Library › St John of Kronstadt › My Life in Christ

My Life in Christ

St John of Kronstadt, tr. Goulaeff, 1897

Part 1, 5. pp. 81–100

The conscience of every man is a ray of light from the one all-enlightening spiritual Sun — God. Through the conscience God rules over all, as a righteous and Almighty King. And how mighty is His empire through the conscience! Nobody is strong enough to completely silence its voice! It speaks impartially to all and to each, as the voice of God Himself! Through the conscience we are all as one man before God. This is why it seems as if the Ten Commandments referred to one man: — “I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no other gods....; thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image; thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.... Remember the Sabbath Day.... Honour thy father and thy mother; thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shall not steal; thou shalt not bear false witness; thou shalt not covet;”¹ or, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart”.... and “thy neighbour as thyself,”² because “he” is exactly the same as “I.”

“Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”³ This is a great commandment! It is absolutely necessary to fulfil it. “To keep the unity of the Spirit.” This the Son of God ever desired, and still desires. For this He prayed, and still prays, to His Father. “Holy Father! keep through Thine own name,” prayed the Lord for His disciples, “those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one as We are.... Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word: that they all may be one; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me.”⁴ You see, therefore, that our unity through the Spirit, through life, loudly proves also the Divinity of the Founder of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ. He, who wishes to unite all, to make all as one soul, and does so, came forth from the One God, Who created all things, Who has united all things under Him, and Who wishes to raise even those who have separated themselves from union by disobedience, to union with Him through faith and obedience. The teachers who have not come from God, who were not called of Him, not sent by Him (“I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran”⁵; “No man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron”⁶), usually bring into the company of men disunion, diversity of opinion, and thus clearly prove that they are not of God. Such was Luther, such are other teachers of dissent, such are all heretics. They have divided the one Church of God, have cut into parts the indivisible, the united plurality, united under the one Head of the Church — Christ, animated by the one Spirit of God, and have thus proved that they were instruments of the Devil, who strives in every way to divide, scatter, and disperse the Lord’s sheep. “The wolf catcheth them and scattereth the sheep.”⁷ Glory to the Christian Orthodox faith! Its true fruit ever was, and is, the unity of the faithful between themselves through love and the community of spiritual and material blessings. The farther Christians remove themselves from the spirit of their faith, the more they become divided by self-love; the more they are absorbed in themselves, the lesser community they have in spiritual and material blessings —especially of material ones with those in want — love becomes exhausted in them, and mankind more distressed. True Christianity brings felicity even upon earth, for it looks upon Christians as one great body, whose members are honourable and dishonourable, not by birth, but by their calling and deeds, strong and weak, rich and poor, and the Spirit of God intercedes in the souls of the rich or strong on behalf of the poor and needy — through the community of spiritual and material blessings. “The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul.”⁸ (It is to the honour of Russia that, in the time of the famine, she rendered unanimous succour to those suffering from the bad harvest.)

Dislike, enmity, or hatred should be unknown amongst Christians even by name. How can dislike exist amongst Christians? Everywhere you see love, everywhere you breathe the fragrance of love. Our God is the God of love. His kingdom is the kingdom of love. From love to us He did not spare His only-begotten Son, but delivered Him up to die for our sakes, “to be the propitiation for our sins.”⁹ In your home you see love in those around, for they are sealed in baptism and chrism with the cross of love, and wear the cross; they also partake with you in church of the “supper of love.”¹⁰ In church there are everywhere symbols of love: crosses, the sign of the cross, the saints who were pleasing to God by their love to Him and to their neighbour, and Incarnate Love Itself. In heaven and upon earth everywhere there is love. It rests and rejoices the heart, like God, whilst enmity kills the soul and the body. And you must show love, always and everywhere. How can you not love when everywhere you hear love preached, when only the destroyer of mankind, the devil, is eternal enmity!

“He that spared not His own Son... how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things.”¹¹ The essential, the greatest is given; everything else that we ask or pray for is infinitely less than the Son of God. We may therefore ask God for everything trustfully in the name of Jesus Christ, every blessing or gift that we can think of, for “Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”¹² Do you pray for the forgiveness of the sins or for the repose of the souls of the departed? “He is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world.”¹³ “The Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”¹⁴ He can forgive even the departed every sin committed by them in word, deed, or thought. “He is the resurrection, the life and the repose of His departed servants”... Would you ask anything of Him for the living and for yourself? “Ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”¹⁵

As the number of stars in heaven is known to the Lord, so the number of the angels of heaven and the number of their thoughts are known to Him; as the number of the grains of the sand of the sea, and of the creatures of the whole earth, with their organs and component parts, both great and infinitely small, are known to Him; as the number of atoms of all elements, small unto infinite infinity, is known to Him, so the number of the whole human race, which was, which is, and which shall be, is known to Him, as well as the number of all the thoughts of those who were, who are, and who will be, and the number of movements of their hearts, of their words and deeds. As in material nature nothing is concealed from Him, not the smallest atom is lost — for how can that which was created by God be destroyed without Him, without His will —so likewise in spiritual nature, not a single thought, not a single idea, not a single movement of the heart, desire or deed are lost for Him — all are counted up in their treasuries in their right number and measure; that is, in the quantity, degree, and power that they really were, excepting the evil thoughts, desires, words, and acts confessed or expiated by amendment of life. The number of all the atoms of the earth and of the atoms of earthly creatures, as well as the number of thoughts and movements of the human spirit, are in this respect completely parallel. Indeed, if that which is created, subordinate, and dead is not destroyed of itself, then how can that be destroyed which has itself received from God the capability of creating, and which is dominating, living? I mean thought, clothing itself in words, and the very author of thought, the soul. And thus, as this is impossible, prepare yourselves, mortals, to answer at the judgment for all your thoughts, desires, words, for all your deeds, good and evil, which await you there, and which were sent there beforehand by you from earth — the good and the evil, unconfessed or not expiated by opposite thoughts, desires and deeds. For all these God will bring you to judgment. Most Merciful Lord! “Enter not into judgment with Thy servants.”¹⁶ “If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?”¹⁷

As the greatest luminary is reflected in infinitely small earthly bodies, in their innumerable multitudes, and man’s image is reflected in the small pupils of the eyes, so the spiritual Sun, Christ, is represented in small beings, in men, in their infinite multitudes, also in the smallest particles of His Body and Blood, because the First — Life Eternal — is most simple and individual. As the sun, being reflected in a multitude of great and small bodies, lights the whole world, covering it all; so it is with the Lord.

The one same wind, but in an innumerable multitude of places, creates diverse powers: so the one same Spirit of God, but in innumerable assemblies of angels, manifests His power and strength, and in all holy men “bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof.”¹⁸

“The Lord keeps” not only “all the bones,”¹⁹ but also the images of the saints, not allowing them to perish through corruption, through carelessness and neglect, but miraculously recovering them, as we know from descriptions of the appearances of thaumaturgical icons, especially of that of the most pure Mother of God — our Lady. So dear to God is the image of man, especially that of a holy man, as a vessel of grace. Through such images He works miracles and bestows invisible powers of healing and consolation.

“God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.”²⁰ Through our spiritual vision we see and know the smallest movements of the heart, all our thoughts, desires and intentions in general, almost everything that is in our soul. But God is greater than our heart. He is within us and around us and everywhere, in every place, as the Single, All-seeing, Spiritual Eye, of which our own spiritual vision is but a small specimen, and, therefore, He knows all that is in us a thousand times better and more clearly than we ourselves; at the same time he knows everything that is in every man, in every angel, and in all the heavenly powers, in every animate and inanimate creature; sees as upon the palm of His hand all that is within us and every creature, being inherent in each one of them, and maintaining each one of them in its existence and functions, as the All-Provident Creator.

As in Jesus Christ “dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily,”²¹ so likewise in the life-giving Sacrament of His Body and Blood. In the small human body dwelleth all the fulness of the infinite, uncontainable Godhead, and in the small lamb, or bread, in each smallest particle, dwelleth all divine fulness. Glory to Thy Omnipotence and Goodness, O Lord!

As the sun, though it is itself always in the heavens, but by its rays, as if by innumerable hands, reaches the earth and its entire surface, and communicates itself to all organic bodies, entering into them (the sun enters into bodies by its rays), warming them, giving them life and growth through its warmth, passing through transparent ones, or reflecting in them by its whole circle (there are as many images of the sun as there are transparent bodies), and warming the opaque, solid, and inorganic bodies — so the spiritual Sun, God, although Himself pre-eminently in the heavens, but by His Life-giving Spirit, as though by His rays, communicates Himself to all reasonable creatures, angels and men, penetrating into their spiritual being, sanctifying them, giving them life, strength, and growth, in the same manner as the rays of the sun penetrate into organic and vegetable bodies, giving them life and growth. As the sun, though it is itself in the heavens, lights the whole earth, communicating life to every creature and thing, however insignificant, so likewise the Lord, by the Light of the Trinity, enlightens all men, for He is the true Light, “which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”²²

All you who draw near to serve God in prayer, learn to be like Him, meek, humble, and true of heart; do not let there be any deceitfulness or duplicity nor coldness in your soul. Strive to have His Spirit, for “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.”²³ The Lord seeks in us that which is like and akin to Himself, on to which His grace may be grafted. Remember that not a single word is lost during prayer, if you say it from your heart; God hears each word, and weighs it in a balance. Sometimes it seems to us that our words only strike the air in vain, and sound as the voice of one crying in the wilderness. No, no; it is not so! We must remember that God understands us when we pray, that is, our words, just as those who pray perfectly understand the words themselves, for man is God’s image. The Lord responds to every desire of the heart, expressed in words or unexpressed.

In communicating with undoubting faith of the Life-giving Sacrament, I am instructed in a sensible manner of the Omnipresence of Christ. In what manner? Because in every particle of the Body and in each drop of the Blood I receive Christ wholly, and thus, through my spiritual vision, I see that He is at the same time wholly in all the particles and drops, whatever their number may be unto infinity. Exactly in the same manner, the Lord is wholly in every temple; and as orthodox temples are to be found upon the whole earth, so the Lord is present upon the whole earth, not only through His Godhead, but both in His Body and Soul; everywhere, wholly and indivisibly, communicating Himself to believers, and bringing forth sweet fruits in them: the purifying of sins, the sanctification of Christian souls and bodies, righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, uniting all to Himself, to the Father and the Holy Ghost. We also know that through fervent prayer He enters into the souls of believers with the Father and the Holy Ghost. Being inherent in the whole material world, and vivifying the whole of it together, and each part of it separately, the Lord is still more inherent in men, and especially in Christians, and lives in them: “Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?”²⁴ “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you?”²⁵

The human race is one great tree of God, spreading and growing over the whole earth, and covering the whole earth with its branches. To the original rotten root — fallen Adam — God in His great wisdom and mercy has grafted a new living root — the Lord Jesus Christ — from whom Christians derive their origin, as a shoot from the whole tree. In trees there is organic earthly life; in the Christian race the life of Christ, heavenly, spiritual; and we must look upon the spiritual capabilities and powers of true Christians as upon the powers of Jesus Christ Himself. “We have the mind of Christ,”²⁶ said the Apostle of true Christians; we must also look upon good works as upon the fruits of the grace of Christ. Christians leading an un-Christianlike life are the dry branches on the shoots coming from the root — Christ; and “every branch in me that beareth not fruit He taketh away... and cast them into the fire.”²⁷ Heathens are the unregenerate, inanimate shoot coming from the rotten root —Adam. By faith they also may be grafted on to the living, healthy shoot, to the body of the Church — that is, to the Body of Christ.

Whose are the leaves of the tree? They are God’s. Whose are the good thoughts in you? They are God’s. Whose is the capacity in the trees to grow and form their tissues, and to produce and develop leaves and fruit? It is God’s— that is, given by God. Whose is your capacity of thought and word? It is God’s. Do the trees wrongfully use the powers given to them by God? No. Do men wrongfully use the capacities and powers bestowed upon them by God? They do. They misuse them through their intellect, received from God for the purpose of knowing God and His truths; they misuse them through their heart, created for the purpose of loving God and their neighbours, of experiencing the blessedness of communion with God; and they misuse them through free will, given to them for the purpose of endless improvement in virtue.

God works in our body, in its natural function, supporting it, feeding it, and rearing it. He also acts in the grass, or in the trees, or in the animals, clothing the grass,²⁸ rearing the tree and adorning it with leaves and fruit, feeding the animals and rearing their bodies. Of ourselves, we cannot do or create anything in our body, not one jot, as it is said, “Thou canst not make one hair white or black.”²⁹ God is equally in the infinitely great and in the infinitely small, not being limited either by the one or the other, but is wholly present in everything, being indivisible and above all.

Could the leaves exist without the tree, and could the tree itself exist without earth, air, water, and warmth? Likewise no soul can exist without God, without His Son, without His Spirit. God is my being, my breath, my light, my strength, my drink, my food. He carries me as a mother carries her infant in her arms. More than this. Carrying me, my soul and body, He dwells in me, and is united to me.

When praying to God, remember that God is Three Persons; and as He is a Person and Persons, He possesses in infinity all those perfections which we can imagine in any most perfect man, by the grace of God — as, for instance, in the most pure Virgin Mary, in Saint Nicholas the Wonder-Worker, in Saint John Chrysostom, in the apostles, prophets. Filled with the Spirit of God, man is God’s image and the likeness of God. From a perfect image, we can partly judge what the Prototype is like. All that is best, that attracts our spiritual gaze and the inclinations of our heart in man, is from God, from His Son, and from His Spirit. For instance, Saint Nicholas was, and still is, compassionate and merciful to men, by the grace of God. He always was, and still is, ready to hear those who call upon him sincerely, through the same merciful heart which he had during his lifetime, and which he still possesses, by the grace of God. Now, is not the Lord Himself compassionate and merciful, and much more compassionate and merciful? Infinitely more, as He Himself is infinitely greater than Saint Nicholas. Or let us take the Apostle Paul. What bowels of compassion there were in the apostle! Writing of the servant of Philemon, he said to his master: “Therefore receive him: that is, mine own bowels.”³⁰ How much love is contained in these words! And what love all his epistles breathe! “Our heart is enlarged,” wrote he to the Corinthians. “Ye are not straitened in us.”³¹ He has also described in one of his epistles in what Divine love consists. In reading this description, one feels that the apostle himself had indeed fulfilled all that he wrote concerning love. But whence came this love in the apostle who had previously persecuted and grieved Christ, and who, entering the houses of His disciples, dragged out men and women, bound them, and shut up many mercilessly in prison?³² From the Lord, the Source of love. He alone is eternal, boundless Love, embracing all creatures.

As the Holy Trinity, our God is One Being, although Three Persons, so, likewise, we ourselves must be one. As our God is indivisible, we also must be indivisible, as though we were one man, one mind, one will, one heart, one goodness, without the smallest admixture of malice — in a word, one pure love, as God is Love. “That they may be one, even as We are One.”³³

All men, as well as the angels of God, are the breath of God. This is why the angels are called spirits — or, which is the same, the breath of God — whilst the spirits of men are called souls, because they proceeded from the Divine breath, and breathe through God. In the first Antiphon it is said: “Every soul is quickened by the Holy Ghost, and by His purity is elevated.” But all other creatures are also called breath — “Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord”³⁴ —because they also proceed from the Spirit of God, although they are not endued with reason and freedom. Therefore we must care for every creature, and neither beat nor overwork it. Blessed is the man who is merciful to his beast.

God is a Spirit, an incomplex Being. And in what manner does the Spirit manifest itself? By thought, word, and deed. Therefore God, as an incomplex Being, is not composed of a series or of a multitude of thoughts, or of a multitude of words or creations, but He is wholly, in one incomplex thought, God — the Trinity, or, in one incomplex word — the Trinity, or in three Persons, united together in one. But He is also wholly in everything that exists, penetrating and filling everything with Himself. For instance, when you say a prayer, He is in every word of it, and like a Holy Fire, penetrates each word — everyone may experience this for himself if he will pray sincerely, fervently, with faith and love. But, especially, He is wholly in the names belonging to Him: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, or the Holy Trinity, or the Lord, the Lord God, the Lord God of Sabbaoth, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Holy Spirit, the Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth... and in His other names. The Angels and the Saints are also near to us in their names, as their names and our faith in them are near to our hearts; for they are nothing else but the breath of God, and are “one spirit with the Lord.”³⁵

Do the saints, whom we call upon, pray for us? They certainly pray for us. If I, a sinful man, a cold-hearted, sometimes wicked and malevolently disposed man, praying for others who have instructed or have not instructed me to pray for them and do not doubt, do not weary of saying their names during prayer, although sometimes not heartily, then will not God’s saints — those lamps and torches, burning in God and before God, full of love to their earthly brethren — pray for me and for us when we call upon them with faith, hope, and love, according to our strength? They, our speedy helpers, pray also for our souls, as our Divinely-enlightened mother, the Holy Church, assures us. Pray, therefore, undoubtingly to God’s saints, asking their intercession before God on your behalf. They hear you in the Holy Ghost; only pray in the Holy Ghost, from your soul for when you thus sincerely pray, then the Holy Ghost breathes in you, Who is the Spirit of truth and sincerity, and is our truth and sincerity. The one same Holy Ghost is in us and in the saints. The saints are holy through the Holy Ghost, Who sanctifies them and eternally dwells in them.

Lord! Thou, Whose love to us infinitely surpasses the love of every father, of every mother, of the tenderest wife, have mercy upon us!

Holy Virgin, our Lady! Thou, Whose love to Christians surpasses the love of every earthly mother, of every wife, hear our prayers and save us! May we constantly remember Thee! May we always pray fervently to Thee! May we ever undoubtingly and unfailingly take refuge beneath Thy holy protection!

We pray to the all-merciful and most pure Mother of God — and She prays for us. We glorify Her — She Who is above all glory — and She prepares eternal glory for us. We often say to Her: “Rejoice,” and She asks Her Son and God: “My beloved Son, give them everlasting joy in return for greeting Me with joy.”

Believe as undoubtingly that God sees you, as you believe that your father, or anyone else standing face to face with you, sees you, only with this difference, that the Heavenly Father sees everything that is in you, entirely what you are, and all creatures, the angels, the saints, us sinners, the animals — sees everything at once in the same way as the sun lights everything at once, besides which “The eyes of the Lord are ten thousand times brighter than the sun.”³⁶ A lively sense of God’s presence is a source of peace and joy for the soul. Doubt in His presence produces distress, affliction, and oppression. Heartfelt prayer is the source of peace of heart, whilst insincere, superficial, inattentive prayer wounds the heart.

Jesus Christ, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, is an unfathomable abyss of love to men. In this abyss of mercy plenteousness of mercy for all will be found, only turn to God with faith, hope, and hearty contrition for your iniquities and your offences against the Lord, our Master and Benefactor.

God is nearer to us than any man at every time. He is nearer to me than my raiment, nearer than the air or light, nearer than my wife, father, mother, daughter, son, or friend. I live in Him, soul and body. I breathe in Him, think in Him, feel, consider, intend, speak, undertake, work in Him. “For in Him we live, and move, and have our being.”³⁷ “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”³⁸ Therefore we must always see God before us at our right hand, we must be strong, and in order not to sin we must so place ourselves that nothing could thrust God from our thoughts and hearts, that nothing could hide Him from us — no undue partiality for food, drink, money, dress, house and its furniture, nor for any person —that no worldly distractions and pastimes could deprive us of our Most-sweet, Most-beloved Lord, but that we may every hour and every minute belong to Him, and perpetually be with Him, as He Himself is perpetually with us, as He constantly cares for us and guards us. But when I sin, or when I have any undue partiality for anything, then He is far from me, not in respect to space, for He at all times fills everything, but in respect to my own spiritual withdrawal from Him, to my own indifference towards Him, in respect to His actually depriving me of His grace and His presence in my heart, for then His enemy, the Devil, dwells in me.

As in a sea, lake, or river every particle of water is united to other particles and is surrounded by them, or as in the air every particle of it is surrounded by other particles and is united to them, so all of us earth-born creatures are surrounded by God on all sides, whilst those of us who are pure, or being purified, are united to Him and are everywhere with Him. All of us earth-born creatures—like water, like air, like a tree with many branches — form one whole, though often broken, by the envy of the enemy, by selfishness, irritability, animosity, disputes, pride, heresy and dissent, envy, avarice, unsociability, and other passions. On the other side, the Devil and his angels also form amongst themselves another whole, like dark, malignant, poisonous water or fiery, suffocating, deadly air. They surround us and endeavour to break into our souls when we are off our guard, or under the domination of various passions, in order to darken, disturb, oppress, inflame, and in every way torment us. Thus, for instance, you may sometimes chance to be walking in the pure sweet-scented air, when suddenly a foul odour from a cesspool strikes your sense of smell in an unpleasant manner, and you wish to pass quickly by this place, so as to breathe the wholesome air again: the stink of the Devil is like unto this. The Lord Himself likens the dark devilish hordes to air and water. He says: “The rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house” (that is, upon the man, upon the human soul); “and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock.”³⁹

We are in the habit of saying: “Had I not looked, I should not have been tempted;” “Had I not heard, my heart would not have ached;” “Had I not tasted, I should not have desired.” You see how many temptations arise from our own sight, hearing, and taste. How many have suffered and still suffer because their hearts were not firm in their good inclinations, because they imprudently looked with impure eyes, because they heard with ears unaccustomed to discern between good and evil, because they greedily tasted! The senses of the sin-loving, greedy flesh, unrestrained by reason and by God’s commandments, have drawn them into various worldly passions, have darkened their minds and hearts, deprived them of peace of heart, and taken away their free-will, making them the slaves of these senses. Thus you see how necessary it is to look, listen, taste, smell, and feel prudently; or, rather, how necessary it is to guard your heart so that through your outward senses, as through a window, no sin may steal in, and that the author himself of sin — the Devil — may not darken and wound that heavenly fledgeling, our soul, with his poisonous and deathly arrows.

The soul receives the Lord into it in the Life-giving Sacrament by the thought of faith and by the heart’s acknowledgment that the Lord Himself is truly present in the sacrament, whilst our body receives the Lord through the mouth and belly. When the soul receives the Lord with firm faith, then the Lord fills in a single moment both the soul, as an incomplex being, and the whole of the body with all its joints — because the soul fills the entire body, and because of the all-filling property of the Godhead.

In the Christian life, temptations and tests or trials of our spiritual condition are necessary; and as our life, like the furniture of a house, becomes covered with various stains, it is necessary to cleanse it. As for testing objects made, for instance, of silver, instruments are required, so likewise for testing the state of the soul, men are required, like for like, who, willingly or unwillingly, intentionally or quite unthinkingly, show us by their conduct in relation to us, in a manner apparent both to ourselves and others, whether we are obedient to God’s commands, declared to us in the Gospel, or not — whether we live according to the spirit, mortifying in ourselves the desires of the flesh, or according to the flesh, being obedient slaves to the will of the flesh and to carnal thoughts and passions; so that we, recognising that we are not living in accordance with the will of God, not in accordance with the commandments of our Sweetest Saviour, but in accordance with our own sinful and blind will, may speedily amend and zealously follow the commandments of the Divine Gospel.

Our body lives by means of those elements of which it is itself formed, constantly absorbing into itself air, water, and other organic bodies; our soul lives by means of the Divine Spirit, from Which it has its origin, and constantly absorbs into itself, for supporting its life, the life of God the Trinity, through the light of the intellect, through good inclinations and desires of the heart and will, and constancy in goodness. As the body, when it is not nourished by the elements natural to it, cannot live, and dies, so our soul, when not nourished by prayer or good thoughts, feelings, and works, also dies. As in our bodily nature the nourishment and growth of the body are satisfactorily accomplished for a time, but if accidentally, through food or drink or breathing, any poison or contagion enters the body, then suffering is at once occasioned, and even death, should not help be given in time; so in our spiritual nature everything goes on satisfactorily for a time, but if it is corrupted by the Devil, then it suffers grievously, becoming as if benumbed, and it requires the speedy help of the heavenly Physician, the God of spirits, which can only be received through the prayer of faith. (The artifices of the Devil in the soul of a man correspond to the action of poison upon the bodily nature; with the difference that the poison of material nature seldom enters into our body, while the artifices of the Devil are always with and about us.) As, for the nourishment and support of the life of our body, the means by which it lives are ever at hand, namely, light, air, water, and food — of which air, as the most necessary element for life, constantly surrounds us, and water also is always easily to be found, as well as vegetable and animal food — so also the forces for supporting the life of our soul are always ready in abundance — its spiritual food, drink, and raiment — in God the Trinity. Being wholly in every place, like air, or like mental light, the Lord is ready at every moment of our life — according to our faith, and on account of the constantly prayerful disposition of our soul — to support our spiritual forces by His all-active grace; to be the uninterrupted light of our mind and heart; the air by which our soul breathes; the food by which it is nourished and strengthened; the life-giving warmth by which it is warmed; and the garment with which it not only covers its sinful nakedness, but with which it also adorns itself as with royal purple — that is, the garment of Christ’s justification. Man, every moment of his existence, is between two mediums — material and spiritual — from which he receives everything. The one supports his bodily, the other his spiritual nature; the one is visible nature, the other the Infinite Personal Spirit of God, Which, being wholly everywhere, is above all, and, containing everything, is Itself not limited by anything. Every man of himself is so insignificant and helpless that he receives everything necessary to support his existence, not from himself, but from without; he himself is nothing. And as his body is supported by air, food, and drink, so his soul is supported by prayer, by reading God’s Word, and by the communion of the Holy Mysteries. On the other hand, as in the kingdom of the most merciful and Almighty God there is also a place for fallen evil spirits, and as their place of abode is the very air and earth inhabited by men, and as man from the very beginning was allured by them to evil, as they were always, still are, and will be together with the human race until the end of the world, they form, so to say, a medium by which we are surrounded, and in which we live. We, who are free, and at the same time fallen beings — although we were re-established by the Son of God, and have become free through this grace, by faith, love to God, and by good works — ought, by continual prayer to God, to guard ourselves from the antagonistic forces fighting against our soul, wishing to make us their prisoners, and similar to them in spirit. We must be watchful to the utmost so as not to become like unto the sub-celestial spirits of evil by our spirit and acts, lest they should become the breathing of our soul instead of God — lest the evil constituting their nature should become our evil. We must also ever bear in mind that greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world,⁴⁰ and that the Lord keeps them too in His full power, and only permits them — as much as His goodness, mercy, and omnipotence allow — to act in the world, to teach and correct men. But there are men who have the Devil for their garment, food and drink, in the same manner as true Christians clothe themselves in Christ, and feed upon His Body and Blood. Throughout the world everything is double — one against the other; the spirit and the flesh, good and evil. Satan has his agents and helpers to spread his dominion amongst men; God has the angels, whom He gives to every Christian to guard him and guide him into Christ’s blessed kingdom.

Those who do not believe in God’s omnipresence in their thoughts and hearts depreciate the power of God, do not ascribe to Him even that property which air possesses, for air is everywhere. Is not the Creator of the air everywhere? Unbelief in God’s omnipresence — or, in general, any sin — serves itself as a strong proof that He is everywhere present. Thus at the time of unbelief my heart is straitened, experiences a kind of burning sensation; it is weary and tormented; my mind is darkened, and I am in a state of desolation. But when I believe, with lively faith, that God is everywhere, present in every place, and therefore that He is ever with me and within me, my heart expands; it is free, light, alive, and my mind is clear — I am in a joyful state. Thus the very thing which slays me serves as the most striking proof of the existence of that in which I was doubting. Unbelief torments me, because it is a calumny of my own heart or of the evil spirit against God, Who is my life. The mental denial by my free soul of life itself is naturally and rightly its death. Again, God is a thinking Being, and my soul is also a thinking being derived from the first thought; therefore my intercourse with God takes place through thought, through faith of the heart, which is nothing else but a lively and clear thought that God is in every place. When I have no such thought it signifies that I have the opposite negative one; when the principle that unites my soul to God is cut off, then there is no true life for me, and there only remains the phantom of an outward, false, animal life.

The degrees of beatitude and torment in the next world will be different. This is proved by the present state of the souls of different people or of the same man at different times under different conditions. The more simple, the better and more sociable the man is, the more blessed he inwardly is; the more deceitful, evil, and selfish he is, the more unhappy; the firmer his faith and the stronger his love are, the more blessed he is; the weaker his faith and love are, the weaker, the worse he feels. Thus those who have little or no faith, those who hate their fellow-creatures, are the most unhappy of men. By this we can understand what future torments will be.

Love every man in spite of his falling into sin. Never mind the sins, but remember that the foundation of the man is the same — the image of God. Other people’s weaknesses strike us: they are malicious, proud, envious, avaricious, covetous, greedy; but you too are not without evil — perhaps even there is more in you than in others. At least in respect to sins men are equal. It is said: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”⁴¹ All are guilty before God, and we all equally require His mercy. Therefore, besides loving each other, we must bear with each other and pardon — “forgive them that trespass against us” — in order that our heavenly Father may “forgive us our trespasses.”⁴² Thus, with all your soul honour and love in every man the image of God, not regarding his sins, for God alone is Holy and without sin; and see how He loves us, how much He has created and still creates for us, punishing us mercifully and forgiving us bounteously and graciously. Honour the man also, in spite of his sins, for he can always amend.

Some men of progress look upon the Church as their enemy. But is there anyone more full of love, more desirous of our welfare, and wiser in his love to men (after God Himself) than the Church? Everything that is most conformable to our nature and most necessary for its good, all this is contained in the Church, as in a treasury, as the words of life are contained in the Gospel. The Church is the true mother of all those who rightly believe in Christ, the truest friend of Christians. She sympathises and answers to all the essential requirements of the soul and body of the Christian by active relief, or by affording help through the power of Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost, in Whom every soul lives.

Concerning praise. The soul involuntarily longs to praise when we gaze upon the starry sky; but still more when, in looking upon the sky and the stars, we represent to ourselves God’s providence towards men, how infinitely He loves men, cares for their eternal beatitude, not having even spared His only-begotten Son for our salvation and our repose in the Heavenly Kingdom! It is impossible not to praise God when you remember that you were created from nothing, that you were predestined from the foundation of the world for eternal blessedness, quite without cause, not in accordance with your merits — when you remember what grace God has bestowed upon you for your salvation during all your life-time, what an innumerable multitude of sins are forgiven you, and this not once or twice but an incalculable number of times, what a multitude of natural gifts are bestowed upon you, beginning with health down to the current of air, down to the drop of water. We are involuntarily incited to praise when we see with wonder the infinite variety of things created on the earth, in the animal kingdom, in the vegetable kingdom, and in the mineral kingdom. What wise order in all, both in great and small! We involuntarily praise and exclaim: “O Lord! how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all: Glory to Thee, Lord, Who hath created everything!”⁴³

If the Church has composed and transmitted for general use prayers and psalms to God the Trinity and to His saints, then this signifies that God hears our prayers and is always near those who pray. But people mostly pray as if there were no God with them, or as if He did not heed their prayers. Let us ascribe to the Lord at least the same amount of attention that good parents show to the requests of their children, at least that provident and attentive love which good parents have for their children. So the Lord Himself teaches: “If ye then,” says He, “being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that ask Him?”⁴⁴ Thus our requests or prayers will also be fulfilled if we pray with our whole heart. This is true. This is from daily experience.

When malice against anyone is roused in your heart, then believe with your whole heart that it is the work of the Devil working in your heart: hate him and his brood, and malice will leave you. (Do not acknowledge it as anything of your own, and do not sympathise with it.) This is from experience. Unfortunately, the Devil shelters himself behind us, and conceals himself, whilst we are blind, and, thinking we are doing everything of ourselves, begin to stand up for the Devil’s works as if they were our own, as if for something just, although every idea of there being any justice in our passion is entirely false, impious, and hurtful. Guide yourself by the same rule also in regard to others. When you see that anybody bears malice against you, do not consider his malice as his own doing; no, he is only the passive instrument of the evil one; he has not yet recognised his flattery and is deceived by him. Pray to God that the enemy may leave him and that the Lord may enlighten the eyes of his heart, darkened by the poisonous, noxious breathing of the spirit of evil. We must pray fervently for all those subjected to passions, for the enemy works within them.

Passions are contagious owing to our spiritual organisation; for instance, malice, even when not yet expressed in words — not expressed by acts, but still concealed in the heart, and reflected slightly in the face and eyes — is already transmitted to the soul of the man against whom I bear malice, and is also perceptible to others; if I am disturbed by passion my disturbance communicates itself to the heart of another, like a kind of spiritual overflow of an impure current from one spiritual receptacle into another. If you eradicate in yourself your passion against your brother, you eradicate the same passion in him too; when you are pacified he will also become pacified. What a close connection there is between souls! How true are the words of the Apostle: “For we are members one of another⁴⁵; we, being many, are one bread and one body⁴⁶; and hath made of one blood all nations of men.”⁴⁷ Therefore the Lord’s commandment requires that: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”⁴⁸ It is upon the mutual feeling or understanding of our souls that the efficacy or inefficacy of the words of a preacher is founded; if the preacher does not speak from his heart, but hypocritically, the listeners, by their inward instinct, understand the discordance of the preacher’s words with his heart, with his life, and they have not the power which they might have had if the preacher had spoken to them sincerely, and especially if he had himself in reality fulfilled his words. Indeed, between human souls there is too close a connection and communication. This is why good, pious, sincere dispositions, and especially good works, are communicated to the souls of others.

As the man consists of a soul and body, so, correspondingly, there are double means for supporting his life — spiritual and bodily ones. Those for supporting the bodily life are air, food, drink, light and warmth, and those for supporting the spiritual life, prayer (like air), reading the word of God, the life-giving Sacrament, and pious meditations.

You know by experience that neither walls nor the place where you live form any obstacles to the flight of thought; it can in a moment be borne from the house to beyond the clouds, or from one part of the world to another, from one kingdom unto another, from one town to another; but your soul, that thinking, reasoning element, is the image of God — a small image of the Infinite Spirit, God. If your thought is not restricted by four walls, and is not limited by space and time, then what can restrict the Lord, Who has created all things? Can He be restricted by walls — can He be limited by space and time, however infinite according to us they may be? O, His dominion is in every place! His eyes see all and everything. He sees, as upon the palms of His hands, even those who hide themselves in secret places, among the mountains, or in inaccessible castles. This is why the Lord sometimes hides His face from you and leaves you in the anguish of spiritual darkness, so that you may always remember by whose light your soul lives — that is, by the light of God — and that if God turns His face from you and takes His Holy Spirit from your heart, then you will be truly left in the darkness of hell, in infernal torments, and thus you will indeed, although only in part, understand what the future hell will be.

Believe steadfastly and always remember that you have a dual nature, that there are two men in you, the one carnal, diseased by passions, old, of the Devil, seeking carnal things and setting his life upon them; you must mortify the old man within you and not satisfy him in anything, not bend to his sinful, persistent, sickly lamentations; whilst the other man in you is spiritual, new, healthy, of Christ, everywhere seeking Christ, living by Christ (instead of by worldly desires), and finding peace and life in Christ, wishing for nothing in this world but Christ, and counting earthly blessings but dung, in order to win Christ.⁴⁹ As we must despise in every way the requirements of the former man because their fulfilment destroys the soul, so we must fulfil in every way the requirements of the latter because they lead to true and eternal life. Let every Christian learn this, and labour to actually fulfil what he thus learns.

Do not be despondent when the clouds of hell, one darker than the other, descend upon your soul; when infernal malice, envy, doubt, obstinacy, and other passions, rise up in your soul; know surely that the gathering of these dark clouds upon your mental horizon is inevitable; but they are not always there and will not remain long; they are like the appearance of dark clouds on the sky in nature — they pass over and disappear, after which the mental atmosphere of the soul is cleared up again. In nature there must be clouds on the sky, and the darkening of the light of day; but these clouds are not constant, they soon pass away, and then the light of the sun shines again with renewed power.

What a wonderful creation is man! Look! that which was created from earth contains the breath of God — personal, independent, free — the image of God Himself. How much wisdom and beauty there are in the construction of man’s bodily tabernacle, how much wisdom and love — in a word, how much likeness to God is shown in the life itself of the man who has dominion over the earth; as it is said: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion... over all the earth.”⁵⁰ But in order that you should not grow proud, see what happens to you, man, when that which is according to God’s image in you goes forth from your body as from its temple! You will be as though you had never been, you will disappear from this world; the temple of your spirit will lose all its goodness and beauty, it will become earth, and return unto the ground, from out of which it was taken,⁵¹ completely mingling with it as a part of it. What a wonderful creation of God is man! God has wonderfully placed in the dust His image, the immortal spirit. But marvel, Christian, still more at the wisdom, omnipotence and mercy of the Creator: He changes and transforms the bread and wine into His most-pure Body and into His most pure Blood, and takes up His abode in them Himself, by His most pure and Life-giving Spirit, so that His Body and Blood are together Spirit and Life. And wherefore is this? In order to cleanse you, a sinner, from your sins, to sanctify you and to unite you, thus sanctified to Himself, and thus united to give you blessedness and immortality. “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!”⁵²

Have you seen how respectfully, humbly, and orderly subordinates of all classes and all stations behave in relation to their chiefs, and thus, in their mutual intercourse, fulfil their duty of subordination? Have you not seen with what veneration and strict etiquette those that surround a king behave? And all these are only examples of the behaviour of creatures in relation to the Creator; and it is in this right behaviour in respect to the Creator, in their obedience to His laws, that their welfare and the object of their life consist.

Sometimes a man seems to pray fervently, but yet his prayer does not bring into his heart the fruits of peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Why is this? It is because in praying the appointed prayers he has not sincerely repented of those sins which he has committed during the day, by which he has defiled his heart, the temple of Christ, and by which he has angered the Lord. But had he remembered them, had he repented of them in all sincerity, and judged himself impartially, “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding,”⁵³ would immediately have entered into his heart. In the prayers of the Orthodox Church there is an enumeration of sins, but not of all; and often the very sins by which we have bound ourselves are not mentioned; therefore, we must absolutely enumerate them ourselves during our prayer, clearly recognising their gravity with a feeling of humility and heartfelt contrition. This is why, in the evening prayers at the enumeration of sins, it is said: “I have done wrong either in this or in that” — that is, it is left to our own will to make mention of these or those sins.

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