Thoughts of Father John of Kronstadt

Many do not like to be present at divine worship, because they do not know it well, in all its richness, majesty, wisdom, sweetness, life-giving power.

Not one word of sincere prayer is lost in vain before God, but bears good fruit, for pure prayer is a great power, inclining the goodness of God to mercy and generosity.

Our prayers—in church, at home, in public—suffer in us and from us from a very serious defect: superficiality, or a lack of depth and sincerity, and haste, or hurriedness; because of these two defects people often «lose all the fruit of prayer, and our prayers might as well be thrown away, as the saying goes: so empty, so worthless, so fleeting they turn out to be! The work of prayer is a great work! It is converse with God, our verbal sacrifice to God! Who, then, is GOD for us, and what do we imagine Him to be?

And it is before this most perfect, most righteous, all-knowing, all-good, all-wise, and almighty Being that we bring a negligent, thoughtless, heartless prayer—before Him from whom we received life and breath and everything! Shame on you!

At prayer every one who prays must have his own living thought, his own warm feeling.

If many Christians do not love the church and divine worship, it is because their souls are not ready, are not disposed to this love, have not cultivated it in themselves because of worldly attachments, and because they do not know the church, its meaning, its spirit, its purpose.

Go to church, listen with deep attention to the services, the hymns, the canons, the readings, and you will grow accustomed to the church, will come to love it: you will see, you will be convinced, how many seeds of life, peace, and comfort it holds—how much light, strength, holiness, and truth it holds.

Weak is our faith in the eternal recompense, in the dread and righteous judgment; and that is why we hasten to snatch our rewards here, sometimes, alas, in spite of our own faults—and to receive our comfort out of season, in the wrong order… Oh, if only we pictured to ourselves more often the dread, impartial judgment! Then our love for earthly rewards would grow cold. Oh, if only we remembered always the unsleeping and unforgetting eye of the righteous Judge! We would not be so zealous to reward ourselves here for everything, as though so that nothing might be left to reward us with in the life to come. What cunning on the part of the prince of this age, and what shortsightedness on our part, what willful blindness! I feel his workings within me, his incitements to seek the earthly and to be slothful about the heavenly, every day from morning to evening.

A Christian without the church, like a fish without water, cannot live a true life: the church is his element.

What is the ever-living, ever-interesting side of our Orthodox church? It is that wondrous love which breathes throughout the whole of divine worship—the love of God for men, and the devotion of rational beings, men, to God the Savior, the love of the Church for all her members and for all people. Look closely into divine worship, and it will never lose for you its interest, the highest and most inexhaustible interest of all.

In the church is the true food of our souls: the Word of God, the Mysteries, divine worship or the readings, the hymns, the sacred rites, which nourish the mind and the feeling; go, people, more often, and partake of incorruption with mind, heart, and lips. In the world you feed constantly on corruption alone: your sight, your hearing, taste, smell, touch, reason, memory, imagination, fancy—every sense feeds on corruption. In the church everything is incorrupt: beauty incorrupt and eternal, sweetness incorrupt, riches incorrupt, glory incorrupt; but worldly, fleshly beauty, sweetness, glory, and riches are subject to corruption, to vanishing—and besides, they are deceptive, seductive, sinful. Remember, Christian, that it is for eternal life that you struggle against sin and the devil, that you endure wounds and sores, bear sorrows, straits, labors, poverty, and do deeds of virtue! There is something worth laboring for, worth enduring! By long-suffering all the Saints obtained eternal life. Have, then, Christians, always one aim in view. What aim? Eternal life.

They say there are no miracles nowadays, but we live in a world of miracles: especially in the gracious Kingdom of Christ—in the church a countless multitude of miracles both has taken place and is now taking place, both openly to the eye and in the inward world, in the souls of men. Believing souls who fear God know this, and glorify the Lord of miracles.

Man is perishing continually from sin, and he needs, continually, a savior every day. This savior is Jesus Christ, the Son of God; only call out to Him inwardly, with a living, clear-sighted faith in your salvation, and He will save you!

Parents and educators! Guard your children with all care from caprice in your presence, or else your children will soon forget the worth of your love, and will infect their hearts with malice. Caprice is the seed of a corrupted heart, the rust of the heart, the moth of love, the seed of malice, an abomination to the Lord.

Why is it that we remember human offenses and grow angry and full of malice against those who offend us, while the devil’s offenses—the most evil, the most harmful, and the most unceasing of all—we forget very quickly, even though we may be wronged by him a thousand times a day; while, meanwhile, we hold a single offense from some man against him on our heart, sometimes, for more than a day? This is a diabolical delusion!

Do you hate your enemy? Then you are a fool. Why? Because, while your enemy persecutes you, you are already inwardly persecuting yourself as well; for tell me, is it not persecution—is it not the cruelest persecution of all—to torment yourself with hatred for an enemy? Love your enemy, and you will be wise. Oh, if you only knew what a triumph, what a blessedness it is, to love your enemy and to do him good!

My soul! Remember your heavenly dignity, and do not be troubled over things corruptible and worthless. Respect the heavenly dignity in other people too, and do not dare, for the sake of anything corruptible, to insult or hate them.

When you are slandered, and are troubled by it and grieved at heart, this means that you have pride within you, and it is precisely this pride that must be wounded and driven out of the heart by outward dishonor. So then, do not be irritated by mockery, and do not nurse hatred toward those who hate and slander you, but love them, as your physicians, whom God has sent you in order to bring you to your senses and to teach you humility, and pray to God for them. Bless those who curse you. Say: «It is not me they slander, but my passion; it is not me they strike, but this little serpent that nests in my heart».

Un-love, enmity, or hatred ought not to exist among Christians even in name. Everywhere you see love. And you too, everywhere and always, show forth love! Will you still refuse to love, when everywhere you hear the preaching of love, when only the man-killing devil is eternal enmity?

A proud man, while others are telling of some person’s virtues, is cunningly afraid lest this person be higher than himself in virtue and outshine him, for the proud man sets himself above everyone else and cannot imagine finding the same, or better, virtues in other people.

Where would there be room for struggle, for feats, for virtue, if no evil were done to us by our neighbors, if we were never wronged? Where would there be room for the endurance of injuries, for meekness, for humility? You see, then, that we must experience manifold evils as well, in order to display our virtue and receive our crowns.

Do not be irritated at those who err and offend, do not have a passion for noticing every sin in your neighbor and condemning him for it, as is usual with us; each will give his own answer to God; everyone has a conscience, everyone hears the Word of God, knows the will of God either from books or from conversation with others; above all, do not look with ill intent upon the sins of your elders, which are none of your business — each stands or falls to his own Lord (Rom 14:4); correct instead your own sins, your own heart.

Why has the Lord allowed there to be beggars? For your own good, that you might be able to cleanse and blot out your sins, for alms cleanses every sin (Prov 15:27; Sir 3:30), that you might acquire, in their persons, those who pray for you, that you might make your Lord merciful toward you, for the merciful shall obtain mercy (Matt 5:7).

Be watchful over yourselves, when a poor man in need of help asks it of you: at that moment the enemy will try to douse your heart with coldness, indifference, and even contempt for the one in need. Overcome in yourselves these unchristian and inhuman dispositions, stir up in your heart a compassionate love for one who is like you in every way, for this member of Christ, and your own member as well — for we are members one of another (Eph 4:25)—for this temple of the Holy Spirit, so that Christ God may love you too; and whatever the one in need asks of you—fulfill his request according to your ability. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you (Mt 5:42).

A man embittered against us is a sick man; a plaster must be applied to his heart—love; he must be treated with kindness, spoken to gently, with love—and, if his malice against us is not deep-rooted but only a passing flare-up, watch how his heart, or his malice, will melt from our kindness and love, how good will conquer evil.

A Christian must always be good, wise enough to conquer evil with good.

Do not bear a grudge against one who has offended you, and when those who have offended you show you a kindly face and turn to you with friendly words, do not turn your heart to malice, but speak kindly and good-naturedly, as though nothing had passed between you and them; learn to conquer evil with good, malice with kindness, meekness, humility. Do not be proud and unforgiving, lest the Lord be angered at your hardness of heart.

Envy in a Christian is madness. We are commanded to be content with what we have. Let us acquire mutual love, goodwill and contentment with our own condition, friendship, hospitality, love of the poor, love of strangers, and the summit of the virtues: humble-mindedness, freedom from malice, meekness, holiness.

Alms are good and salutary when joined with the correction of the heart from pride, malice, envy, idleness, sloth, gluttony, fornication, lying, deceit, and other sins. But if a man does not concern himself with the correction of his own heart, trusting instead in his almsgiving, he will gain little benefit from it, for what he builds with one hand he tears down with the other.

One who is insolent toward man is insolent toward God as well, as many of us are. Respect in man the majestic, priceless image of God, and bear long with the faults and errors of fallen man, that the Lord may bear long with yours as well.

Our self-love and pride show themselves especially in impatience and irritability, when one of us cannot bear the least unpleasantness caused us by others, whether on purpose or even unintentionally. Our self-love and pride would like to have everything their own way, to surround themselves with every honor, with every comfort of temporal life, would like all people to obey their slightest sign silently and swiftly… Christian! You must without fail be humble, meek, and long-suffering, remembering that you are clay, dust, nothingness, that you are unclean, that everything good in you is God’s, that God’s gifts are your life, your breath, and everything… Whoever is impatient and irritable has not truly known himself or mankind, and is unworthy to be called a Christian…

Every day alms are asked of you, and give every day willingly, without bitterness, rudeness, or grumbling: it is not your own but God’s that you give to God’s cross-bearing children, who scarcely have anywhere to lay their head; you are a steward of God’s estate, you are the everyday servant of Christ’s lesser brethren—do your work with meekness and humility, do not grow weary of it. You are serving Christ, the Judge and Rewarder: a great honor, a lofty dignity!

Our life is love—yes, love. And where love is, there God is too, and where God is, there is every good thing… With joy feed and gladden everyone, with joy please everyone, and hope in everything upon the Heavenly Father, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort.

Leave all human wrongs to the Lord, for God is the judge, and, for your own part, love everyone diligently and from a pure heart, remembering that you yourself are a great sinner and need the mercy of God. And to earn the mercy of God, one must in every way show mercy to others…

Do not be grieved at people who show their pride and arrogance, or malice, self-indulgence and impatience toward you or toward others; but, remembering that you yourself are subject to the same, and to greater, sins and passions, pray for them and treat them gently.

It is a blessing in every respect to give to the poor: besides mercy at the Dread Judgment, even here, on earth, givers of alms often receive great kindnesses from their neighbors, and what costs others great sums is given to them for nothing…

To be meek means to bear, without malice of heart, the wrongs done to us, insults and the like, and to pray for one’s enemies.

The main thing in life is to be zealous for mutual love and to condemn no one. Each will give his own answer to God—watch, then, over yourself. Guard against malice.

When malice flares up in your heart against someone, then believe with your whole heart that it is the work of the devil acting in your heart; hate him and his offspring, and it will leave you… Be guided by the same rule with regard to others too: when you see that someone is embittered against you, do not count his malice as truly his own doing; no, he is only the suffering instrument of the all-malicious enemy. One must pray from the heart to God for all people subject to the passions: it is the enemy who is at work in them.

Keep peace of spirit within yourself, and do not be troubled or irritated by any contrariness, injuries, faults, or wrongs—and you will always enjoy soundness of soul and body…

To govern others, one must first learn to govern oneself. When I do not know how to master myself, when there is in me no spirit of self-mastery, no spirit of meekness, holiness, love, and truth, then I am a poor governor…

Be as meek, humble, and simple in your dealings with everyone as you can, considering yourself, without pretense, lower than everyone in the state of your soul—that is, more sinful and more feeble than all. Say: of sinners, I am the first. From pride comes pomposity, a cold manner, without any sincerity, toward those who are beneath us or from whom we hope to gain nothing.

Human charity is suspicious: it is afraid of giving to one who already has, or of giving too much. But the mercy of the Lord is not so: the Lord is good to all, and His compassions are over all His works (Ps 144:9).

Love brings rest and pleasantly expands the heart, gives it life, while hatred torments and constricts it, disturbs it. Whoever hates others torments and tyrannizes himself—he is the most foolish of all fools.

So as not to hold a neighbor’s malice against you in mind, but to forgive him from the soul, remember that you yourself are not a stranger to malice, nor to all the other passions either…

True love willingly endures deprivations, cares, and labors, bears injuries, humiliations, shortcomings, faults, and failings, if no harm to others comes of them; bears patiently and meekly the meanness and malice of others, leaving judgment to the all-seeing God, the righteous Judge, and praying that God would bring to their senses those darkened by unreasoning passions.

It is unpleasant for the proud man when humility before others is required of him; for the envious man, when goodwill toward enemies is required; for the vengeful man, when forgiveness and reconciliation are required… But they must conquer within themselves their own feelings, their own passions, and joyfully do what is required of them, what the Gospel requires of them: otherwise, given over unrepentant and incorrigible to their passions, they will perish forever.

Do not listen to the enemy’s slander of your neighbor, to his abominations and various malicious insinuations and his pride. Look upon every man simply, with respect, as upon the image of God, and think nothing evil of him without cause. When you pray only inwardly, or outwardly as well, be firmly assured that the Lord is right there, with you and in you, and hears every word, even one spoken only to yourself, even one only thought. Speak from your whole heart, sincerely, condemn yourself also sincerely, without the least self-justification. Have faith that the Lord will have mercy on you—and you will not remain without mercy. It is true. Taken from experience.

You are ill, and your illness is very tormenting; your spirit has fallen, you are despondent; thoughts, each darker than the last, assail you; your heart and your lips are ready to murmur, to blaspheme God. My brother! Take my sincere advice: bear your illness with magnanimity, and not only do not despond, but, on the contrary, if you can, rejoice in your illness. What is there to rejoice at, you ask, when it is breaking you apart from every side? Rejoice that the Lord has visited you with a temporal punishment, that He might cleanse your soul from sins: whom the Lord loves, He chastens (Hebr 12:6); rejoice that you are not now satisfying those passions which you would be satisfying if you were healthy; rejoice that you bear the cross of illness, and are therefore walking the narrow and sorrowful path that leads to the kingdom. He who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin (1Pet 4:1), as it is written in Scripture.

When you give to someone who asks, who is not poor, is healthy, and, by all appearances, does not deserve alms—if your heart begrudges him the alms given—repent of this, for the divine love grants us its own good things even when we already have enough of them without that. Love for one’s neighbor ought to speak in you thus: though he already has something, it will do no harm if I increase his well-being a little (and, to tell the truth, one or two or three kopecks will hardly increase or improve his well-being very much). God gives to me—why, then, should I not give to one in need? I say, one in need, for who would stretch out his hand without need?

Every man on earth is sick with the fever of sin, blind with the blindness of sin, possessed by the madness of sin; and since sin consists above all in malice and pride, every man suffering from the sickness of sin must be dealt with in gentle love—an important truth that we often forget. We often, very often, act contrary to it: to malice we add more malice with our own bitterness, to pride we offer resistance with pride itself. This is how evil grows among us, instead of diminishing, instead of being healed—it is instead further infected. Lord, have mercy on us, have mercy on mankind.

The science of sciences is to conquer the sin living within us, or the passions at work within us. For example, it is great wisdom to be angry at no one and at nothing, to think evil of no one, even if someone has done us evil, but by every means to make excuse for him. It is wisdom to despise gain and pleasures, and to love non-acquisitiveness and simplicity in food and drink, with constant moderation; it is wisdom to flatter no one, but to tell everyone the truth fearlessly; it is wisdom to love one’s enemies and not to take vengeance on them in word, deed, or thought; it is wisdom not to gather riches for oneself, but to give alms to the poor, that we may acquire for ourselves a treasure that does not fail in heaven. Alas! We have studied almost every other science, but the science of turning away from sin we have not studied at all, and we often turn out to be, in this present age, ignoramuses in this moral science.

Passion is hot, confused, unconsidered, evil, headlong, and therefore a man in passion—in anger, for instance—says much that is unconsidered, untrue, invented, evil, which he would not have said in a calm state. Therefore, knowing from your own experience this property of the passions, first of all, do not speak yourself when you are troubled, when you are in malice, and make excuse for hot-tempered and irritated people when they pour out abuse and reproaches, whether just or unjust.

To love God with your whole heart means to love with your whole soul meekness, humility, purity and chastity, wisdom, righteousness, mercy, and obedience for God’s sake, and never to do anything contrary to these virtues—that is, not to be proud, not to be irritated, not to be angry at anyone, to keep far from every rash and superfluous word and deed, to avoid every wrong, to hate covetousness and love of gain, to flee self-will and disobedience.

Take from each person, among visible things, the thing he loves most of all: ask for, or take away, the money-lover’s money, the glutton’s sweet food, some of the ambitious and proud man’s privileges, call him by an unflattering name—and you will see what makes up each one’s true hope! Oh, what shameful hopes one sometimes has occasion to meet!

The calamities of Christians come from their not having Christian hope. Here a man has some sinful anguish in his heart, a sinful heaviness and weariness; if he has no Christian hope in his heart, what does he do?

He resorts to artificial means to drive off the heaviness and weariness, to sinful distractions, rather than to Christ, whose yoke is good for our heart and whose burden is light; not to prayer, not to repentance for sins, not to the Word of God, which is profitable for teaching, for relief, for comfort. This is what happens for the most part. Hence the need, for worldly people, for theaters and a multitude of distractions. Some resort to suicide. The establishment of hope in the heart of one who prays is much aided by experiences of receiving what one has asked for. And a person attentive to himself will easily notice these experiences.

Faith is beyond doubt, hope is beyond doubt, love is beyond doubt. Root these words in your heart, and show them forth in your life.

Set a firm intention in your soul: to hate strongly every sin—in thoughts, words, and deeds—and when temptation to sin comes, resist it manfully and with a feeling of hatred toward it… Without a hatred of sin firmly established in the heart, one cannot help but fall into it often. Self-love must be torn out by the root: every sin comes from self-love…

One must love one’s neighbor still more, when he sins against God or against us, for then he is sick, then he is in trouble of soul, in danger. It is then that we must show him mercy and pray for him and apply to his heart a healing plaster—a word of kindness, of instruction, of reproof, of comfort, of forgiveness, of love. Forgive one another, even as God in Christ has forgiven you (Eph 4:32). All sins and passions, quarrels and strife, are truly sicknesses of the soul—and so we must regard them. Or rather, all the passions are a fire of the soul, a great flame raging within, a fire that comes forth from the abyss of hell. It must be put out with the water of love, which has the power to quench every flame of malice and of the other passions…

Despise not a single person, no poor man, but treat every well-intentioned person with full respect and goodwill, especially the poor, as members of our own body worthy of compassion, or, otherwise, as members of Christ—else you will cruelly wound your own soul….

When before your eyes people fall into various sins against you, against the Lord, against their neighbors, and against themselves—do not grow bitter against them, for even without you there is enough malice in the world, but pity them from your soul, and make excuse for them when they wrong you; say to yourself: «Lord! Forgive them, for sin has entangled them; they do not know what they do».

You grow bitter against your neighbor, your brother, and say: he is such and such, a miser, malicious, proud, or he did this and that, and so on. What is that to you? It is against God that he sins, not against you; God is his judge, not you; to God he will answer for himself, not to you. Know yourself instead—how sinful you yourself are, what a beam is in your own eye; how hard it is for you to cope with your own sins, how much you yourself long for the indulgence of others toward your own weaknesses. And your brother is a man just like you. Show him the same indulgence you would show a sinful man, like you in every way, as weak as you are. Love him as yourself, hearing the Lord say: This I command you, that you love one another (Jn 15:17).

A malicious and proud man is ready to see in others only pride and malice, and is glad if others speak ill of one of his acquaintances, especially one who lives happily and richly. And the worse it is said of him, the more he rejoices, that others are wicked while he is a paragon beside them, and he is ready to see in them nothing but evil and to compare them to demons. Oh, malice! Oh, pride! Oh, the absence of love!

To test yourself as to whether you love your neighbor according to the Gospel, pay attention to yourself at the time when people wrong you, abuse you, laugh at you, or fail to render you the respect customary in society. If at that time you remain at peace, are not filled with a spirit of enmity, hatred, impatience, then you love your neighbor according to the Gospel; but if you are irritated, troubled, then you do not love him…

Let us ourselves take vengeance on no one, not even with a single evil thought or intention, but leave vengeance to God. Vengeance is Mine, I will repay (Deut 32:35), says God.

When we pray, we must without fail take our heart in hand and turn it to the Lord. It must not be cold, cunning, unfaithful, double-minded. Otherwise what profit is there from our prayer?

How quick we are to evil, and how slow to good! Here I wish to be kind to my enemy and to express my kindness in deed, but before I have managed to become kind in my heart, I am already malicious, already a fiery arrow of malice is burning my insides. I wish to be patient, but before I have established my heart in patience, I have become irritable, impatient. I wish to be humble, but satanic pride has already found a spacious corner in me. I wish to be gentle, but when it comes time to show gentleness, I turn out to be rude…

Rejoice in every occasion to show gentleness to your neighbor, as a true Christian, striving to acquire as many good deeds as possible, especially treasures of love…

Even the saints of God were overtaken by diabolical despair and despondency. What then of us sinners? Oh, the enemy often wounds us with bitterness of heart, with self-abasement and fierce despondency! We must turn constantly to the Lord and be with Him every moment, so that the enemy’s bitterness and despondency may not overtake us…

You cannot, without the help of grace, conquer a single passion, a single sin—ask, then, always for the help of Christ your Savior. You say, how can one be saved when sin stands at every step, and one sins at every moment? The answer to this is simple: at every step, at every moment, call upon the Savior. Remember the Savior, and you will be saved, and will save others too.

It is necessary for a Christian to fast, in order to clarify the mind, to arouse and develop the feeling, and to move the will toward good action. These three faculties of man we darken and suppress above all by gluttony, drunkenness, and worldly cares, and thereby we fall away from the source of life—God—and sink down into corruption and vanity, distorting and defiling in ourselves the image of God. And how a man debases himself by gluttony, overeating, and drunkenness!

Live (and you too, live) as members of one body, as children of God, in love and concord, in peace and stillness, respecting one another, bearing with one another, as the Lord bears with us. Do not be proud, do not envy, do not be at enmity, bridle the lusts of the flesh, be chaste, abstain from every excess, be not slothful in prayer; always begin the affairs of daily life with a brief prayer; both begin and end the day with fervent prayer to God, to the Queen of Heaven, and to your Guardian Angel; pray for all as for yourself, wish good to all as to yourself, and wish and do evil to no one.

All people are the breath and creation of the one God. As the breath of the one God, and as descended from one man, people ought naturally to live in mutual love and mutual protection, and ought not to separate themselves from one another by self-love, pride, malice, envy, avarice, and unsociability.

Do good to the poor willingly, without suspicion, doubt, or petty inquisitiveness, remembering that in the person of the poor man you do good to Christ Himself.

The anger of man is a fearsome, unnatural phenomenon in man; it is often aroused in the heart for the most trivial reasons, out of self-love and pride.

Keep close watch over every manifestation of pride: it shows itself imperceptibly, especially in vexation and irritability toward others over the most trivial causes.

Life is a great experiential science. There is nothing harder than to pass through this science, this narrow way and strait gate. And whoever has not, in the school of his mother, or in his schooling, acquired the habit of faith and the fear of God and a pious life, will find it especially hard to learn in the school of life. Such a one, even if he was clever in the school of the sciences, well-informed, held in great esteem for his abilities—in the school of life turns out to be an ignoramus, and more than that, sometimes fit for nothing at all, neither for family life, because of his quarrelsome character or his unbridled heart, nor for public activity. He suffers misfortune and often meets shipwreck in life, like a ship loaded with a great cargo of goods, sent out to sea in a storm without a rudder, without rigging, without sails.

Prayer is the raising up of the mind and heart to God. From this it is plain that he cannot pray whose mind and heart are firmly bound to something fleshly—money, for instance, or honor—or who holds in his heart hatred or envy toward others…

All who come to labor for the Lord in prayer, learn to be, like Him, gentle, humble, and true of heart; harbor no cunning in your soul… Remember that not one word is spent in vain in prayer, if it is spoken from the heart: the Lord hears every word, and every word is weighed by Him…

Do not spare your heart in prayer; draw it out from under the attachments and passions that cover it like a bark, and lift it up to God, and illumine it with bright reason; for otherwise there is darkness in it, and in that darkness are creeping things beyond number. In prayer strike straight at the sinful heart, at its own particular, crying, wearisome faults; wring them out of it; do not spare yourself; shed tears over them: with tears they will come out. But if you spare your heart, do not touch it, all its filth will simply remain there—and you will have no profit from your prayer.

Prayer offered from the heart can always be profitable for soul and body, and is never harmful to the body, even if the one praying be weak in health. This is experience speaking. Prayer wondrously calms the soul, and from peace of soul the body too finds greater peace. What, then, will you say to this, you who excuse yourselves from prayer on the grounds of weak health? Is it only for good deeds that you are weak? O sinful flesh! How you deceive the unwary!

A great virtue is patience and trust in the mercy of God, while despair is a grievous sin. The devil strives with all his strength to cast the sinner into despair; but the sinner must fortify himself with hope. If you have fallen, rise up again.

Sorrows are a great teacher; sorrows show us our weaknesses, our passions, our need of repentance; sorrows purify the soul, sober it, as from drunkenness, bring grace down into the soul, soften the heart, instill a revulsion for sin, establish us in faith, hope, and virtue.

Foul heart, unclean heart! Now I see clearly that the all-good, righteous, and all-wise Lord has justly allowed you to suffer for a considerable time. If even now you are still so cunning, so unclean, so foul, what would have become of you, if you had not suffered cruel torments for your cunning, for your unfaithfulness to God? Oh! I see that you deserve to be tormented, so that the evil with which you are overflowing may be wrung out of you.

A heartfelt faith in the spiritual world, and especially in the spiritual Sun that enlightens and enlivens all things, gladdens and enlivens the soul that has a blameless conscience. Faith must reach the point of a seeing of the heart. This means that the soul must, as it were, rise above sensuality, above its own dark, bodily nature, and penetrate—with the purest possible sight of the heart—into the spiritual world. There it finds itself well; there is its true life, its rest and its joy. This is experience speaking.

Imagination and mental representation are the sight of the heart or soul, forming or reproducing a given object: hence they are swift, instantaneous, and bear a spiritual character. This is a daguerreotype, or photograph, that the soul makes of a given object. Reason is the painter who copies from this photograph.

In ordinary human knowledge, once you have come to know some object well, you often know it well for your whole life, without any darkening of your knowledge of it. But in faith it is not so: once you have come to know, to feel, to grasp an object of faith, you think it will always be as clear, as tangible, as beloved to your soul—but no: a thousand times it will grow dark for you, will withdraw from you and seem to vanish for you; what you once loved, by which you once lived and breathed, toward that you will at times feel utter indifference; and one must sometimes clear a path for oneself with sighing and tears, in order to see it again, to seize it and embrace it with the heart.

Remember: reason is the servant of the heart, which is our life; if it leads the heart to truth, to peace, to joy, to life, it fulfills its purpose, it is truth; if it leads to doubt, to unrest, to languishing, to despondency, to darkness, it has turned aside from its purpose and is without fail false (a falsely-named reason). If the heart feels, from faith in something, rest, sweetness, ease—this alone is enough; there is no need to demand from reason proofs of the truth of that object; it is undoubtedly true, and the heart assures us of it by its own life, for the goal of every inquiry is truth and life.

Guard by every means the simplicity of the heart, the simplicity of faith, hope, and love, of meekness, humility, freedom from malice. Every good thing is from God, and God is for us every good thing—this is the simplicity of faith, hope, and love!

If the warmth in the heart is not kept kindled, then, through negligence, faith may be extinguished in us altogether; Christianity, with all its Mysteries, may become as it were entirely dead to us. This is the enemy’s only concern—to extinguish faith in the heart and bring all the truths of Christianity into forgetfulness. That is why we see people who are Christians only in name, but complete pagans in their deeds.

You send up glory to God in words, but do not send it up in deeds. Glorify God still more by deeds: by self-restraint, diligence, love, mercy, humility, and patience. Do not doubt any truth; O you of little faith, why did you doubt? (Mt 14:31) Misfortune comes from our own doubt and self-conceit.

When you are asked to pray for the deliverance of someone from bodily death—from drowning, for instance, or from death by illness, by fire, or by some other calamity—praise the faith of those who ask this, and say within yourself: blessed be your faith; according to your faith may the Lord grant the fulfillment of my unworthy, weak-faithed prayer, and may He add to me faith.

Love without deliberation: love is simple. Love never errs. Likewise, without deliberation, believe and hope: for faith and hope are simple too; or rather: God, in whom we believe and on whom we hope, is a simple Being, just as He is also a simple love.

We are all one, and for all of us all things are the Lord, as for the angels, for the saints, for all the material worlds and every least part of them. Behold the birds of the air. Consider the lilies of the field… if God so clothes the grass, how much more you, O you of little faith… Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (mutual love), and all these things (from God) shall be added to you (Mt 6:26-33). Here is a most necessary truth for you! Follow it! Rely, then, on God in everything. Cast all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Indeed, how can one live as though there were no God, no Provider? We think we can arrange everything ourselves, we think we can secure ourselves, pushing aside the thought of the common Provider of us all.

Looking at God’s world, what do I see? I see everywhere an extraordinary breadth, a playfulness of life: in the animal kingdom, among four-footed creatures, among reptiles, insects, birds, among fish. Now the question arises: why then is there a narrow, sorrowful path of life for man, and especially for people zealous for piety? The Lord has poured out life, contentment, and joy everywhere, with room to spare, and every creature, except man, glorifies the Creator by its contentment, its life, and its playful joy. Why, then, is there in me a discord with the common life? Am I not a creation of that same Creator? The riddle is simple. Our life is poisoned, now by our own sin, now by the bodiless enemy, especially and above all in those people who strive after piety. The life of man, of the true Christian, lies ahead, in the age to come; there all joys, full blessedness, will open for him. But here he is an exile, and under punishment: here at times all of nature arms itself against him because of sin, not to mention the ancient enemy, who prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1Pet 5:8). So then, I am not troubled that there is joy and contentment everywhere in the world, while in me there is often no joy, and I look with a gloomy eye on the joy and freedom of God’s creatures. I have my own executioner for sin—this executioner is always with me and strikes me. But joys will come for me too, only not here, but in another world.

If my life were to continue a few more moments—say, ten—and five of them were moments of peace, and the other five, moments of languishing and torment, then I would have to say without any doubt: yes, undoubtedly I too have a Giver of Life, and my Giver of Life provides for me; and I would just as undoubtedly have to say that there is a being in the world that holds the dominion of death, because the five unfavorable moments must arise from a being opposed to God, since one and the same cause cannot produce opposite effects. And I, sinner that I am, in my spiritual life have, out of 100 parts, at the very least 70 belonging to God, and only 30 to the devil. How, then, can I fail to see before me continually my Benefactor, or waver in mind in living faith in Him!

Ever since man of his own will fell away from God, he has been like an animal that was once tame, but afterward grew wild in the dense forests: he looks without desire upon the place of his former dwelling, and loves the darkness of the forest—that is, of this present world—more than the light of his former home—that is, the paradise of God. He unites with God with difficulty, and after uniting often falls away from Him again; he sincerely believes with difficulty both in God and in everything God has revealed to him, and does not concern himself continually with preserving in his heart the heavenly gift of faith.

If God does not neglect, in His good providence, even a blade of grass, a flower, or a little leaf on a tree, will He neglect us? Oh, let every man be convinced with his whole heart that the Lord is true to Himself in His providence over every creature of His, even the very least. Understand that the Creator is invisibly present to every creature. According to the Savior’s words, God clothes the flowers of the field, feeds the birds of the air. In what does God not gladden us, His creatures? Even with little flowers. Like a tender mother, by His eternal power and wisdom, He creates for us out of nothing, every summer, these magnificent plants. Let us take delight in them, and let us not forget to glorify the goodness of the Creator, our Heavenly Father; let us too answer His love for us with our own loving hearts.

In thoughts of doubt, unbelief, blasphemy—who suffers: the object that is doubted, disbelieved, blasphemed? No, it is the doubter himself. They are afraid there, where no fear was (Ps 13:5); they are tormented by their own doubt, unbelief, blasphemy, while the object of their agony remains firm, unmoved, and gains an evident victory over them, in that it forces them to change their thoughts about it for their own peace of mind, and does not let them rest until they repent of their former false thoughts concerning it and bring forth thoughts that are favorable and true. It is therefore unreasonable to waver and be troubled, still more to grow faint-hearted and despondent in spirit, when thoughts of doubt, unbelief, blasphemy, and the like come during prayer or at other times.

Unite your soul with God through heartfelt faith, and you can do all things. Are strong, unseen, unsleeping enemies warring against you? You will conquer. Are the passions tearing at you? You will overcome them. Are sorrows crushing you? You will turn them aside. Is your spirit despondent? You will receive courage. With faith you can conquer all things, and will obtain the very Kingdom of Heaven. Faith is the greatest good in earthly life: it unites a man with God, and in Him makes him strong and victorious. Cling to the Lord, and you are one spirit with the Lord (1Cor 6:17).

Do not gaze at the beauty of a man’s face, but look at his soul; do not look at his garment (the body is a temporary garment), but look at the one who wears it; do not look at the splendor of a house, but look at the tenant, at who lives in it and what he is—otherwise you will insult the image of God in man, you will dishonor the king by bowing to his servant while rendering to him not the least of the honor due him. Likewise, do not look at the beauty of a book’s printed type, but look at the spirit of the book: otherwise we will debase the spirit and exalt the body; for the letters are the body, and the content of the book is the spirit. Do not be beguiled by the melodious sounds of an instrument or a voice, but learn, from their impression upon the soul, or from their words, what spirit they carry: if the sounds breathe into your soul feelings that are quiet, chaste, holy, listen to them and nourish your soul with them; but if instead the passions pour into your soul through them, stop listening, and cast off both the body and the spirit of the music.

Man, as you yourselves see, does not die in his word; he is immortal in it, and speaks even after death. I shall die, but even after death I shall speak. How much of this immortal word there is among men, left behind by people long, long dead, and yet living still, sometimes on the lips of a whole nation! How enduring the word is, even a merely human word! How much more, then, the Word of God: it will outlive every age and will be always living and active.

Brothers! What is the purpose of our life on earth? It is this: that, after being tested by earthly sorrows and misfortunes, and after gradual advancement in virtue with the aid of the gracious gifts imparted in the Mysteries, we might, after death, rest in God—the repose of our spirit. This is why we sing over the dead: Give rest, O Lord, to the soul of Your servant. We wish the departed rest, as the goal of every desire, and we pray to God for it. Is it not, then, unreasonable to grieve overmuch over the dead? Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, says the Lord. Behold, our departed, having fallen asleep in a Christian end, come at this voice of the Lord and find their rest. What, then, is there to grieve over?

How many empty and unceasing pretexts the hater of the human race presents for hating our neighbors, so that one might go on being angry at people without ceasing, might rage with malice for no reason, might live by the hellish, all-destroying will of the demon. Do not chase after his phantoms; abandon all enmity and love everyone, for love is from God.

The point of the sorrow you innocently plunge into another’s heart will enter your own heart too, by the strict law of recompense: with what measure you measure, it shall be measured to you. If you do not want sorrow, do not cause it for others either.

Pride is a demon; malice is that same demon; envy is that same demon; the abomination of fornication is that same demon; forced blasphemy is that same demon; forced doubt of the truth is a demon; despondency is a demon—the passions differ, but it is one Satan who works in all of them; the passions differ, yet together they are Satan’s own barking in different keys, and the man becomes one, a single … [gap in the source; pages 44–45 missing]

The body, as the temporary garment of the soul, is corruptible and does not constitute man’s direct life; true life is the life of the spirit. Tear the garment off a man, destroy it—he himself remains alive: so too, after death, after the killing and decay of the body, the soul remains alive. Let us, then, take the greatest care for our soul, for its salvation!

Repentance is aided by awareness, memory, imagination, feeling, will. As we sin with all the powers of the soul, so repentance too must engage the whole soul. Repentance in words alone, without any intention to amend and without a feeling of contrition, is called hypocritical. Awareness of sins grows dim; it must be awakened; the will grows dull, loses its strength for amendment; it must be compelled: the Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force (Mt 11:12). Confession must be heartfelt, deep, full.

Ah, my brothers! Shall we not all soon vanish from the face of the earth, and be as though we had never been? Where, then, are the deeds of love? Where is the keeping of the Creator’s commandments? Where is the spirit of Christ in us? Where is freedom from malice, where is humility, where is love for souls, where is dispassion toward the temporal? Where is zeal for spiritual blessings? Vain, most foolish people that we are! We have distorted the image of our own souls, distorted our own life, turned it inside out, set it upside down. Instead of serving Christ, we please the devil.

There is, Christian brothers, a true, real life, and there is an illusory, false life. To live in order to drink, eat, dress, walk about, grow rich—in general, to live for earthly pleasures or cares, as well as to weave intrigues, plot schemes, judge and pass sentence on others—this is illusory life; to live in order to please God and one’s neighbors, to pray for the salvation of their souls and to help their salvation by every means—this is to live truly. The first life is unceasing spiritual death; the second is unceasing life of the spirit.

Whoever rejects fasting forgets from what the first people’s fall into sin arose (from intemperance), and what weapon against sin and the tempter the Savior showed us when He was tempted in the wilderness (fasting forty days and nights); such a one does not know, or does not wish to know, that man falls away from God most often precisely through intemperance, as happened with the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah and with Noah’s contemporaries—for sin arises among men from intemperance; whoever rejects fasting takes away from himself and from others the weapon against his own passion-ridden flesh and against the devil, who is strong against us especially through our own intemperance; such a one is no soldier of Christ, for he throws down his weapon and gives himself up willingly as a captive to his own pleasure-loving, sin-loving flesh; such a one, finally, is blind, and does not see the connection between the causes and the consequences of deeds.

Do not look at the sins of others, and do not be hostile toward the sinner, either inwardly or outwardly, but set your own sins before yourself and repent of them earnestly, truly counting yourself worse than all; pray with love for those who sin, knowing that we are all prone to every sin.

Youth who have studied and youth who have not finished their studies rarely go to church, in general do not tend to the work of their own spiritual upbringing, considering it as it were needless, and give themselves over to the vanity of worldly life. Attention must be paid to this. This is the fruit of pride, of spiritual immaturity. They consider attendance at the temple and at public worship the business of the common people and of women, forgetting that in the temple the angels serve together with men in fear, and count it for themselves the greatest blessedness.

The breaking-up of the ice on the seas and rivers is an image of the release of our soul from the body. The waters, freed from the ice, come face to face with the air, which begins to stir them, and with the sun, which begins to bathe in their waters. So too pure souls, once freed from the body, come face to face with Christ, are refreshed by Him, and are illumined by Him. The waters, so long as the icy covering lies upon them, are as it were in prison, in chains, and have no direct communion with the air and the light of the sun. So too our souls, so long as they live within their bodily covering, have no direct communion with God and the saints, but only, in part, through the mediation of that covering; but when the bodily covering falls away, then we shall see our Lord face to face, just as the waters, once freed from the ice, are turned directly to the sun, and enter into direct contact with the air.

Be embittered by nothing; conquer everything with love: every injury, every caprice, every family unpleasantness—know nothing but love. Always sincerely blame yourself, acknowledging yourself the cause of the unpleasantness. Say: «I am to blame, I am the sinner». Remember that your neighbor is as weak as you are, and one weakness cancels out another, and there is nothing to blame the weak and sinful for, if they acknowledge their own weakness. It is the devil, who is strong in evil, who must be blamed.

I marvel at the greatness and the life-giving power of the Divine Mysteries: an old woman, coughing up blood and utterly without strength, who had eaten nothing, began, from the moment of communing the Holy Mysteries I gave her, to recover that same day. A girl, who was on the very point of death, began, after communing the Holy Mysteries, to recover that same day, to eat, drink, and speak, though before this she had been nearly unconscious, tossing violently, eating and drinking nothing. Glory to Your life-giving and fearsome Mysteries, O Lord!

Why is it necessary both to pray at home and to go to church for divine worship? Well, why do you eat and drink, and go out into the fresh air every day, or work every day? In order to sustain and stir up the life of the soul, sick with sins, to cleanse it, just as with food and drink you also take other things to cleanse yourself of harmful phlegm or impurities. If, then, you do not pray, you are acting most unreasonably and thoughtlessly, sustaining, indulging, and strengthening the body in every way, while leaving the soul in neglect. For every man, after all, is twofold, consisting of soul and body.

Do you pay sufficient attention to the state of your own soul: is it healthy, and, insofar as it is alive, is its life secure—and if your present, temporal life is prosperous, is your eternal life, your eternal well-being, secured by anything—by faith, for instance: is there in you a living faith in God, in the Savior, in the Church—by good deeds, by meekness, humility, freedom from malice, love of truth and honesty, self-restraint, chastity, mercy, patience, submission, diligence, and the rest? If not, then all your labor is vain: the soul may do many things worthy of admiration, but will itself perish. What good is it to a man if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his own soul? (Mt 16:26)

A remarkable thing: no matter how much we fuss over our health, however much we take care of ourselves, whatever the healthiest and most pleasant foods we eat, whatever healthy drinks we drink, however much we take the air, it all, in the end, comes out the same—we still fall subject to sicknesses and to decay. But the saints, who despised the flesh, who mortified it by ceaseless self-restraint and fasting, by lying on the bare earth, by vigil, by labors, by unceasing prayer, made both their soul and their flesh immortal; our bodies, richly fed and pampered, give off a stench after death, and sometimes even in life, while their bodies are fragrant and flourish, both in life and after death. A remarkable thing: we, by building up our body, destroy it, while they, by tearing it down, built it up; we, drenching it in perfumes, do not escape its stench, while they, taking no care for the fragrance of the body, but only that the soul be a fragrance for God, were themselves fragrant in their bodies. My brothers! Understand the task, the purpose of your life. We must mortify the passion-ridden body, or the passions of the flesh, through self-restraint, labor, and prayer, and not give it and its passions new life through delicacies, overindulgence, and idleness.

You, who so strenuously avoid the sufferings of the body and the sorrows of the soul in this life, who so cherish your flesh and pamper your soul—why do you not concern yourselves with avoiding the eternal fire, a thousand times fiercer than earthly, elemental fire? Why do you not strive to avoid eternal sorrows? Poor souls, turn back. Truly, it will be unbearable.

The present life is no jest and no plaything, and yet people have turned it into a jest and a plaything: they play frivolously with the time given them to prepare for eternity, they play with idle words. They gather for visits, sit and gossip idly, and then sit down to play at this or that; they gather at the theater, and there both those acting and those watching them act merely amuse themselves; some amuse themselves with their own mental gifts, with human weaknesses or virtues, with the ability to speak and write well; they amuse themselves even with food and drink, taking them to excess instead of using them only for necessary nourishment; they amuse themselves with their clothes, they amuse themselves with their own faces; they amuse themselves with their children instead of raising them in faith, piety, and the fear of God. Their whole life is an amusement. But woe to those who amuse themselves!

Remember, man, that you are a moral and physical nothing: a moral nothing, because you are wholly sin, passion, weakness; and a physical nothing, because your body is earthly dust—so that, in order to show your humility before God vividly and tangibly by this, as the ancients used vividly to portray it, and as some still do today, by strewing ashes on their heads, by taking off their bright garments, which nourish vanity and pride in the immortal human spirit. Thus, O man, the very smallest good in you is from God, like the very smallest breath of air within you, or that you breathe in from the air around you.

When your spirit grows despondent in illness and begins with horror to picture death, then calm and comfort your troubled, trembling, and sorrowful heart with the following saying: You, O Lord, in the depths of Your wisdom, order all things in love for mankind and grant to all what is profitable—and believe that He will without fail order everything for our good, whether life, illness, misfortune, sorrow, or death, so that you could not wish yourself anything better. Do not say: it is still too early for me to die, I would still like to live on for the glory of God, for the benefit of my relatives and my neighbors; I would still like to look upon the world, to enjoy earthly goods. Be thankful to God even for this, that until now you have enjoyed His good things, His mercies, His generosity. Now submit to His will, to His summons, but, at the same time, do not despair either about the continuation of this present life.

Physicians with a large practice, who take much money from the sick, ought, for their soul’s sake, to give generous alms, if they believe they have an immortal soul; wealthy priests, who receive generous compensation for their labors of prayer, ought likewise to give rich alms, lest they be condemned along with Judas the betrayer, who sold the Lord of Glory for pieces of silver; merchants, who receive great profits, ought without fail to exercise themselves in almsgiving and in the adornment and provisioning of the churches of God; officials, who receive a large salary, ought likewise not to consider the generous compensation for their modest labors their own exclusive possession, and ought likewise to remember their poor brethren, that they may receive a reward from the Lord and cleanse their souls. All must lay up a store of the oil of almsgiving and good deeds, lest they appear empty-handed before the Judge on the day of the dread trial, lest they appear naked on that one universal field.

The inward man, freed from beneath the vanity of the world, from beneath the darkness of his own flesh, unbound by the tempter’s snares, looks out more freely in the morning, upon waking, like a fish that sometimes leaps to the surface of the water. The whole of the rest of the time he is covered by an almost impenetrable darkness; a sickly bandage lies over his eyes, hiding from him the true order of things spiritual and sensory. Seize, then, the morning hours: these are the hours, as it were, of a new life, renewed by temporary sleep. They point us, in part, toward that state in which we shall arise renewed on the common morning of the never-ending day of the resurrection, or when we are released from this mortal body.

Time, too, flows on without stopping, and my body, even while I live, keeps continually changing and passing away, and the whole world, too, as is plain from its motion, likewise passes away, and seems to hasten toward its appointed end, like a wound-up machine. Where, then, is the constant, the abiding? The abiding is that which moves all this and directs it to its ends: abiding is the first Cause of everything composite and created, which is itself not composite and therefore does not pass away, but is eternal; abiding too are the spirits of Angels and of men, created after the pattern of that first Cause. Everything else is a soap bubble. I do not, by these words, belittle creation, but speak of it thus only in comparison with the Creator and with the blessed spirits.

Malice, or some other passion, once it settles in the heart, strives—by the unfailing law of evil—to pour itself out. That is why people commonly say of a malicious or angry man that he vented his malice on such and such a one, or vented his anger on such and such a one. This is precisely the trouble with evil: it does not remain only in the heart, but strains to spread outward. From this alone it is plain that the author of evil is himself great, and has a vast domain in which he reigns. The whole world lies in evil. Just as vapors or gases, gathered in great quantity in a closed space, strain to burst outward, so the passions, as the very breath of the spirit of malice, having filled a man’s heart, likewise strain to spread out from one man onto others and to infect the souls of others with their own foul odor.

Keep close watch over every manifestation of pride; it shows itself imperceptibly, especially in vexation and irritability toward others over the most trivial causes.

The passions, like cruel drivers, goad you on, compelling you daily, through our own attachment to earthly things, to do what is contrary to the Lord and to our own true good, and pleasing to the flattering Satan.

Let simplicity accompany you everywhere, and be simple above all in faith, hope, and love, for God is a simple Being, a Unity ever to be worshipped, and our soul too is simple. The simplicity of our soul is hindered by the flesh, when we indulge it—when, for instance, we eat and drink sweetly, and generally pleasantly and much, smoke, make merry, in general do whatever pleases it, for then it gains the upper hand over the spirit…

Do not confuse man—this image of God—with the evil that is in him, for evil is only his accidental misfortune, an illness, a demonic fantasy, while his essence—the image of God—nonetheless remains in him.

Whatever passions the enemies war against you with, endure without despondency, without bitterness, with meekness and humility, and do not allow into your heart any stirring of impatience, malice, grumbling, or blasphemy.

When we hear bad reports of some person, then, inwardly comparing him with ourselves, we say in our heart: I am not like that, I am, compared to him, a paragon—and, imagining this of ourselves and inwardly condemning others, we take pleasure in our own superiority over others. This is satanic pride, this is the foul stench of the fleshly, sinful man. Let such thoughts flee far from the soul! Let us think ourselves worse than all people! When someone is spoken ill of, let us sigh and say within ourselves: we are worse, more sinful than this person a hundredfold, and let us pray from the soul for the condemned brother.

Watch yourself—watch your own passions, especially in domestic life, where they peer out freely, like moles in a safe place; outside the home our passions are usually covered over by other, more presentable passions, but there is no way to drive out those black moles that undermine the wholeness of our soul.

Begin to keep the commandments that concern small things, and you will keep the commandments that concern great things: the small thing everywhere leads to the great. Begin to keep even the commandment of fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, or the tenth commandment, concerning evil thoughts and desires, and you will keep all the commandments; for he who is unfaithful in a very little is unfaithful also in much.

By the year 1903 the venerable pastor had reached the age of 73. — Editor’s note.

Borrowed from the newspaper The Gazette of the St. Petersburg City Governorate for 1897 and 1898. The newspaper is published under the editorship of M. G. Krivoshlyk.»