambition, pride, love of gain, intemperance, self-conceit, little faith, unbelief, freethinking, hypocrisy, partiality, laziness, cunning—and, with these passions, as with mighty weapons, it shoots us down and takes us captive, tearing us away, removing us from Christ, our true Life. And therefore whoever desires salvation must dig, must go deep into his own heart, and lay his foundation upon the rock—that is, upon Christ the Savior, upon a firm, unshakable faith in Him, a hope in Him, and in no one and nothing else—upon a firm love for Him and for one’s neighbor.

In His own Church the Lord turns to us as Creator, skillful Maker and Re-Creator, as Father, wise Physician and Savior, Provider, Author of life, Nourisher, Lawgiver, Leader of His own spiritual army, Champion, Victor. Man, in His hands, is a rational being made in His own image, destined for immortality, and yet fallen, broken, defiled, rejected by God for his sins, once under a curse, but, by the mercy and generosity of the only-begotten Son of God, redeemed, raised up from his own fall, delivered from the curse, and once more honored with the blessing of the heavenly Father, through the intercession and merits of the Son; delivered from the darkness of his transgressions, illumined by the heavenly light of Christ’s Gospel, re-created and refined from the rust and impurity of sin, washed in the mystical bath, made fragrant with the holy chrism, and sealed with the seal of the Holy Spirit of God upon all his senses; guided along the path of salvation toward the kingdom on high and its blessedness; strengthened, in his struggle against sins and against the hostile evil powers, by the Lord Himself; fed mystically, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, with the heavenly Bread; guided by visible shepherds, who hold spiritual authority from the almighty Head of the Church Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. You ask: why such-and-such Mysteries in the Church; why the priesthood and pastorate; why temples, why divine worship, why the ceaseless preaching of the word of God? Why repentance, why Communion of the Holy Mysteries? All of this is necessary for the re-creation, enlightenment, guidance, and strengthening of fallen, defiled, corrupted, perishing man. For this same purpose, too, is the grace of baptism needed, of re-creation, of rebirth, and of renewal by the Holy Spirit. You are honored, O man, with the greatest honor: you are appointed to be a bearer of the Godhead, a God-bearer. Have you heard of the God-bearing Fathers, who had God continually within them, as in living temples not made with hands? You too must be such a God-bearer; for this you are given to partake of the Flesh and Blood of the God-man Christ, so that the Lord may always dwell within you, according to His own word and promise: «He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him» (Jn 6:56).

Christ came to renew human nature, corrupted by sin, and entrusted this greatest work of His own goodness, mercy, righteousness, and wisdom to His own holy Church. The Holy Spirit, who has come into the world and works in the Church through her clergy, her divine worship, her preaching, and her Mysteries, accomplishes this renewal without ceasing. Only in the Church does this renewing power reside; outside the Church there is none, and there can be none.

I grieve deeply, I weep and lament, over the fearsome wound of sin, which corrupts mankind, in distress immeasurable, indescribable, and manifold—over the delusion of sin, by which mankind is taken captive, and labors for sin, and even boasts of its own labor, and finds comfort in it, as though in some kind of profit. But, at the same time, I rejoice and triumph, and clap my hands, when I think and picture to myself that divine help which is given to us, by the will of the Creator, in the granting of a great Savior and God to the whole human race, and in the planting, on earth, of the church of God, saving the human race by the wondrous grace of God.

What is grace? A gift of God, granted to man for his faith in Christ, for the salvation of the Christian. Grace is a power that protects, that shows mercy, that enlightens, that saves, that disposes toward every virtue.

Grace, taking up its dwelling in a believing person, zealous for holiness and righteousness, drives, without ceasing, from his heart and body, from a person’s whole being, corruption and every sin, and prepares him for eternal incorruption; it drives out the stench of the passions and instills fragrance. The saints, even while still living in the body, were fragrant with holiness and incorruption, and were pure temples of the Holy Spirit, working miracles. Live, then, according to the spirit, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts (Rom 13:14).

A commandment of self-denial has been given, room has been made for struggles, for virtues, for unfading crowns of glory, and grace has been given, the power of God to overcome and conquer the cunning of the enemy and every passion. The Lord Himself, the Author of our contest, helps those who struggle, and grants victory and crowns to His own soldiers.

Every sinner who sincerely turns to God must place his full hope in every gracious help from God in his own struggle against sins, passions, and every sinful habit. Only one must sincerely and without doubt believe in God, and diligently call upon Him for help, and sincerely come to hate sin, and diligently repent, with a pure intention never to yield to sin again. Ready to help in our salvation, too, are all the saints, the Mother of God herself, the holy Guardian Angels and the servants of God; our spiritual fathers and shepherds, appointed by God to save and guide those seeking salvation; the conscience of every person, this incorruptible, strict, and truthful judge—only obey it diligently and without ceasing.

Everything pure, lawful, holy, the unclean demon strives to defile, or to present, to picture, in an unclean, perverse, distorted form. O how cunning he is, how unclean, how insolent, how tireless, how active in his own cunning, in his own malice, in his own abomination! Who can escape his snares? He who firmly believes in Christ and in the Church.

The Lord, for the good of rational creatures, that is, of people, wishes to unite all into one body, and to dwell in them Himself. «That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us» (Jn 17:21). But the devil strives to divide everyone, to dismember them, to scatter them, like a flock without a shepherd: in families he sows enmity, discord, discontent, or offense; in villages, in cities, he sets one against another; in states, he sets nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom; in religious societies, he sets the followers of one confession against those of another, and breathes fury, especially, against those who confess the Orthodox faith, as the true Church of God, raising up various persecutions against them. Let us, then, hold fast to the one Holy Orthodox Church, whose Head is Christ our God Himself, working within us without ceasing for our salvation and renewal.

The enemy of our salvation, the devil, knowing full well the saving power of our union with God through faith and the Church and the grace of God, strives, with every strength and cunning, to break our bond with God, through sin, through fleshly passions, through worldly attachments. All of us must hold firmly to our union with God and the Church, keeping the laws of the Lord.

II. Life in an Unwavering Union with the Church. The Necessity of Belonging to the Orthodox Church, the One True Church

So then, it is necessary to belong to the Church of Christ, whose Head is the almighty King, the Conqueror of hell, Jesus Christ. His kingdom is a Church militant, warring against principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spirits of wickedness in the heavenly places, which make up a skillfully organized kingdom and wage war with extreme experience, intelligence, precision, and strength against all people, having thoroughly studied all their passions and inclinations. A single person here is no warrior on this field; nor can even a great society, but one that is not Orthodox, without a Head—Christ—do anything against such cunning, subtle enemies, always vigilant, who have perfectly studied the science of warfare against you. The Orthodox Christian needs strong support from above, from God, and from the holy soldiers of Christ, who have conquered the enemy and been saved by the power of Christ’s grace, and from the earthly Orthodox Church, from her shepherds and teachers, and, further, from public prayer and the Mysteries. Such a helper to the Christian, in his struggle with visible and invisible enemies, is precisely the Church of Christ, to which, by God’s mercy, we belong. The Catholics have invented a new head, debasing the one true Head of the Church, Christ; the Lutherans fell away and remained without a Head; so too the Anglicans: they have no Church, their union with the Head is broken, there is no all-powerful help, and Belial wages war with all his strength, with all his cunning, and holds them all in his own delusion and ruin. Countless are those perishing in godlessness and depravity.

By the creation of man in the image and likeness of God, the Creator established a close union between Himself and His creature, that is, man. Man was obliged to maintain this blessed union through an exact obedience to his own Creator, through the fulfillment of His holy, all-wise, and life-giving commandments; as an abridgment of these commandments, he was given the commandment not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This commandment was to strengthen his will in bringing it into accord with the will of God, so that the will of God might be one with the will of man, just as the will of one Person of the Trinity was perfectly identical with the will of the second and third Persons: «as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us» (Jn 17:21). Through disobedience man boldly broke his own union with God, and thereby fell away from God and from His life. And since the wages of sin is death, he became subject to temporal and eternal death, and to all the countless ruinous consequences of sin—sicknesses, misfortunes, sorrows, griefs, corruption, every kind of monstrousness, and every kind of sinful bondage. No one but the Son of God could restore this lost union, and He, by His boundless goodness and condescension toward fallen man, wisely and wondrously restored it, and sensible and chosen people have made use of this wondrously gracious restoration. By what means was this union restored? By this, that the Son of God took upon Himself human nature, sin excepted, fulfilled all the righteousness of God in human nature, took upon Himself our own curse, suffered and died for us, and, having conquered death, rose from the dead, and granted us resurrection—incorruption. He planted on earth the one Church, under His own headship and the governance of the Holy Spirit, and in her every means for the restoration of our broken union with God has been given, through teaching and Mysteries, through the guidance of shepherds; He gave baptism, chrismation, repentance, divine worship, and constant instruction in the word of God. Now, whoever wishes to live in a holy union with God, let him be in union with the Church, which teaches, and which performs the sacred rites unto holiness and righteousness and the kingdom of God—and he will be saved.

«He who is not with Me is against Me. He who does not gather with Me scatters» (Lk 11:23). Whoever is not with the Church is against the Church; whoever is not in the Church is against the Church; whoever does not believe is against the faith; whoever does not do the works of repentance, the works of virtue, is against virtue. It is not enough to call oneself a Christian; one must do deeds, must fulfill the commandments which Christ has commanded; unceasing repentance is needed, unceasing attention to oneself in a spirit of faith, unceasing prayer, unceasing amendment, unceasing pressing forward, unceasing self-perfection, and, for this purpose, an unceasing self-examination as to whether we are in the faith, whether we live according to the faith; whether we are with the Church, whether we go to church, whether we love the Church, whether we fulfill the Church’s own ordinances, or the commandments of Christ which she proclaims. This is how Christ God teaches. Therefore whoever does not repent, does not go to church, but goes, instead of church, to the theater and to various spectacles and worldly gatherings, disregarding the Church, is no Christian.

God has bound to Himself those who believe in an Orthodox manner by one Holy Spirit, and by one Church, one faith, one law, one set of Mysteries, one hierarchy, for the common good of rational creatures. We must hold fast to this bond through holiness of life and mutual obedience.

O Christian! While there is still time, strive here on earth to make yourself God’s own, and His saints’ own, through faith and piety; be a churchly person, drink deeply of the spirit of the Church, the spirit of repentance, the holiness of the world, the contemplation of God, the spirit of love, meekness, humility, patience, submission, salvation. Do not raise your own head too high, and do not despise your Mother, the Church, who is saving you; be present often in church during divine worship, stand there with humility, listen, reflect, or read and sing. If you do not make yourself hers here, and, through her, God’s own, you will remain a stranger to her, and to God, and, after death, God will not receive you, and all His saints will renounce you, as one estranged from them in spirit and in the disposition of your heart and mind, and you will be cast out into a strange land, into a dark and fiery place of fallen spirits and unrepentant human souls. Be wise, then, to overcome the wiles of the devil, and to attain your own great destiny.

You belong to the Church of God, or the society of those who believe in Christ; this Church is the one Body of Christ, and Christ God is her Head. Are you a worthy member? Do you live holily? Do you always repent? Do you amend your own heart and life, your own manners, thoughts, feelings, intentions, impulses, your whole conduct? Are you a living member, or a dead one? Will the saints receive you, when you pass over from this temporal life into eternity? Will they not reject you, as a rotten, foul-smelling, worthless member? Will your own lot not be with those rejected by God? Hasten, then, to set things right, to amend your whole conduct. You have been given time for this.

The work of the salvation of our souls is the greatest, the wisest work, and this work, this craft, must be learned from those to whom this work has been revealed, who have accomplished this work: and this work of salvation, this work of repentance, has been revealed especially to the saints, since they strove especially to occupy themselves with it, and accomplished it in a most excellent manner, pleasing to God, saving to the soul. And the saints have left this spiritual inheritance, this art of repentance and salvation, to the Orthodox Church, laying up in her, as in a faithful treasury, all their own understanding, their own word, their own diligence, their own art, their own experience. From her, then, let us learn repentance and salvation. Here we have all gone, and go, to the services of the Church—the Sunday services, the feast-day services, the weekday services, the great-fast services. All these services teach us repentance and salvation. Have you heard the great canon of Andrew of Crete? Have you heard the prayer of St. Ephrem? Have you heard the troparia and canons of the great fast? What a spirit of repentance is in them! What tenderness, what contrition for the sins of sinful mankind! What a thirst for salvation and for mercy from God! What cries and tears of repentant sinners! Learn, then, from the Holy Church, repentance and the propitiation of the Lord. Listen closely, reflect, remember your own sins, be contrite, repent, do not be puffed up, do works of mercy: for the merciful shall obtain mercy.

It has fallen to the lot of fallen man, by the boundless mercy of God, and by the inscrutable wisdom and righteousness of God, to have the honor of confessing the name of God before unbelievers, and of suffering for this Name, for the Lord God glorified and worshiped in the Trinity. Of this honor the holy Apostles, martyrs, bishops, the venerable, and the righteous were especially counted worthy. Of this honor, even now, all who truly strive for the Christian Orthodox faith and virtue are counted worthy—those who firmly defend the holy Orthodox faith and the Church, and endure blasphemies and torments from their enemies.

The holy people of God were unwilling to betray the faith and piety even by a single word, and if it happened, through the cunning of their persecutors, that they betrayed it unwittingly, by word or deed, they were ready to wipe away their own sin by their own sufferings. See how strictly the saints held to the confession of the right faith. But what are Christians like today? — Reeds shaken by the wind (Mt. 11:7).

«Receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls» (1Pet 1:9). Here is the end and the purpose of the Christian, the Orthodox faith—the salvation of the soul of every believer.

How precious is our faith, how holy, how right, how pleasing to God, how strong, how saving! How we must love it, value it as it deserves, make use of it without ceasing for our own salvation and that of others. O Lord, save the Orthodox Christian people, and turn all the non-Orthodox to Orthodoxy, as the one saving faith, established by You, glorified by You, and eternally to be glorified! You are holy and righteous—and Your faith is holy and righteous.

What does the rite of conversion from various faiths and confessions, and of reception into the Orthodox Church, show? The necessity of abandoning false faiths and confessions, of renouncing errors, of confessing the true faith and repenting of all one’s former sins, and of promising God to keep and firmly confess the undefiled faith, to guard against sin, and to live in virtue.

The beginning of every false teaching, heresy, sect, and schism is in the serpent, who deceives the whole world. The first, all-ruinous false teaching was given by the serpent, in paradise, to Eve, then to Adam, then to Cain, to whom the primeval murderer of mankind, the devil, falsely whispered concerning his brother Abel, that he stood in his way, that he was against him, that he did not think, feel, or live as he himself did, and that, as it were, he laughed at him, mocked him. From this come every heresy, sect, and schism. They wish to be teachers, but not from God—from themselves, and according to their own passions. From this come the Tolstoyans, the Pashkovites, the Stundists, and others.

«Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. For from now on five in one house» (the Church of Christ) «will be divided: three against two, and two against three» (Lk 12:51-52). The Catholics, the Reformed, the Lutherans, the schismatics, the sectarians.

Hatred of Orthodoxy, fanaticism, and the persecution of the Orthodox, murders—these run like a red thread through the centuries of the life of Catholicism. By their fruits you will know them. Is this the spirit commanded us by Christ? If of anyone, then of the Catholics, the Lutherans, and the Reformed, it can always be said: «you do not know what manner of spirit you are of» (Lk 9:55).

The cause of every falsehood of the Roman Catholic church is pride, and the recognition of the pope as the real head of the church, and, moreover, an infallible one. From this comes the whole oppression of the Western church. An oppression of thought and of faith, a deprivation of true freedom in faith and in life—upon everything the pope has laid his own heavy hand; from this come false dogmas; from this comes duplicity and cunning in thought, word, and deed; from this come various false rules and prescriptions in the confession of sins; from this come indulgences; from this comes the distortion of dogmas; from this comes the manufacturing of saints of the Western church, and of their nonexistent relics, not glorified by God; from this comes «the raising up of every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God» (2Cor 10:5), and every resistance to God under the guise of piety and zeal for the greater glory of God.

The pope and the papists have grown so proud, and exalted themselves so highly, that they have taken it into their heads to criticize Christ Himself, the very hypostatic Wisdom of God, and have extended their pride (under the pretext of the development of dogma) to the point of distorting some of His own words, commandments, and institutions, which ought not to be changed until the end of the age—for instance, the word concerning the Holy Spirit, the commandment concerning Communion of His most pure Blood, of which they have deprived the laity, counting as nothing the words of the Apostle Paul: «For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes» (1Cor 11:26). In place of leavened bread, they use unleavened wafers at the Liturgy.

I thank the Lord, who has heard, and hears, my prayers, offered at the sight of the all-saving and fearsome sacrifice (the Body and Blood of Christ), for the great societies gone astray in the faith, called Christian in name, but apostate in substance—the Catholic, the Lutheran, the Anglican, and others—and also for the drawing of all peoples to the true faith, including our own schismatics.

Count Leo Tolstoy has raised his hand against the truth of the Gospel and of all Holy Scripture, and has distorted the sense of the Gospel, indisputably important and precious to people of every age. He has denied faith in Christ as the Son of God, the Redeemer and Savior of the world, and has led many astray after himself, and has destroyed them; he has denied the Church founded by Christ, has trampled underfoot the grace of baptism, chrismation, repentance, Communion, and every Mystery; in his own pride of intellect he counts himself the judge of the word of God and its highest criterion, rather than testing himself by it. «But woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight» (the Prophet Isaiah).

1) Public worship

III. The Earthly and the Heavenly Church, Their Living, Unbroken Communion

The Christian has a great need of heavenly help from God, and of the intercession of the saints for us; of the help of the Mother of God, of the holy Angels, of the Forerunner, of the prophets, the apostles, and of all the saints, to whom the Holy Church so often sends us in her own public prayers. Blessed are we, that we belong to the Holy Orthodox Church, praying for us without ceasing, effectually and savingly. So then, having called to remembrance our most holy, most pure, and most blessed Lady, the Theotokos and ever-Virgin Mary, with all the saints, let us commend ourselves and one another and all our life to Christ our God, as to the Head of the Body, the Church. Amen.

Grant me, O Lord, to fulfill Your law, which is love in all its power, in all its breadth, in all its depth. Amen.

The Church of Christ is a Church militant, warring against «principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spirits of wickedness in the heavenly places», which make up a firmly organized kingdom and wage war, with extreme precision and force, continually, against all people, and against the world that lies in evil. A single person is no warrior on this field, and a Christian left entirely to himself, or belonging not to the true flock of Christ, not to the Church of Christ, whose Head is Christ Himself (and not a man, like the pope), likewise cannot successfully resist the countless, strong, and cunning enemies of salvation. The Christian needs, without ceasing, a strong help and support from above, from God, and, by His grace, from the Mother of God, the holy heavenly bodiless powers, and His own holy warriors on our behalf, the servants of God, who overcame, with God’s help, the flesh, the world, and the devil in their earthly life; in a word, he needs, without ceasing, the help of the heavenly, triumphant Church. This helper, in the Christian’s struggle with visible and invisible enemies, that is, the Church of Christ, is always necessary for every Christian who is striving on earth; and this is why, at every divine service, we entreat the Lord to defend and save us, by the prayers and intercession of the most holy Mother of God, the honorable, bodiless heavenly powers, the holy Forerunner, the prophets, the apostles, the martyrs, the venerable, and all the saints. The Catholics have fallen away from Christ, the Head of the whole Church, choosing instead an earthly head, the fallible pope; the Lutherans and the Anglicans have fallen away too; they have no Church, their union with the Head is broken; they have no all-powerful, all-effectual help, for they have no Mysteries—no Communion, no repentance, and the rest—through which all-powerful grace is granted. Many are perishing in godlessness, in the absence of grace, and in depravity—there is no help from heaven.

In the Divine Liturgy is contained a wondrous, uniting power of prayer for all, making all souls kin to one another! O wondrous Liturgy—a sign of the boundless love of God for the human race, and of the wondrous exaltation of human nature, deified through the incarnation of the only-begotten Son of God, and through the partaking of His most pure Body and Blood in the Mystery of Communion. O Lord! Grant that we may be worthy of such condescension of Yours toward us, of such communion. Grant us Your own holiness, and to study Your righteousness every day, and to become righteous in the Holy Spirit!

In this present life, a life of trial and of struggle for the Christian, he stands continually between two currents: good and evil, between temptation and sorrow from his enemies, and comfort and help from God; there takes place, as it were, a certain contest, between the righteous, holy, and most merciful God and the evil, cunning, and all-destroying enemy: man finds himself now under the influence of his enemies, now under the grace of God; the enemies draw him into every kind of guilt and sin, while the Lord has mercy on repentant sinners, cleanses, sanctifies, justifies, brings peace, renews, and establishes them. This contest, and the victory of grace over sin, take place especially during the Liturgy—this wondrous, reconciling and sanctifying sacrifice of God, this mercy of peace, this sacrifice of praise.

What a holy breadth, depth, and height of heart the priest must have, in celebrating the Liturgy! His heart must contain within itself the whole universe—even the whole of heaven, the whole of the underworld! He prays for all, gives thanks for all, and glorifies the Creator, intercedes for the reconciliation and union of all the earthborn, differing in tongue, in tribe, in faith, in custom.

What a wondrous, uniting power there is in the Church’s prayer for all, making all souls kin to one another! Behold, I myself, by the grace of God, pray during the Liturgy with special fervor of heart for all—for the whole consecrated council of my brethren, for the Tsar, the Tsarina, and the whole reigning house, for the Chamber, for the whole army, and for every estate—and the Lord has drawn all of them near to me in spirit, has made all of them kin to me—adults and children, the whole estate of studying youth. All are well disposed toward me in soul (except unbelievers), love me, honor me, pray with me; even bishops honor me, an insignificant, sinful man. I thank You, the one Father, King, Savior, Shepherd, Physician, righteous Judge of all; the one Head of Your own Church, who unite all into one body, into one spirit! You wondrously order all this, You unite all, You work in all by the Holy Spirit, uniting all in faith, in hope, and in love, in righteousness and in holiness!

The Holy Church prays daily for a temperate climate and for its sanctification by the grace of the Holy Spirit, for the air, like the other elements, is infected and has come to stink from every human lawlessness, secret and open, by day and by night, and bears within itself the seeds of every corruption and various sicknesses.

2) The veneration of the Mother of God and the saints

Where, in what other-believing churches, is the name of the Mother of God so remembered, exalted, glorified, and called upon as it is in the Orthodox Church, day after day, year after year—for instance, in the little litany and the litany of supplication: «calling to remembrance our most holy, most pure, most blessed, and glorious Lady, the Theotokos and ever-Virgin Mary, with all the saints…» and the rest? Proclaim, then, without ceasing and with diligence, O priests and deacons of the Orthodox Church, the name of our most blessed Lady, so that all may hear, to her praise and for her propitiation on behalf of us sinners, her unworthy servants, that she may defend us always before the Master of our life, the Lord Jesus Christ, and, together with Him, before the Holy Trinity; for we have learned, and have been convinced, over the centuries, how strong and how saving her prayer is for us! How many times has she saved our Fatherland and our cities, our people, our villages, and many individually, from every misfortune and evil, and does not cease to defend and save all who pray to her, hearkening to our humble and diligent prayers! Where on earth is the name of the most holy Theotokos so exalted and so glorified, truly and as it deserves, except in the Orthodox Church, and especially the Russian Church? Let us give thanks to the Lord, that we were born into the right faith and the Church, and let us strive to be worthy members of her, living in self-restraint, purity, humility, obedience, exercising ourselves in good deeds, especially deeds of mercy. Glory to God! Glory to our Lady the Theotokos!

The Mother of God prays without ceasing to the Lord, her own Son, for my salvation, and looks with mercy upon my own struggle with sin, defending me from the enemy’s arrows. Magnify, O my soul, without ceasing, the Mother of God, our Defender after God!

We have ready heavenly help in our Lady the Theotokos, which our adversaries, who do not honor her as she deserves and do not venerate her most honorable image, do not have. What brilliant, mighty leaders have been conquered by us in wars across the whole span of our national history—and all through faith in the help of God and of the Mother of God, and by their power! Charles XII was famous as a commander; Napoleon was famous; their armies were great and well trained—and what became of them? The Tatars, too, who once enslaved us, were powerful in their own time, but they were conquered by the help and intercession of the Mother of God. «He, our God, breaks the arrows of the bow, the shield, the sword, and the battle; at His rebuke both chariot and horse fall into a deep sleep» (Ps 75:4,7).

As long as Russia remains Orthodox, and diligently honors God and the Mother of God, so long will she remain mighty and unshakable, for, from the beginning until now, she has come through every misfortune, and has been strengthened and enlarged by the intercession and help of the Mother of God, in every war and in every calamitous circumstance of battle—and the Russian princes, tsars, emperors, and the Christ-loving army have always diligently honored the ever-Virgin and Mother.

In calling the most holy Theotokos our Lady, understand and remember what an honor the Lord has counted Orthodox Christians worthy of, uniting them into one spiritual body with the ranks of the forefathers, the fathers, the patriarchs, the apostles, the martyrs, the bishops, the venerable, the righteous, and all the saints, and, above all, with the most holy Theotokos herself, who is truly full of grace, and is, in her very being, the Lady of Christ’s own spiritual kingdom, the Church, and the closest, swiftest, all-powerful Defender and wall of Christians—and with the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who is the Head of the Body, the Church. Value this spiritual fellowship exceedingly, to which you too belong, and strive, with every power of soul and body, by the grace of God, to conduct yourself worthily and holily, that you may be worthy of so great a fellowship, and of the intercession, on your behalf, of the Mother of God and of all the saints.

The Orthodox Christian must always remember the boundless goodness of God toward himself, in this: that he has the good fortune to be a member of the true, rightly-minded, and saving Church of God, and to have as his Head the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and, as his Lady, the Mother of God herself, the Chief instructress of the Church’s own rational teaching, and, as his fellow members, all the saints, apostles, prophets, bishops, martyrs, the venerable, the righteous, and all who have shone forth in a holy, grace-filled life, and pleased God, and become our intercessors before Him. How many prayer-warriors we have before God! How much help they show to those who desire salvation! What a common intercession for our salvation! What models, what examples of a perfect Christian life! How they draw us toward imitating their virtues, and toward salvation!

The kingdom of Christ on earth, or the Church, struggles in a war against the kingdom of Satan, made up of a countless multitude of demons (a legion in a single demon-possessed man). For success in this struggle—for salvation, and for the successful accomplishment of the contest—it is necessary to war against such a host of enemies under the banner of Christ God, the Author of our contest, the Conqueror of hell, and within His own Church—in a united, watchful, unbroken communion with one another—with the cooperation of the Mother of God, the Invincible Commander, the holy heavenly Angels, the holy apostles, bishops, prophets, martyrs, the venerable, and all the saints, who have struggled well and been crowned. But those who find themselves in schisms, heresies, sects, or in other religions—how are they to overcome the enemies of salvation, strong in their own delusion, falsehood, blasphemy, and slander against God and His Church? How can one be saved there? It is impossible. Understand this, then, you who remain in schisms and heresies and sects—do not war against the one, saving Church, but turn to her!

How many strugglers, how many pillars of the faith, have there been among the members of the Holy Orthodox Church, in every age! How worthily, how wondrously the Lord has glorified them, because they too strove to glorify Him in word and deed and their whole life, loving Him and His saving commandments with their whole heart, their whole mind, and all their strength, to the end of their own life! Every day is devoted, by the Church, to the remembrance and glorification of valiant strugglers of the faith, crowned by the Lord, across the whole span of the ages, with honor and glory, and glorified by countless, beneficial miracles! The bright, churchly world is not lacking in its own strugglers, male and female! Our Holy Church has much to boast of! Our faith and the Orthodox Church are not vain, not empty, not full of slander, not blameworthy, but undefiled, holy, and saving, and no heretics or sectarians can reproach her, if they are able and willing to be just toward her; while they themselves cannot boast, as they deserve, by God’s own right, of a single truly holy and God-pleasing person, a confessor of the right faith; not a single person who has received an open testimony from heaven of his own holiness and God-pleasing life: no one has ever pleased God by heresy and schism! Heretics, schismatics, sectarians, bring forward before us even one of your own saints: you will not find one, though you search your whole life long! Or will you boldly and absurdly dispute the reality of the incorruption and the miracles of our own saints? You are foolish and blind!…

Come to us, you who call yourselves Catholics, and reproach us as schismatics, and let us make a trial; let us look, impartially, by God’s own righteousness, by God’s own standard, at your own saints, glorified by the pope, and not by God, and compare them with our own saints, attested by God Himself through countless miracles of healing and various comforts to Orthodox believers who have had recourse to them with faith! What a difference! How the truth of our faith shines, and darkens, by its own light, your faith, darkened by heresies and false reasonings! How will you go against the plain truth of the Orthodox faith, Orthodox and saving in both name and deed! Or will you dare to rise up against God Himself, and speak untruth? God of righteousness will humble you, and, if need be, arm His creation for vengeance against His enemies. But He is long-suffering, and awaits the conversion of those who have gone astray. Come, you new iconoclasts, followers of Luther, who reproach us with an imagined idolatry, with which you brand our own holy veneration of icons, blessed and justified a thousand times over by heaven itself, in countless miracles worked upon the Orthodox—and, if you wish, war against God, rise up against the saving truth, against the right dogma which God Himself has taught us, and continues to teach us without ceasing, and, if your mouths are wide enough, go on reproaching us with idolatry! You have taught the Stundists, the Tolstoyans, and the Pashkovites to mock the holy icons; but sooner or later these credulous, coarse ignorant people will bitterly repent of their own error; but among truly Orthodox people you will never have success, you will never lead them astray into your own heresy, because true Russians and Orthodox believers have long been convinced of the saving power of the veneration of icons.

The hearts of the saints were a pure temple of God, through their faith, their purity, their holiness, their humility, their obedience, their patience, their love for God and neighbor, their courage, their self-denial. This is why the saints were workers of miracles. They devoted themselves entirely to God: God was everything for them, since they themselves had become entirely God’s own, and akin to Him, united, blended with Him. Such, too, was St. Nicholas of Myra in Lycia.

At the judgment of God you will learn in what a most honorable, most venerable, and holy churchly fellowship, heavenly and earthly, you once stood, and how unworthy you were of it, and what mighty intercessors you could have had before God for your own salvation, and how, through your own unbelief and pride, your own depravity, you did not call upon them for help, trusting in everything to yourself, to your own shortsighted, passion-ridden mind.

3) The veneration of holy icons

We venerate the images of the saints as images of the glorious and all-praiseworthy Christian virtues—faith, hope, love, self-denial, mercy, meekness, humility, freedom from malice, courage and patience, obedience, purity, unceasing prayer, watchfulness of soul. This is whom, and what, we venerate; we venerate in them God Himself, who has taken up His dwelling in them, and works in them, and accomplishes, through them, beneficial miracles of healing.

The use of holy icons, in Orthodox and in every other Christian society, is necessary because—over and above other reasons—the Lord, the most holy Theotokos, the holy angels, and the holy servants of God are inaccessible to our frail sight, in their heavenly wondrous glory, but in holy icons they are accessible, tangible, so to speak; and our own nature, twofold, spiritual and bodily, requires a visible, tangible image—even the very Body and Blood of Christ, in Communion, under the forms of bread and wine. This is why the Lord, condescending to our weakness, Himself imprinted His own image on a cloth, and gave His own image over to pious veneration, healing, and comfort for people, for all ages; this is why He gave us His most pure Body and Blood; this is why He seals us with chrism, in chrismation, for the visible communication of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Glory, for this, to our Lord Jesus Christ!

In honoring icons, I honor virtue given personal form; I honor the image and likeness of God, restored in fallen man; I honor God, who reposes in the saints, for «he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with the Lord» (1Cor 6:17). What will you say to me on this, you follower of Luther, or you, apostate Tolstoyan with your Tolstoy, or you, Pashkovite with your Pashkov, or you, Germanized Stundist with your German Stundists, who have spat upon your own holy, heavenly, God-given Mother, the Church, who have «insulted the Spirit of grace» (Hebr 10:29), and fallen away from the grace of God? Or have you done this in ignorance and delusion? Turn, then, at once, in repentance and tears, to your own Mother, whom you have reviled! She will meet you with open arms, as prodigal children!

Lutherans, sectarians, Pashkovites, Tolstoyans, Stundists reproach us with the veneration of icons, with their use. What an absurdity! Are we not edified in our faith, we who rightly venerate them, remembering the God-pleasing life of the saints depicted on them, their struggles, their virtues, their love for God and neighbor, and do we not ourselves become better, more reverent? Do we not have, in our own homes, images of persons whom we honor among the living, and do we not honor them? Besides this, imagery, symbolism in religion, is permitted, and even required, by the Gospel itself. How often the Lord taught the people through images, through examples from life, from nature, symbolically, in parables! And if sacred images are not permitted, and are not venerated, will not our own corrupted nature permit, and even deify, images of human passions instead—as is indeed permitted today by many worldly, wealthy, and educated people in their own dwellings, filled with images of naked and half-naked, beautiful women, which make up the beauty, the genre, and the tone of worldly society? Are not many returning to a pagan cult? What a mockery of human nature, created so beautifully, so magnificently, so inimitably, so artistically! Instead of standing in reverence before the most perfect, most beautiful work of the Creator’s own most pure hands, we mock it, mock ourselves, turn it into an object and a goal of base, animal lust, and turn the temple of the immortal soul into an object of animal pleasure!

4) The rites and statutes of the Church: the feasts

Through the veneration of the holy icons of the Lord, the Mother of God, and all the saints, our own holy, most exalted, and all-saving faith is presented, plainly, memorably, and instructively, even to unlearned people; it is, so to speak, made real, embodied, through them (that is, through the holy icons), just as it is through divine worship, prayer, the reading of the word of God, the dogmas, the commandments, and the canons of the Church. Reasonably, rightly, and savingly are the honorable icons used in the Orthodox Church, and the life-giving cross, and every splendor of worship, as well as the censing with incense, the sprinkling of holy water, the blessing with the sign of the cross. All of this is the tradition of the Apostles and of the holy Fathers, and a work pleasing to God, proven, as to its being pleasing to God, its truth, and its saving power, both by reason and by the word of God, and by countless experiences among believing Orthodox Christians.

We have celebrated the Annunciation to the most holy Theotokos, a sacred event of boundless importance—the sending down from God, from heaven, of the greatest and holiest of the archangels, Gabriel, to the city of Nazareth, to the most pure Virgin Mary, to announce the conception, by her, of the eternal Son of God, according to the flesh. With what wondrous, most tender, most loving care has the heavenly Father favored the human race, perishing in its sins! What an extraordinary means has been granted to people for their salvation from sin, from the curse, and from eternal ruin!

December 25, 1899. I thank the Lord, who has counted me worthy to see, once again, the day of the glorious Nativity, according to the flesh, of God the Word, for the salvation of the whole world; and grant me, for Your own most abundant goodness, O Lord, to see this day yet again and again, and sweetly to sing and glorify Your boundless compassion, O Christ. Amen.

God has come into the world and united Himself with mankind; He calls us too to union with Himself! What mercy, what honor and dignity! What blessedness we are called to, which the most bountiful God wishes to grant us! What a wondrous union of God with mankind! What a union there ought to be among people themselves, among peoples and tribes, sprung from one blood!

The annual procession to the Jordan is not merely a magnificent ritual—the Church does not occupy anyone, and does not occupy herself, with idle spectacles—but a sacred, commemorative rite, called forth by the extreme need of nature itself, or of the very essence of the elements of water and air, defiled and corrupted continually by human sins; and by the need of people themselves, living in the airy expanse and having a ceaseless need of the element of water. The whole of nature, all the elements, are continually defiled by human sins, and by the dark and cunning spirits living in the air, who breed in it every kind of corrupting influence and sickness. There arises an urgent need for the churchly sanctification and healing of these elements. Have you not noticed that this year especially something is amiss with us here on earth: now a complete absence of winter, or rains, or snow that melts at once, or a sudden winter for only a few days, and then again neither autumn nor winter, but again something indefinite; there is no constancy, frequent changes of rain and snow, of warmth and cold, of dryness and dampness; people’s breathing organs suffer, the whole bodily organism is shaken to its foundations by the inconstancy of the weather; there is no numbering the sick, adults and children alike, because there is no constancy and no regular course of the air. And this is because nature, by the Creator’s own command, shows us, through herself, our own inconstancy, our own wrong, perverted manner of life. Come, then, come, O Church of God, holy, and sanctifying all of us, to the waters, as it were to the Jordan, and sanctify, by the grace given you by God, the nature of air and water, and grant us, in the sprinkling and drinking of the sanctified water, cleansing and sanctification for ourselves and our dwellings, and health for our souls and bodies!

O all-good and all-powerful Sanctifier, Holy Spirit, who proceed from the Father and rest in the Son, come, and cleanse, sanctify, heal, strengthen, enlighten, and comfort all of us, by Your own most wondrous, life-bearing, and most sweet overshadowing!

What do you think, dear brothers and sisters: is this a work of the utmost importance, which the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished for all of us, and on behalf of all of us—He who came down from heaven for our salvation, who lived on earth thirty-three and a half years, who taught people salvation without ceasing, both Himself and through the Apostles, who suffered for us, died, and rose from the dead? With what did He begin His own word and His own work? With fasting, and with being subjected to temptation from the devil, and conquering him; and, after that, with the word of repentance.

The time of the great fast is a time of struggle, of contest against invisible enemies, against every sin and passion that holds power over us. Such it ought to be, by the Church’s own meaning. The great fast has been established in imitation of our Savior, who has given us an image and an example in everything, and who, during His own fast, was tempted by the devil, and conquered him with the word of God.

Forgiveness Sunday. — The expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise for their intemperance. How many incalculable misfortunes have come from the intemperance of the first humans! How many misfortunes come today from delicacies, from surfeit, and from drunkenness! How necessary is fasting for salvation and reconciliation with God!

Humbly, and yet solemnly, the Lord entered Jerusalem, sitting upon a young donkey; the Jews, and Jewish children, met Him solemnly; but these same Jews soon crucified Him on the cross; so changeable are people, so inconstant, so evil! And we, too, are like them, just as inconstant and changeable in our faith and virtue, and just as quick to evil and every passion; and we too crucify Him many times every day, instead of crucifying ourselves, our own passions, our own old man, and renewing ourselves every day, becoming new people. O how necessary, for us, was the sacrifice of the cross of the Son of God, who sacrificed Himself, for us, for our redemption and reconciliation, to the heavenly Father; how necessary the cross of Christ is for us, that we might take refuge, every day, beneath its shadow! Not without reason has the Holy Church commanded us to make, frequently, the sign of the Lord’s cross upon ourselves, upon our own bodily members and upon all our senses! By what are we saved every day, if not by the cross, if not by the merits of Christ, crucified for us! Without the cross we would all have perished, would have become the prey of the devil and of hell! O Christ God, glory to You, who suffered for us and redeemed us, by Your own cross, from sin, from the curse, and from death!

Christ’s Pascha. — I thank the Lord, who has counted me worthy to live to see this Bright Feast once again, and to meet it in joy, in good health, with songs of praise to the Risen One. Count me worthy, too, of the general resurrection of all, and of my own passing over to You, the Fountain of our life!

The Resurrection of Christ. — I thank the Lord, who has counted me worthy to meet, this year too, the Bright Feast of His Resurrection. Grant, O Lord, that I may spend the whole Bright Week worthily, and my whole life—to Your glory!

Our own name day signifies the close bond between the members of the earthly Church and the heavenly Church; it exhorts us to imitate the members of the heavenly Church whose name we bear, to live according to their own spirit, and to call upon them in our prayers.

5) Miracles and signs

The miracle with the icon of the Mother of God, which took place on March 8th in the Kursk Znamensky Monastery, striking in every respect, let every Orthodox Christian turn into a lesson and an edification for himself. Wondrously does the most holy Theotokos preserve her own most pure image, and, through it, all of us Russians; she has not given herself, or us, over to the mockery of the impious; let the impious themselves be put to shame and perish, all of them, if they do not repent and turn with their whole heart to the Lord. Who are these impious Pashkovites, Tolstoyans…? The Lord will seek them out and put them to shame, and punish them, but those who honor the Mother of God and her holy icon He will exalt and glorify, and deliver from every misfortune, and count worthy of the kingdom of heaven. Glory to God! Glory to the Mother of God!

The Christian Church is rich in holy men of lofty minds and understanding, of exalted, self-denying souls, of an adamantine firmness in faith and piety, of unshakable courage, of strikingly great deeds, of an inexhaustible love. Among these, out of their countless number, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker belongs especially, to whom, above all others, the name Wonderworker has been particularly given. So has the Holy Church been glorified by men, and even women, of wondrous holiness and the greatest miracles. Let the shortsighted sons of this age say, after this, that there were, and are, no miracles, or that miracles can be explained by natural causes—which, in fact, cannot be so explained in any way. These miracles bear witness, loudly and indisputably, to the almighty power, the goodness, and the righteousness of the Author of our faith, Jesus, its Finisher. Come and see, we may say to every unbeliever, pointing to the countless miracles of the saints, ancient and modern alike, and do not be unbelieving, like Thomas, but believing, as he himself became, after touching the ribs and the wounds of the risen Lord.

On August 15th, the day of the Dormition of the Mother of God, 1898, I had the happiness, for the first time, of seeing plainly, in a dream, face to face, the Queen of Heaven, and of hearing her own sweetest, blessed, encouraging voice: you are the most beloved children of the heavenly Father—while I, conscious of my own wretchedness, gazed upon her most pure face with trembling, and with the thought: will the Queen of Heaven not cast me away from herself in anger! O most holy and most gracious face! O eyes, blue and dovelike, kind, humble, calm, majestic, heavenly, divine! I will not forget you, wondrous eyes! This appearance lasted a single minute; then she departed from me, unhurried, stepped over a small ravine, and vanished. I saw the heavenly Visitor’s own progress from behind. At first I saw her as though upon an icon, clearly, and then she stepped forth from it, came down, and set off on her way. That evening I had been writing a sermon for the day of the Dormition, and went to bed late, at two in the morning. At the all-night vigil I read, with great compunction, the akathist and the canon to the Dormition of the Mother of God, in the Dormition church.

Remarkable is the vision of a certain layman in the church of the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called—namely, a vision of the Savior, stretching out His divine hands over all who stood present, during the general confession and the absolution I gave, and embracing them all. I thank the Lord for this vision, for this mercy, which assures me that the practice of general confession is pleasing to Him, and is done in accordance with His own divine will.

6) Prayer in the home

In offering prayers, both at home and in the church’s own public worship, one must strive to understand clearly each word or phrase of the prayer, and to desire with one’s whole heart that for which we ask, and to bend one’s will toward the fulfillment of what is asked, or toward thanksgiving for what has been received, and toward the worthy use of a pleasant gift; for instance, in the morning prayer we say: after the sleep of night, shine upon me a sinless day, O Christ God… one must desire, and strive, to spend the whole day without sin, in doing good.

The passion-ridden flesh continually strives to estrange the soul from the Lord through a coldness and laziness toward prayer, especially through sleep, and, after sleep, through fleshly thoughts, feelings, desires, daydreams, worldly vanity, worldly attachments. One must crucify it, without ceasing, with its passions and lusts, and act contrary to it, doing willingly what it does not want, and from which it flees.

I ask you, my fellow man or woman, praying: are you interested in prayer? Is it precious to you, is it pleasant, does it give delight, does it change you for the better, does the prayer you offer bring comfort to your heart, or do you relate to it coldly, indifferently, without participation, fruitlessly? Then you pray in vain. «These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me» (Mt. 15:8).

You say: «Our Father, who art in heaven…» and the rest. Are you interested in all these petitions mentioned in the prayer? Do you sincerely desire what is asked for? Do you hate sin, the kingdom of the cunning one, the will of the cunning one and his intentions concerning you? Are you interested in the Decalogue, that is, the Ten Commandments? Do you desire, with your whole soul, to fulfill them, for the pleasing of God and for eternal life?

For the new year, 1898. I thank You, all-generous One, that You have granted me yet another year of Your own goodness, O Lord! Renew a right spirit within me, O Master, and create in me a clean heart, for Your own dwelling within me. I thank You for Your countless benefits, poured out, and being poured out without ceasing, upon me, a great sinner; I thank You for Your long-suffering toward me, who have driven You away by my countless sins, and for Your invincible and all-conquering mercy; I thank You for my health of soul and body, for, though old in years, I am young in spirit and body; I thank You for Your daily justification of me by Your own precious Blood, and that many times each day; I thank You for the tearful compunction I feel in celebrating the Liturgy, and for the constant comforts of Your Holy Spirit, for His own holiness, received from His most holy and inexhaustible being, which is one with You; I thank You for the irresistible drawing of Your own people toward me—infants, the young, adults, and the old, running to me from everywhere and on every side, wherever I appear in cities and villages; I thank You, that You are planting, everywhere, mightily and strongly, the Orthodox faith and piety, especially in women’s convents; I thank You, for granting me boldness in my prayers for the whole world, and for all people, and for the bringing of them back from their errors to the unity of faith and piety; I thank You, that You tame the unrighteous fury of the non-Orthodox peoples, hostile to us who hold the right faith, and bring them to an understanding of the truth; I thank You, that You desire the union of all, that they may be one, as You are One, O God, glorified in the Trinity; I thank You, that You cast down the devil, strong in his own might, every day, and put him to shame in his own all-cunning and all-violent wiles; I thank You, for granting me to stand in Your own truth and righteousness; I thank You, who give me a word of understanding and of power, whenever I speak to people about Your name, by the word of Your Gospel; I thank You, that You glorify me everywhere, though I am unworthy and a great sinner; I thank You for my own undefiled life, though sin draws me to itself every day, and wearies me, for if You did not keep me as the apple of Your eye, I would commit every kind of sin.

There is no numbering Your mercies toward me, O Lord, and I thank You for all of them, and there is no word worthy to give You thanks, O Lord! Amen. The new church year—1898.

1) Repentance: the necessity of repentance; true repentance

IV. The Mysteries

Since we did not know how to preserve our own innocence in paradise, now, after our expulsion from it, repentance has been commanded to each of us, and the diligent uprooting, by each of us, of the tares of sin, and the planting and cultivating of the virtues, with diligence, with the help of God.

After every sin, repentance is needed. One must repent often, and examine one’s own soul. Whoever does not repent, and is negligent of repentance, lets his own heart’s field run extremely wild, and allows every kind of sinful weed to grow strong in it, becomes hardened in sin, and makes repentance and amendment difficult for himself.

Sin is a falling away from God: a single instant of sin, and a falling away. Sincere, deep, whole-hearted repentance, and a union with God. See how necessary repentance is for the sinner, and how great is the power of repentance!

We are wretched, poor, miserable, blind, naked. Do you know what you yourselves are, in fact? You do not know? Here is what the Lord, who searches hearts and inward parts, says of you, and of all of us: «You do not know that you are wretched, and poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked» (Apok 3:17). The need for repentance, the benefit of repentance—it draws down the mercy of God. The prodigal son, the harlot, the tax collector, the thief, Manasseh, the Ninevites, Peter’s own repentance. Evil, cunning, swift, tireless is the enemy of our salvation; but all-good, all-wise, quick to hear, and all-powerful is the Lord, to save man, always perishing. A great evil is impenitence; it destroys a multitude of people.

A property of true, soul-saving, God-pleasing repentance is a change of the heart’s own sinful inclinations into good, Christian feelings and impulses, a change for the better, a disposition toward every virtue—humility, freedom from malice, meekness, self-restraint, prayer, mercy, all-forgiveness. A fruitless tree must be made fruitful; a dirty thing must be washed; an unclean thing must be cleansed; a bent thing must be straightened; an old thing must be renewed; a broken thing must be restored, and made whole again; a faded thing must be given back its own color. So it is in ordinary life. And our own souls are infected with sins, which must be cleansed; souls are defiled with unclean thoughts, with lusts, with various passions—these must be cleansed; they have bent, have leaned, from sin, are ready to fall and shatter—they must be straightened, propped up by the grace of God, which strengthens all things. They are broken, shattered, through our own carelessness, negligence, frivolity—they must be restored, and made whole; they are darkened—they must be made bright, through repentance, humility, and good deeds; they have lost their own true, original appearance, their color, their beauty—they must be given back their own comely, God-formed, God-like appearance, as the holy servants of God did; our own souls have become barren, or have begun to bear the bad, bitter fruit of sin and death—they must be made fruitful, bearing the fruits of virtue, mercy, peace, freedom, and eternal life.

«The wages of sin is death» (Rom 6:23). So then, sin leads to temporal and eternal death. Sinners, men and women, what do you want: to live, or to die; to rejoice, or to be tormented forever; to burn forever in hell, or to rest forever in paradise? To live face to face with God, in ineffable light, or with the devil, in the outer darkness and the fearsome abyss, before which even Satan himself trembles? One or the other—there is no middle way. And unfeigned repentance, faith, and good deeds lead to God and to eternal blessedness; evil deeds and impenitence lead to eternal torment. Christ alone, to whom the heavenly Father has given all judgment over us, can save us, and Christ has given all judgment to the Church, or to the priests; He has given them the keys of the kingdom of heaven; without the Church and the priesthood no one can be saved. «Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven», says the Lord (Mt. 18:18).

2) Communion: the greatness of the Mystery, its power, its significance, its necessity

What is one to marvel at? The simplicity, or the greatness, of the Mystery of the Body and Blood of Christ? The naturalness of the visible, tangible, and tasted forms of the Mystery, or the supernatural character of their wisdom, their redemptive power, their wondrous righteousness and holiness, justifying and sanctifying those who partake of them with faith, and their life-giving power, felt by communicants throughout the whole of their soul and body?

A wondrous work, a truly divine work, a work of boundless goodness, wisdom, righteousness, and almighty power—the granting, for food and drink, to mankind, corrupted by sin, of the heavenly Bread—the most pure Body and Blood of the Lord, our God and Savior, Jesus Christ Himself! Miracle of miracles! The earthly minds of men cannot contain this, and do not believe this Mystery of God—the Protestants, the Reformed, many educated Russians, the Tolstoyans, the Pashkovites, the Stundists.

The Holy Gifts—the most pure Body and Blood of the Lord—are the greatest sacrifice of God’s righteousness and mercy, the most holy Food, a cleansing, a renewal, an incorruption, a life, a strength, a glory, a peace, a joy, a fragrance, the fitting adornment of mankind, a transformation, a light, a goodness, a love, a making us God’s own. Look upon the Holy Mysteries with fear and with love, as one sinful and unworthy.

«The promises of God in Him are yes, and in Him, Amen» (2Cor 1:30). So too the Holy Mysteries, the Body and Blood of Christ; in themselves—yes, and in themselves—Amen; that is, in their own very essence they are true, life-giving, redemptive, illuminating, peace-bringing, renewing for the soul and body of those who partake of them with faith and diligence and active repentance. Glory to God!

The Holy Mysteries are more real than any reality, and more essential than any essence, visible or invisible, more certain than any certainty. And the Lord’s own word is the guarantee of this—both the very essence of the thing, and the ceaseless experience of the believing soul.

Of what do you partake, at the Liturgy, dear brothers and sisters? — Of the most pure Body itself, and the most pure Blood itself, of Christ our God. An uncountable wealth of the gift of God, calling us to reflect on the extreme poverty, wretchedness, misery, and blindness of human nature, to which it became inevitably subject after the fall of the first humans. Truly, when sin abounded, grace superabounded still more, and to the weaknesses of mankind came the boundless power of God, the grace of God, for its help.

Christ, the Fountain of incorruption and resurrection, has given us His own most pure Body and Blood as an antidote to sin, an antidote to sinful corruption. The Mystery of Communion has been established for the renewal of human nature, corrupted by sin—so that believing and repentant people might be granted justification and reconciliation with God, the forgiveness of sins, strength in the struggle against sinful passions, a weapon against the devil, immortality, and deification.

In giving us, for food and drink, His most pure Body and life-giving Blood, the Lord exalts our nature beyond measure, through union and deification, and prepares us for the most perfect union with Himself, in the unending day of His own kingdom.

To what a height, and to what glory, has human nature been raised, by the incarnation of the Son of God, and by the giving to it, for food and drink, of the Body and Blood of the God-man! How reverently, how piously, how nobly, how temperately, must the Christian conduct himself! How he must respect and love those like himself! How he must encourage his own brothers toward a good, Christian life! How he must do good, be indulgent, patient, and long-suffering!

«Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you» (Jn 6:53). Wondrous, and worthy of eternal astonishment and thanksgiving, are the goodness, righteousness, and wisdom of God; wondrous is the love of God for mankind! Adam, fallen and corrupted by sin, passed on the seed of sin and corruption to the whole human race, and enslaved it to the devil, the sower of sin. Christ, the Son of God, having come to earth, and having fulfilled all the righteousness of God, and having suffered and died for us, and risen from the dead, has granted us incorruption and life, giving us, for food and drink, His own most pure Body and life-giving Blood—so that we are limbs of His Body, from His flesh and from His bones (Eph 5:30).

Ceaselessly I am astonished at the holy, fearsome, all-reconciling, all-cleansing, and all-sanctifying sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ, ceaselessly destroying the works of the devil in the true communicants of this universal sacrifice, which serves as a counterweight and a repelling force against every sinful abomination, in word, in deed, and in thought, brought upon us by the first author and inventor of sin. How much power, goodness, mercy, long-suffering, holiness, cleansing, sanctification, enlightenment, quickening and renewal, peace, freedom, breadth of soul, and deification is contained in this divine, all-reconciling sacrifice! Glory and thanksgiving to God, glorified in the Trinity, for such works of His goodness, righteousness, mercy, wisdom, and almighty power. What an excellence of goodness is made manifest, every day and everywhere, in the churches of God throughout the whole universe.

An abyss of mercy and generosity has been opened, and is being opened, in the daily offering, upon the altars of Orthodox Christian temples, of the all-interceding, all-propitiating, all-cleansing, all-renewing, all-deifying, life-giving, fearsome, boundlessly great sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ, offered by the will of God and the ordinance of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the salvation of the whole world. All the sins of the faithful, who truly pray and partake of the life-giving Mysteries, are cleansed, every time, after Communion; every bond upon the soul is broken; sorrows are consumed; every petition pleasing to God is fulfilled; the petitions of the whole Church—for every condition and estate, for shepherds and flock alike. The world stands, is made strong, is not shaken, for the sake of this sacrifice; cities stand, and are not destroyed, and remain in prosperity and good success; families are established; the wiles and fantasies of heretics and schismatics become powerless; the common piety is established—if only the shepherds sincerely perform this greatest of Mysteries. Glory to the Lord, who has given us so life-giving, so mighty, so most holy a divine Gift! Shine, shine, O New Jerusalem, the Orthodox Church of God—for the glory of the Lord has shone upon you; exult now and be glad, O Zion!

The seed is holy—the world’s own foundation. This is the Holy Seed by which the sinful world stands, I think, during the Liturgy, gazing upon the most pure Body and the life-giving Blood of Christ. By this, I too, sinner that I am, still stand, and have not fallen away completely.

What boundless goodness, wisdom, and righteousness of God have been shown in the giving to us of the most pure Body and Blood of Christ! What condescension! What have we been counted worthy of, through them—what salvation, cleansing, sanctification, renewal! What honor—the honor of deification, of union, of a blending with the Godhead! For, through Communion of the most pure Body and Blood of Christ, we become flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones (Eph 5:30), and fearsome to the demons—if only we firmly keep this gift of God within ourselves, and are not, as before, thoughtless and prone to falling, quick to sin, to self-love, malice, anger, envy, intemperance, fornication, to lying, deceit, cunning, to stinginess, love of gain, hardheartedness toward our own neighbors.

«The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin», says the holy Apostle John the Theologian (1Jn 1:7). Without blood there is no cleansing and no sanctification; the Lord poured out His own Blood upon the cross for the cleansing and sanctification and deliverance of the world; the blood of animals was poured out, in the Old Testament, as a sign of the all-cleansing Blood of Christ; every person is conceived, is formed, and is born from the mother’s own blood. How, then, do the Catholics deprive the laity of the Blood of Christ? What an arbitrary invention is this! What cunning in reasoning concerning this subject!

Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness, says the Apostle in his epistle to the Hebrews (9:22). Indeed, almost everything under the law, in the Old Testament, was cleansed by blood. And the first covenant was established not without blood: for Moses, having spoken every commandment of the law before all the people, took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying: this is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you; he also sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. This is an image of the most pure, divine Blood of Christ of the New Testament, without which there can be no cleansing of sins, and therefore the Blood, in the Mystery of Communion, is necessary both for the clergy and for the laity.

Wondrously I am renewed by the divine Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ, every day, even to this day—even into the seventieth year of my life—and I seem not to grow old, being kept, by grace, fresh and vigorous in soul and body. I thank, I thank, I thank Him for this, and for all the mercies of my Lord Jesus Christ. And how many of His own powers, how many victories, has He worked within my own inward world—there is no numbering them! Glory, glory, glory to God in the Trinity!

A plain proof of the truth of the Savior’s own words: «He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him» (Jn 6:55). I celebrate the Liturgy every day with reverence, and partake of the Holy Mysteries, and here are the fruits of this Communion: cleansing, sanctification, renewal, victory over the passions, peace of soul, freedom, boldness, joy in the Holy Spirit; prayer for myself and for others, accompanied by wondrous effects, within and without, and in the souls of many; healing from the prosphora and from everything I drink and eat, and give to others to receive with faith; the life-giving power of the blessing given by my own hand; the joy of fellowship, in prayer and in conversation, with people.

«Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you» (Jn 6:53). And many, many do not partake of the Flesh and Blood, through unbelief, through negligence, through wrong belief, out of a desire to please the world. Many writers, as I know, did not partake of the Holy Mysteries for almost the whole of their life, and died without this provision for eternal life, out of shame before their own fellow writers, saying to those who offered them Communion of the Holy Mysteries: «But what will my own fellow writers say of me?» «Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy, who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, and counted the blood of the covenant a common thing?» (Hebr 10:29). And how many such empty talkers are there in the world? And how many luxurious, hardhearted, merry-making rich men, like the one mentioned in the Gospel? How many Pharisees and hypocrites? How many scribes are there in Christianity? How many priests and chief priests, unsacredly and wrongly minded and living?

3) The priesthood: the grace of the priesthood

How honorable is the rank of the priesthood, how great, how saving, how wondrous is the grace of the priesthood! Through the priesthood the Lord accomplishes great and saving works among people; He cleanses and sanctifies people, animals, all the elements, delivers people from the malice of demons, gives them rebirth in the bath of regeneration, renews them, strengthens them; He changes bread and wine into the most pure Body and Blood of the God-man Himself, performs marriage and makes it honorable, and the marriage bed undefiled, looses sins, heals sicknesses, reconciles the righteousness of God with repentant sinners, turns earth into heaven, builds, by human hands, temples, turning them into the dwelling of the Lord Almighty, unites heaven with earth, man with God; makes one assembly out of angels and men; comforts the sorrowful, strengthens the weak and makes them strong for good deeds, and brings down a superabundance of grace where sin has abounded. How great, how wondrous, how beautiful, and how saving is the grace of the priesthood, and what those people lose who have no lawful, right, effectual, God-established priesthood: the Lutherans, the Protestants, the Reformed, the schismatics, the sectarians, the heretics, cut off from the Church. How those who hold the rank of the priesthood—bishops, priests, deacons—ought to value this grace, that they may serve people, in a manner pleasing to God, unto salvation, and unto God’s own glory! «Hold the priests in superabundant love for the sake of their work» (1Thes 5:13), says the holy Apostle. What do people lose, without the priesthood—what blessings, what grace and mercy of God! They lose salvation! Not without reason is the very Accomplisher of our salvation, the Lord, called a High Priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek; and He has a priesthood that does not pass away, eternal, being always alive to intercede for us. He is the Founder, the Head, and the Accomplisher of the priesthood existing on earth, together with the Holy Spirit, its Sanctifier and Perfecter.

Those who reject the priesthood cannot have holiness, and cannot please God. Priests are clothed with the power of the grace of the priesthood, with the power of the Holy Spirit. The authority of priests is extremely great and important. They are, in a certain sense, earthly gods, by God’s own gift, deifying others through the Mysteries; they are spiritual shepherds, tending the flock of Christ, redeemed by the blood of the sufferings of the eternal High Priest, Jesus Christ, Himself. Without a priest there is no one to loose sins, no one to perform baptism, chrismation, the Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ.

What power of intercession has the Lord granted to priests, authorizing them to offer supplications for the whole world, for all people, for all the churches, for all and everything—for the living and for the dead! Value this grace, O priest. And this is by the power of Christ, the all-intercessor, «the one mediator between God and men, who gave Himself a ransom for all» (1Tim 2:5), and who established for Himself priests from among people, and for people. What power of intercession did the Mother of God have, given her by her own Son and God! What power of intercession had Abraham, the friend of Christ, Isaac and Jacob, Job, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, all the prophets, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel! What power of intercession for people did, and do, the apostles, the martyrs, the bishops, the venerable, and all the saints have! Glory to the most merciful, all-righteous, all-holy, almighty Lord! For such intercessions I too dare to hope in the Lord, that He will save me, unworthy as I am, for the sake of His own goodness.

Grace has exalted the priest to the rank of an earthly angel, a celebrant of the life-giving and fearsome Mysteries of God, a reconciler of creatures with the Creator, an enlightener of souls by rational counsel, a mediator between God and fallen man, a deifier and divinizer of the faithful through the Mysteries; and he must understand this, feel it, and give thanks for it, and glorify God, and strive to correspond to God’s own intention for him and for people. And yet there are few priests who are conscious of the whole height of their own ministry, and who strive to correspond to God’s own intentions for them and for their own flock; they too, like the laity, are led astray by earthly life, by earthly wealth and pleasures, care little for their own spiritual interests and those of their own flock; they are carried away by earthly thoughts, by fleshly passions, and fall deeply from the height of their own calling; and thus the devil, the primeval enemy of God and man, mocks us to the utmost, and, to our own harm, resists the works of God, and destroys a multitude of people. How necessary it is to despise the world, hostile to God, and all its allurements, to despise one’s own perishable and passion-ridden flesh, and always to look toward the things above. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

V. The Sacred Hierarchy of the Orthodox Church: Bishop, Priest, and Deacon. The Height of Priestly Ministry

Not without reason has the Holy Church accorded splendor and glory to bishops, priests, and deacons, especially bishops and priests, during and outside their own ministry, clothing them in the magnificence of sacred vestments, and surrounding them with honors—for these are fitting to their own rank. Priests bear the rank of Christ Himself, the eternal High Priest, who has clothed the priesthood in glory and beauty. «As on a bridegroom He has set a crown on Me, and as a bride He has adorned Me with beauty» (Is 61:10). Let the priesthood of Christ, then, be held in honor forever! This is not the imaginary priesthood of Mohammed, or of the Buddhists, or of the Lamaists, but a true, living, real, saving priesthood.

«Thus let a man think of us as Christ’s servants and stewards of God’s mysteries» (1Cor 4:1): not mere servants, but ones clothed with the power, the authority, and the majesty of Christ, close brothers and friends of Christ, celebrating His own Mysteries in the Church—heavenly, saving Mysteries. A bishop, in his own church, is like the sun in the world. From him come light, spiritual life, sanctification, reconciliation with God, the loosing of sins, guidance in every truth and virtue; from him comes salvation: he opens and shuts heaven for people, he is the first guide to a holy life and to piety, and the guarantor of the salvation of believing people. To him, in accordance with the greatness of his rank, great honors are given, especially in the celebration of the Liturgy.

The priesthood of the Orthodox Church does, by the Lord’s own command, a work of boundless importance, of boundless goodness, a work of supernatural power, a work of God: it enlightens, cleanses, and renews people through instruction in the word of God, and especially through the celebration of the Mysteries and spiritual governance. Only God Himself, or those among people to whom God Himself gives His own grace, power, and strength, to be renewed, enlightened, and strengthened themselves in a new life, and to renew, sanctify, and guide others, with divine, with spiritual authority, can renew man, corrupted by sin. Fallen, corrupted man can rise up and be renewed in no other way than by deep repentance, and the loosing of sins by spiritual authority, and Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ—the Blood, without fail, too, under the special form of wine, as the Lord established, and not without the Blood—he must receive the loosing of his sins from an Orthodox priest, holding a lawful ordination and an authority given by God—and the Body and Blood from a lawful Orthodox priest, and not from a papist or a Lutheran, who do not give the Blood of Christ! O human vain reasoning! O cunning, O intricate web of falsehood! The papists have deprived the laity of the Blood of Christ, poured out for the cleansing of sins. O headless headship, working contrary to the true Head, Christ God! O Lutherans, who have lost the grace and truth of the Mysteries! How can you give grace to others, having none yourselves? How can you shepherd the flock of Christ, having not the spirit of Christ, the truth and righteousness of Christ? Protestants and Reformed, pastors and archpastors—tell me, how can you renew the people and guide them to a holy life, when you yourselves have no grace, no authority of power and strength from the Holy Spirit, which you cannot receive anywhere except in the Holy Orthodox Church? Tell me, how can you accomplish the work of the renewal of mankind, which only God can do, and he to whom God has given His own grace and authority, through episcopal ordination? You have no priesthood: how have you dared to take up a work that is beyond your own power? You are not renewed yourselves, and you do not renew, cleanse, or sanctify the people.

In what radiant, divine majesty the priest stands before the throne of God during the Liturgy, especially during the celebration of the bloodless, most holy, most heavenly, fearsome sacrifice of the transformation of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ! The angels look upon him with reverence, and with a certain zeal, contemplating such a condescension of God toward us, such a blending of the Lord God with our own frail nature. The priest appears here as the nearest mediator between God and guilty mankind, an intercessor for the whole Church, for the whole world. It is not only as a servant, but as a friend of God, that the priest appears here, to whom God entrusts the greatest mystery, hidden from all generations, in God. And for whom, and for what, will he not entreat the Lord, with his own fervent prayer, if, at his own prayer, such a Mystery is accomplished, when the Lord gives Himself for food and drink unto eternal life? He who did not spare His own Son for us—will He not give us everything for which we ask Him with faith, according to His own will?

Do you grieve for those who sin, do you pity them, do you pray for them sincerely, as for the sick? If you hate them, despise them, belittle them, revile them, then you yourself sin gravely, you have no Christian love, and you are possessed by self-love, pride, self-indulgence. Groan and grieve, weep for those who sin, as the prophet Ezekiel did; pray for them fervently, for they are our own members, members of Christ Himself—sick members, who must be healed without delay, as infected with gangrene.

One who is bold against his neighbor is bold against God too. Remember the one who dipped his hand into the dish together with the Lord, and betrayed his own Lord; of him it was said that he was a devil (Jn 6:70). Remember the meek Lord Jesus, who, «when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously», His own Father (1Pet 2:23); He did not dispute, He did not cry out (did not raise His voice at all), and no one heard His own voice (quiet and meek) in the streets. Remember whose yoke you bear upon your own neck, like an ox that treads out the grain (the priestly stole); labor, then, willingly and in humility of heart, for Christ God, who bore upon Himself all your own sins, who suffered and died for you, a great sinner, who have provoked Him to anger a thousand times over, without number. You have not borne the poverty and the labors of the Lord, but live in contentment and every kind of abundance, and forget, from time to time, your own Lord, who endured so many labors for you, such bitterness from people, such beatings, such mockery, and the most shameful of deaths.

What work is more honorable, more saving, more joyful, than to come to the sick, the weak, and the sorrowful among our neighbors, with the holy, life-giving Mysteries, and to give them Communion of this spiritual, incorruptible, and divine food? What reward from God awaits those priests who do this holy work willingly, with humility and meekness! Do not be lazy, then, O priest, and do not shrink in disgust from the sick, the poor, often ignorant, subject to every kind of sickness! Their appearance is unattractive, the sight is not a cheerful one, but this work, in the eyes of the Master and Lord, is great. «I was sick, and you visited Me» (Mt. 25:36).

«Do not be grieved at those who wish to partake more often of the Holy Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ, but love them, and rejoice for them before God; for the Lord draws their hearts, which have tasted the sweetness of communion with Him in these Mysteries. For you yourself, too, partake often, when you serve the Liturgy. Do not be grieved, either, at the sick, who desire the same thing in the houses where they lie, and do not be too lazy to go to them. For they desire communion with God and healing from Him; and there is no higher and more honorable service than to give the sick Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ God; for whom do you carry? What a measure of life do you bear? Your own ministry is higher than that of the Angels, for they gaze with fear upon this fearsome and saving Mystery, while you carry Christ God Himself, and deliver Him to the faithful.

The service of the sick, in giving them the divine Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ, is the greatest of services, which must be counted the greatest honor, and must always be done willingly, reverently, joyfully, without any burden. «We who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of the weak, and not to please ourselves» (Rom 15:1), nor the belly, nor mammon, nor rich and distinguished persons, nor friends and benefactors, nor our own lazy and sluggish flesh. «As we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith» (Gal 6:10).

If you wish to prove your devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ with your whole soul and your whole heart, serve the sick willingly and humbly in their own homes, bringing them, and giving them, the Holy, Life-giving Mysteries of the most pure Body and Blood of the Lord. With the sick, whom it falls to you to give Communion of the Holy Mysteries, deal tenderly and gently, as a nurse with her own children, remembering how the Lord has loved all of us, giving us Himself as food and drink of eternal life.