Chapter 3
Purity of Heart and Purification From Spiritual Numbness
3.2.1 The mercy of God be with you!
3.3.1 I’m taking up the task of answering your letter full of content... I’m very glad that you’re already practicing what was prescribed for you. May God grant you not to fall away and not to turn back. You’ve taken up the yoke—pull it, encouraged by sure hope. The Kingdom lies ahead; purity of heart is the door to the Kingdom; all the prescribed labors and deeds are means to the purification of the heart. So it turns out that our immediate goal is the purification of the heart, and after it—the Kingdom of God: for nothing unclean will enter there. You must always keep this in mind, so as not to ruin your labors by mixing anything unclean into them. For example—to fast and be angry, to pray and be high-minded; to do good in order to display your humanity, and the like.
3.4.1 You undertake labor—‘not always by inclination, but more by constraint’. Such is the law: to resist yourself in what is evil and compel yourself toward what is good. This is what the Lord’s words mean: The Kingdom of God suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. And so following the Lord is a yoke. If everything were done by inclination, what kind of yoke would it be? But in the end, it comes to pass that everything is done willingly and easily.
3.5.1 “A dull numbness comes over you,” he said, “and you become like a machine—no thoughts, no feelings.”
3.6.1 Such states do occur. Sometimes they come as a punishment for an inclination to evil in thought and sympathy; sometimes as a form of training—chiefly as a lesson in humility, so that a person learns to expect nothing from his own strength, but everything from God alone. A few such experiences undermine your confidence in yourself, and deliverance from the burden shows you where help comes from and on whom you must rely in all things. This state is hard to bear, but you must endure it with the understanding that you deserve nothing better, that you’ve earned it. There’s no remedy for it; it passes only by the will of God. But we must stand and cry out to the Lord: Your will be done! Have mercy! Lighten my burden! But we must not give in to any indulgences whatsoever, for that is ruinous and destructive. You do well to grieve over this and to strain every effort to free yourself from it. But your supposition that eternal torment will be like this is mistaken. Both eternal blessedness and eternal torment are beyond imagination and cannot be compared to anything that happens in this life. Both of these things are immeasurably higher there than anything here. Among the holy Fathers, such states are called spiritual coldness and dryness; and everyone considers them inevitable in a life lived for God: for without them we quickly become proud.
3.7.1 The example of meditation on God that you have presented is genuine work. So go through all the truths of our holy faith and establish them more firmly in your mind and heart. But this is only an initial preparatory exercise. The proper use of meditation on God in life is the representation of some truth of the faith with corresponding feelings and intentions, without the movement of reasoning, as something already completed once and for all. – Among the holy Fathers it is called contemplation, which is the intellect’s vision of truth with feelings. Take the trouble to review all the truths, just as you reviewed one... And then contemplate each reviewed truth more often, so that it won’t be forgotten. When you have reviewed all the truths, then all that will remain for you is to contemplate them. The use of contemplation is as follows: in the morning, immediately upon the full restoration of consciousness after sleep, make a general survey of them, beginning with the pre-eternal existence of the Triune God and ending with the dread judgement and the eternal lot of all, neither hastily nor at length, but with attention. This can be done according to the Creed. The whole sum of these truths is the order of the mental, spiritual, divine world. By reviewing them, consciousness is set in order with them and enters the spiritual world. This corresponds to how, when we wake up, we enter the order of the external world around us and consciously hold ourselves in it: the sun and sky above us, the elements and all creatures of the earth around us, as well as family, neighbors, and the state with all that happens in them. The latter happens of itself, involuntarily, but the former requires labor—though it is not overly difficult. These two worlds—the one contemplated in thought and the one seen without—knowing both, seek guidance in the mental world for how you should conduct yourself in the visible one.[1] This is the general rule of contemplation! In your private practice: after you’ve completed your mental review in the morning, you should dwell on whichever subject has moved your heart most deeply, and use it to enliven your spirit of prayer. When that isn’t possible, then let the enlivening of your spirit of prayer be a reverent feeling toward the whole order of the spiritual divine world. Make the effort not to leave a single morning without refreshing your interior life through such contemplation of God, just as you have the habit of refreshing your rooms by letting in fresh morning air; and then throughout the whole day live in the awareness that, beyond what is visible, you are overshadowed and surrounded by what is invisible—and not without its influence.
3.8.1 Your prayer practices are good. May God grant you to keep them with patience and fruitfulness. And I think it’s quite good that the children are there too. And I don’t think it burdens them; on the contrary, I’m quite confident that children enjoy taking part in the common prayer. It occurs to me to suggest that it would be good to hold a common prayer in the evening as well, setting for this an Hour that comes before anyone in the household goes to bed.[2] But do as seems most convenient to you.
3.9.1 We have many ready-made prayers. They were not composed, but poured forth from the heart of the saints under the action of some contemplation or event and circumstance in life. The one who reads them with attention enters into the same feelings that breathe in them, and thereby awakens and builds up in himself a spirit of prayer. To accomplish this more easily, it is good to think through the prayers you choose beforehand, taking in the feelings hidden within them. Better still is to memorize prayers, so that you have no need of a prayer book, but always carry it in your soul ready to open, whenever the need arises.
3.10.1 But as you grow accustomed to praying by ready-made prayers, you should begin gradually to pray also in your own words, according to your own needs—whether spiritual or external. Spiritual needs, as soon as they awaken, at once turn the heart toward God. The impulse to turn to God sometimes arises without any particular need, but simply from a thirst for God. Whatever form this impulse takes, you must never leave it unsatisfied. Instead, turn at once to prayer and pray in whatever circumstances the impulse finds you: if you’re at work, pray while working; if you’re reading, pray in the midst of it; if you’re walking, pray as you walk. Of course, it’s better and more fruitful to go to a place of prayer and assume a prayerful posture, if you can. The more earnestly you carry out these turns to God, the more frequently they will appear, the longer they will last, and the deeper they will take root. Don’t forget this point. This practice is the very best means for advancing in prayer. Prayer is the chief thing in our work. Don’t spare the labor for this above all else. If during your prayer rule this impulse arises, stop your reading and pray according to this impulse, with words of your own or in wordless prayer.[3] God will see how earnestly you desire and seek prayer, and will grant you prayer that will not be interrupted. May the Lord bless you in this work!
3.11.1 Concerning reading. Reading for knowledge is one thing, but reading for edification is another. In the first case you read a lot, but in the second you shouldn’t read much; rather, as soon as something from what you’re reading falls upon your heart, stop and think, trying both to clarify it and—more importantly—to deepen this thought in your heart. This is the same as turning it into a subject for meditation on God. That way you’ll nourish and grow your soul, rather than stuffing it like a sack.—You don’t have books... I’ll send you some. I have several to give away. Are you reading Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk?[4] Good? No book can compare with his books.
3.12.1 ‘Zeal comes and goes’... This happens to everyone. When it runs low, guard your intention and resolve—to serve the Lord, remaining in godly disciplines without compromise, without slothfulness, without self-indulgence toward the flesh. And it will pass. Meditation on God powerfully restores zeal—especially the remembrance of death and judgement... death is right at hand. As soon as this thought falls completely upon the heart, the heart cannot help but stir.
3.13.1 About food... Make it a rule to leave the table a little hungry. The evil servant – the flesh – will feel that there is a commanding hand over it... And it’s excellent that wine-drinking has been cut off. This is the very best means for the body to be always alert, sober, and fresh. This is a great work!
3.14.1 You think that to undo the evil caused by forty-seven years of dissipation, you must labor just as long in good habits of life... No, that’s not the case at all. Everything that is soiled is cleansed by turning away from it and by relentless opposition to it, with faith, hope, and love toward the Lord. These dispositions can become so powerful that in a single moment they cleanse everything. This is what happened with the thief on the cross. Today you will be with me in paradise, the Lord promised him. And nothing unclean will enter paradise. For others, however, this purification takes a long time—chiefly because of self-indulgence and yielding to their own desires.
3.15.1 It is a great mercy of God for you that you are content with your wife and children. May they remain so forever, unchanging. As for everything else you desire in your family life, commit it to the will of God, praying earnestly, but showing yourself ready to accept all that God is pleased to send—even if it should be difficult.
3.16.1 I can say nothing about what you are seeking. Look to yourself what you are suited for.[5] But don’t look to feeling. The main thing is duty. External duty is faithful service. But any service can be transformed into a means of pleasing God, or the external can be fulfilled in connection with the internal, sanctifying the former by the latter. May the Lord grant your Lev to pass his examination well... May the Lord bless all of you.
3.17.1 Your well-wisher, Bishop Theophan.
3.18.1 .