Do not give me the spirit of despondency. Loyalty is a sin. Power is not a sin - the word of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill during the first week of Great Lent. Prayer of Ephraim the Syrian from condemnation
Delve deeper into this prayer, think about why he does not simply ask to get rid of such and such vices and give such and such virtues. Why does he say: "Do not give me the spirit of idleness, despondency, arrogance and idle talk." Why he speaks of the spirit of vices, speaks of the spirit of virtues - this is important to understand.
You know that things have their own smell, peculiar to them. If your things remain in your room, different vessels, everything that was consumed during life in it, and the room remains locked, your smell, the spirit of these things, will remain in it. You know that if you pour a fragrant substance into a vessel, then empty the vessel and wash it, the aroma will remain for a long time; and vice versa, if something stinking is poured in, then the stinking spirit will remain for a long, long time. This is what happens in the human soul. In the soul of a person, all the vices that a person sins leave their spirit, their mark, on the other hand, all the good that he creates leaves their light. If a person has always done evil deeds, if his soul is saturated with vices, the spirit of these vices will remain in the soul forever. If a person lives a good life, does a lot of good, if he constantly sanctifies his soul with prayer, he is imbued with the spirit of prayer, the spirit of virtues, the spirit of righteousness.
We know from everyday experience that we can already with a brief acquaintance, sometimes at the very first meeting, we can catch what kind of spirit a person is. If we meet a person who is mired in sins, you will catch what kind of spirit this person is. It is similar to how a dog searches for a smell, which remains even on the tracks of a person, and leads to this person.
Every person has his own spirit, and so St. Ephraim the Syrian asks God not only to deliver him from vices and give virtues, he asks that the Lord give him the spirit of these virtues, to deliver him from the spirit of vice - even so that there is no trace, the smell of vice, so that it smells sweet of Christ.
You must know that it is much easier to get rid of individual vices than to get rid of the spirit of these vices. This spirit clings extremely tenaciously to our hearts, and it is possible to completely get rid of the vicious spirit only gradually, praying to God for help, so that God will deliver us from this evil spirit. This is how the words of Ephrem the Syrian should be understood. Perhaps they can be understood more directly.
We always live and act under the spiritual influence of two kinds: on the one hand, the grace-filled holy influence of God Himself, the Angels of the Saints, and, in particular, our Guardian Angel, on the other hand, the spirit of Satan, the demonic spirit, always pours out on us in a dark stream. And just as among the Angels of Light there are Angels-carriers of individual holy virtues, so among demons there are carriers of individual sins that always affect us. So St. Ephraim asks God that the grace of God would drive away the dark, crafty spirits of demons that lead us to sin.
You see what these deep words of Ephraim the Syrian mean. Ask consciously to free us from the very spirit of wickedness, malice, all vices, which is extremely difficult, since the power of demons over us is extremely strong. Remember that by your own efforts you cannot avoid the dark, disastrous influence of these spirits and humbly pray to God, as Ephraim the Syrian teaches to pray:
“Lord and Master of my life! Do not give me the spirit of idleness, despondency, arrogance and idle talk! Grant the spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love to me, Thy servant. Yes, Lord the King, grant me to see my sins and not condemn my brother, for blessed are you forever and ever. Amen".
Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian - for idleness
Lord and Master of my life! Do not give me the spirit of idleness, despondency, arrogance and idle talk!
Life has been given to us so that we hasten, hasten to do the great work of purifying our hearts, following the Lord Jesus Christ. But this following is strenuous work, often hard work, and not idleness. This is the transfer of suffering for the Lord Jesus Christ, and idleness does not suffer, avoids suffering.
Do you know that all the saints, who, it would seem, did not need labor, who devoted their entire lives to spiritual exploits, divided the time of day into three parts: one part - prayer, the other part - reading the word of God, one part - work , labor. They lived in the desert, in the wild Libyan desert, lived in the forests of the Far North, in impenetrable wilds, and devoted one part of their time to work.
They chose different kinds of work: weaving baskets, matting, planting vegetable gardens, cutting wood, building cells, churches and entire monasteries. What they did with their hands was sold to the nearest city, they ate themselves and fed the poor. They considered work an important and necessary thing.
The holy apostle Paul preached God for whole days, and at night he made tents. By the light of the moon or lamp, he worked diligently, considering work obligatory for himself. His main work, his main aspiration was to run, to hasten as much as he could towards the goal - to flee to the Kingdom of God.
Do you know his amazing words: “Brethren, I do not consider myself accomplished; but only, forgetting what is behind and stretching forward, do I strive for the goal, for the honor of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” ().
He, not at all considering himself to have achieved it, strove forward, forgetting what had already been achieved, strove for a higher goal, for receiving the highest calling of the Divine in Christ Jesus.
This is an example of a life opposite to the life of idle people. You will not find any trace of idleness in the life of the Apostle Paul, in the life of fasting hermits, in the life of a monastic, in the life of great saints. They all worked from morning to night. Idleness was alienated, idleness was considered a great and fatal evil.
It is necessary, hearing the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian, which is so often repeated, to carefully listen to every word of the prayer, remember, delve into the meaning of these words and imprint them forever in your heart. I will help you capture them. Today I captured the petition of St. Ephraim for deliverance from the spirit of idleness.
Remember that life is short, you must hurry, hurry, as the apostle Paul hastened - you must hurry in the work of the Lord. Amen.
Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian - for despondency
Lord and Master of my life! Spirit of despondency do not give me.
What is the spirit of despondency? This is what is called discouragement. People who do not understand Christianity at all, who do not understand our spiritual life, think that the entire Christian religion is full of a spirit of despondency. Looking at the monks walking around in black clothes with downcast eyes and turning over the rosary, they think that the whole religion is dull, like the kind of monks. And this is not so at all. This contradicts the spirit that permeates everything, for tell me, can a person with a breakdown in spirit have the spiritual strength, spiritual vigor necessary to walk along the narrow path, tirelessly struggling with demons? Of course not.
Our religion is not a religion of despondency; on the contrary, it is a religion of cheerfulness, energy, willpower, strength of character. Our religion does not produce despondency, but something quite the opposite, what the Apostle Paul says: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, mercy, faith, meekness, temperance. There is no law for them." ().
This is the true spirit, the essence of our religion: not despondency at all, but righteousness, peaceful joy in the Holy Spirit. Can one who possesses this joy be despondent? Of course not.
People often make mistakes when judging a person's appearance. A true Christian does not look like people who indulge in the joys of life. He is always peaceful, often appears to be deeply thoughtful, walks with his head down, indulging in his thoughts. Does this mean that he is despondent, discouraged? This means that the joys of the world, which other people appreciate, are far from Christians, alien to him, just as children's games and amusements are alien to an adult.
The thoughts of a Christian are focused on the eternal, on the Kingdom of God, turning to the Lord Jesus Christ, therefore he is always serious and thoughtful. Sometimes it happens that even Christians become despondent from time to time, there comes a decline in spirit. They, having already gone far along the path of Christ, the path of renunciation of the world, sometimes return in their thoughts to their former path; it seems to them that they have strayed from this path in vain, that it would be good to follow the wide beaten path along which most people go. Then they fall into despair.
This is the state of those people who have come to know the great mysteries of Christ, have left the wide path of the temptations of the world, have followed the path of suffering for Christ. They are seduced, stopped by legions of demons, prevented from walking along the path of Christ, presenting pictures of the joyful life that they left, a picture of family happiness, the bliss of friendship, they are pulled back from the great path, back to this path.
And often demons manage to achieve their goal: a person falls into despondency, loses his spirit, loses his zeal for the Lord Jesus Christ, and this despondency is a great danger that lies in wait for every Christian on his path for Christ, this is a devilish temptation. All the saints were subjected to these slanders of the spirits of darkness, and in the vast majority of cases, by prayer, fasting, and vigil, Christians defeated the spirit of despondency cast by the devil. But there were also those in whose souls the spirit of despondency grew and grew, and they left the path of Christ. And when they left, they felt abandoned by God, the emptiness and heaviness of life became unbearable for them, and they often ended their lives by suicide.
That is why all the saints considered despondency to be a great danger, a great misfortune, and directed all their forces to the struggle against the spirit of despondency.
Even saints can fall into despondency. Why, where? No longer from Satan, not from the spirits of darkness. Despondency arises when they are temporarily abandoned by God's grace. This happened to all the saints, this is a necessary test for every one who strives in piety. It is necessary that a person does not attribute to himself, to his strengths, to his merits, everything that he has already achieved. He needs to be reminded that he did not achieve this on his own, but only by God's grace.
When a person reaches a high life, he will sometimes think of himself, and God's grace leaves him for a while. He then falls into a heavy, unbearable state of mind, his heart immediately becomes empty. Instead of the warmth sent from God, cold settles in the heart, instead of light, impenetrable darkness sets in, instead of joy, deep despondency. The Lord does this in order to remind the ascetic that he walks the path of Christ not by his own strength, but by the grace of God.
This is one source of discouragement. What other sources are there? I spoke to you about idleness, you should understand that idleness is one of the mothers of despondency. Idle people, not working and completely secure, drowning in luxury, people who are satiated with the blessings of life, lose their taste for life, they get bored with everything, everything becomes uninteresting, boring, they do not find joy in anything, their hearts are filled with despondency - this heavy and dangerous enemy of our salvation.
Another source of discouragement: there are people who tend to see everything in a gloomy light, they are called pessimists. They tend to be in such a mood, to focus their thoughts on the dark - sinful. They raise the question: where is the justice of God, where is the truth, if the poor, but the pious suffers, and the unbeliever is rich, walking on crooked paths, blessed?
If a person is inclined to notice in life only the dark, only the bad, the despondency that seizes him grows and grows, it comes to the point that the person does not see anything good and commits suicide. So strong is the spirit of despondency. The second time I say how he can bring to suicide.
There is another source of despondency, the most frequent source. These are sorrows, unfortunate cases that we experience in life. A loved one, a loved one will die, a child, a husband, a mother will die. The person falls into despair. The world is not dear to him, he thinks only of his dear one who has died, a poor man wanders in thought near the grave, imagines his loved one lying in a coffin and decomposing. Deeper and deeper becomes despondency.
What is the remedy for this despondency? No need to wander around the grave with your thoughts, remember the past, shed tears. Died far, far away. It is necessary to fly away to where the dear one, beloved with all the power of thought, has gone. Know that his soul is before God and the angels, rejoicing in his liberation. If you focus not on the dark, but on the light, not on the perishable, but on the eternal, the spirit of despondency will go away.
Sometimes the hard ones plunge into despondency bodily diseases. There are many people who impatiently bear diseases. And there were saints who lay bedridden with illness all their lives and praised God for it. It is necessary to remember such people and be able to accept the illnesses sent from God. There is no need to refuse the help of a doctor, for the wise son Sirahov says: “He created a doctor to help people” ().
A doctor is a servant of God who can relieve suffering and drive away the spirit of despondency.
These are the sources and causes of discouragement. The main means of dealing with them is. This is a remedy that has been tested by all the saints for many, many centuries. There is no more effective means than prayer, a constant request to God for help.
When you enter into a conversation with God, He comforts you, drives away the spirit of despondency. When you come to the temple of God, where everything is so far from worldly fuss, listen carefully to the hymns, and your spirit will leave the dark region of despondency and soar.
And if you proceed to the powerful means of combating despondency, which the Lord has given, if at confession you open your heart before the shepherd of the Church, and if after this you partake of the Body and Blood of Christ, you will feel relief and joy, and then the spirit of despondency will be driven out of you with shame.
Do not focus your thoughts on the gloomy, on the sinful, on the heavy, but, lifting up the spirit of grief, with your heart abide with God, in the halls of heaven, where there is no access for dark spirits that bring despondency.
Here's what every Christian needs to know about discouragement.
And what can be said about people who hardly know Christ, who follow the path of the world, who seek joy and consolation from the world? In appearance they often seem contented, cheerful, cheerful, as if they have no despondency. Don't think that it is, don't be tempted by their sight, but consider avoiding them from the path. If only they knew what was going on in the depths of their hearts. In the depths of their souls, the denunciation of conscience never ceases. No one can hear the conscience. The inner man raises his head at times and begins to yell. This is the constant suffering of those who pursue worldly prosperity. The Apostle Paul says: “Sadness even according to Bose, repentance unrepentantly does for salvation, sadness same worldly death does" ().
If you do not turn from sorrow for the world to sorrow for God, you will perish. Remember the severity of despondency, remember that the heart of a Christian should be filled with joy in the Holy Spirit, the joy of striving for the light, should be alien to the sorrow that fills the hearts of sinners.
Always remember this, and may the Lord have mercy on you, and may Saint Ephraim assist you with his prayers. Amen.
Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian - for arrogance
Lord and Master of my life! Do not give me the spirit of arrogance!
What is the spirit of curiosity? This is the desire to excel, to rule over others, to take first place. This desire to excel destroyed the archangel - the head of all angels - and made him Satan, cast him out of heaven. This desire to dominate ruined Korah, Dathan and Aviron, who envied the glory of Moses when he led the people of Israel through the wilderness into the land of Canaan; they wanted to overthrow him and usurp power, and the Lord punished them with a terrible execution: the earth opened up and swallowed them up with all their families.
Ambitiousness moved all heretics who exalted themselves above Christ, they wanted to put their own instead of the current of the Church, or else they wanted to become leaders in the Church.
Curiosity moved all the people who shook the world with their state uprisings. There were writers with corrupt thoughts who corrupted entire generations.
Curiosity - the passion to rule - the Lord condemned in a speech against the scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. He condemned their passion to be the first, their desire to be presented at feasts, to receive greetings befitting the leaders of the people. The Lord condemned them and said to His disciples, and through them to all of us: "Who wants to be the first, let him be ... servant to all "(). This is the opposite of arrogance - it orders to strive not for a high position, but to be the last, to be a servant to everyone.
You see how ambition is the passion to have influence, the passion to take the first place, how it is contrary to the spirit of the Gospel, the spirit of humility. And she owns everyone, there is no one who would not be infected with her - even small children. We know what happens when children play: some little boy will stand out, start to command, then command everyone, he is ready to enter into a fight when someone disputes his leadership.
Even among hermits, even in monasteries, where there should be no arbitrariness, where everyone should remember covenant to be everyone's servant, even there arrogance dominates people, although in a secret form. Before people, they do not seek superiority, but by excessive fasting and vigil they try to excel over everyone.
In worldly life, this passion dominates everyone: everyone strives for the highest position, they crave encouragement, everyone wants honor. Many parents instill ambition in their children, a passion to excel, try to make them occupy the highest position in life, and thereby corrupt their children.
Isn't it necessary to understand that the highest position is the lot of a few, they cannot all excel, occupy a high position. In fact, this is the lot of exceptional people, marked by God. Extremely many strive to occupy such a social position, do not disdain any means to achieve this goal, use connections, fawn, serve, do not disdain any means, just to achieve their goal, to occupy a high position in society, to become one of those in power.
Often, often, the Lord punishes them: their unfortunate passion ends in failure. They become embittered, refuse social work, go into the family circle and become isolated in family life. But pride torments them even here, and they torment their families, they torment their neighbors, and there is no peace in their souls.
These are the fruits of arrogance, that is why Saint Ephraim in his great prayer asks God to deliver him from the corrupting spirit of arrogance, so opposite to humility, without which one cannot even take a step in the Christian life.
If so, if it is not necessary to strive for the highest rank, to strive for primacy, how can we say that we should not strive to rise, to strive for the highest dignity, but only the highest, not perishable and worthless dignity, but to acquire that dignity that is great in the eyes of God's. The path to honor has been shown to all of us, higher than which there is none, with which no earthly achievements, no honor can be compared. The way to the Kingdom of God is shown to us, it is said that we can become friends of God, children of God. We will achieve this goal only by striving to fulfill all Christ's commandments. There is no need to be embarrassed if we are placed in a low, imperceptible position in society, we must remember that the Lord knows how to lead us onto an extremely wide path when we do not wait, do not strive for earthly glory.
The Lord often, in addition to our efforts and will, gives this glory. Glory flees from those who pursue it, who yearn for it, and finds those who run from it. True glory, glory from God, is given to those who do not pursue it.
It is necessary, without thinking about power over people, to delve into how you can develop your abilities and talents given from God; humbly, quietly delve into the development of one's abilities in silence, in ignorance of the world. And it may happen, as has happened more than once, that the Lord will raise such a person to unattainable heights of glory.
We know many examples from the history of science and philosophy, from the lives of prominent scientists who spent their lives in poverty, in ignorance of the world, were even persecuted and persecuted, were in complete contradiction to what people infected with the vice of arrogance are looking for; in silence, in poverty, in solitude, they worked on the tasks of science and philosophy and did deeds that glorified them in the history of mankind, made them bright stars of the progress of mankind.
Remember, the Lord knows how to mark people, to distinguish human deeds done according to the commandments of Christ. Who wants to be the first let it be the last, let it be a servant to everyone "().
Pray with Ephraim the Syrian for deliverance from the grave vice of arrogance. From this vice, may the Lord deliver you all. Amen.
Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian - for idle talk
Lord and Master of my life, do not give me the spirit of idle talk!
And Saint Ephraim prays about this, and the holy prophet David says in his psalm: “Lay, O Lord, a guardianship over my mouth, and a gate of protection over my mouth.” ().
And the Lord Jesus Christ Himself said that for every idle word we will answer the Last Judgment(). Think about how serious it is, how hard it is: to give an answer for each, for a single idle word.
But tell me, is there anything else that would be treated easier than the word? It is amazing, amazing how people do not understand the enormous, colossal significance of the human word.
Our ability to speak makes us much like God Himself. created the whole world with a word (), the word of God has tremendous, powerful power. You know that the prophet Elijah resurrected the dead with a word (), stopped the rain with his word, closed the sky and caused hunger (), brought down rain on the earth ().
What is the power of the word? Do not think that the word escaping from the mouth is scattered in the air, and nothing remains of the word. This is not true. The word lives, lives for centuries, thousands of years. The words that were spoken by the great prophets of God, who lived many centuries before the birth of Christ, still live. The great words of Moses, the great words that the holy apostles once spoke, those words that came from the lips of the ascetics of God, the teaching of the Church of God, have been alive for thousands of years.
And if a word lives for thousands of years, it means that it is something extremely important. The word, proceeding from our mouths, always produces an extremely deep effect on the people around us, even on people far from us.
Every kind, wise word lives in people's hearts and brings good fruits for many years. Any evil word - slander, lies, slander - also lives for an extremely long time, for many years, instills in the minds, in the hearts of both close and distant people, directs their thoughts, their desires. Hearing our evil words, they are poisoned by them, imitate us and emit the same evil, poisonous words.
The graceful and wise words of the saints create truth in the world, do eternal good, and evil, sinful words bring dishonor, hatred, bring great harm to people around, even to all of humanity.
Words are alive, rushing like radio waves, rushing through space and pouring into the hearts and minds of people. Words are a huge force that connects or separates people. Uniting when the word is full of truth and truth, separating when it is full of slander and malice towards people. If people were deprived of the word, they would become like animals, and human life would be upset.
That is how great, how deep is the meaning of the human word. That is why Saint Ephraim prays for deliverance from idle talk, from idle talk.
You have all met a lot of people in your life, especially women, who chatter, chatter and chatter endlessly, irresistibly, and at the same time do not know their language of any fatigue: grinds, grinds and grinds. Everything they say is empty, no one needs it. And Ephraim the Syrian prays to God to deliver him from idle talk. He was afraid of falling, lest his tongue would destroy him, and these unfortunate talkers are not afraid of anything.
You know that people often endure these idle talk - they chatter, and let them talk to themselves - but it seems to them that they listen to them with pleasure, do not know that in the depths of their hearts everyone is weary of them, hate them. So great is the evil of idle talk, the evil that is caused by their chatter.
If the tongue talks and idles, then thoughts wander, not focusing on anything deep, true, important, wander aimlessly everywhere, as an unfortunate mongrel wanders, wagging its tail. Both their thoughts and feelings, as well as the direction of their desires, their activity - everything is empty, insignificant. The soul is starving, a person is disgusted by others, he inflicts grave, grave harm on himself. This is the meaning of idle talk.
Wise people who live a spiritual life never talk idle, they are always silent and concentrated. V Ancient Greece in extraordinary honor were philosophers and sages. Philosophers did not accept anyone as their disciple before the person proved that he knew how to keep silent. And would any of the idle talkers now pass the test of silence? Of course not.
If the vice of idle talk is so heavy, how to get rid of it, what to do with our irrepressible tongue? You need to do what Ephraim the Syrian did: you need to pray to God for deliverance from this vice, and the Lord Jesus Christ will grant what you ask. It is necessary to avoid communication with people who talk idle, to go far, far away from them, to seek the company of a few wise ones who open their mouths to say something useful, from whom you will not hear idle, soul-damaging words.
Watch yourself extremely carefully, acquire the habit of observing what you say, what your tongue is doing, get used to keeping your tongue in check. Don't let him talk idle. Remember in the evening what they said during the day, whether they chatted, whether they insulted anyone, whether they lied, whether they were sneaky. If you learn this habit, you will get used to watching your tongue, watching every movement and holding it back.
Remember what more people focused on the main, internal, on the true, the more time he spends on reading the Gospel, Holy Scripture, the works of the holy fathers, the more he is imbued with their wisdom and the more he loses the desire to idly chat. To acquire power over the language is a great thing.
Apostle James in conciliar message his says: “Whoever does not sin in the word, that person is perfect, able to bridle the whole body” ().
Do you understand what it means to harness the whole body? This means subordinating the body to the highest goals of spiritual life, curbing all lusts, passions, everything bad that the flesh attracts. Begin by curbing the tongue, and if you achieve this goal, attain perfection and curb your whole body. And if you bridle your whole body, you will be pure and righteous before God. May the Lord grant you all this purity and righteousness, and may Ephraim the Syrian always remind you of this. Amen.
Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian - for chastity
Lord and Master of my life, grant me the spirit of chastity!
Have you paid attention to the fact that even such a great ascetic, desert-dweller, such a great saint as Ephraim the Syrian, prayed that the Lord would give him the spirit of chastity. Did he, the holy elder, really need this prayer? It is not for us to judge, he himself judged that it is necessary to pray about this, and all the saints prayed about this.
Why did they pray? Because they knew that the Lord required from them, as well as from all Christians, complete, unconditional chastity, chastity not only of the flesh, but also of the spirit. Even in our thoughts, we do not dare and should not violate chastity, for the Lord Himself said, “that whoever looks lustfully at a woman is already fornicated with her in my heart(). And no one can avoid unclean thoughts, and the saints struggled painfully with these thoughts for many years.
I have already told you about how the Monk Martinian, a young man, fought desperately against this passion, how, when he was seduced by a depraved woman who managed to penetrate into his cell, he stood on the burning coals in order to overcome the carnal passion in himself.
So the saints fought for decades, and the main means in their struggle was fasting, humility, and, for all the holy fathers say that there is no greater protection from carnal lusts than humility.
A person, if he acquires humility, is freed from them, and proud people, alien to humility, are completely overwhelmed by this base passion. Remember this: humility is the first and most important way to free us from lust.
Do you know how many among us are easily, extremely easily related to the violation of the seventh commandment, how many such Christians who do not consider this a serious sin, who say: “After all, I am pious, I try my best to fulfill the commandments of Christ, I try to do works of mercy , won't the Lord forgive this little weakness"?
Those who speak so deeply are deeply mistaken, for what they call a small weakness, the apostle Paul calls it quite differently. He is so strict in this regard that in Ephesians he says: “But fornication and all uncleanness and covetousness should not even be named among you, as befits saints” ().
You can’t even think about them, you can’t even talk about them, as befits saints. He says that adulterers and fornicators and drunkards will not enter the Kingdom of God. But isn't it scary, isn't it an indication of the apostle that against the seventh commandment is not only a weakness that God will forgive. The apostle directly says that those who violate this commandment - fornicators and adulterers - will not enter the Kingdom of God ().
And where will they be? Of course, in a place of darkness, in a place of eternal torment. Think about it. Do not tell any of you that nature itself is so arranged that this passion is natural. This is completely wrong, human nature is designed so that people give birth to children, and not to defile themselves. For the apostle Paul says that everyone is outside the body: outside the body pride, vanity, ambition, envy, anger, since these are all passions of the soul, but fornication and adultery in the body itself, defiles not only the spirit, but also our body.
Didn't the Apostle Paul say that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and if the temple, then our bodies must be clean, not defiled by anything. To destroy the temple of the Holy Spirit, to make the members of our body members of a harlot. The apostle says with horror: “Let it not be so!” ()
How many among people are those who turn carnal passion into a constant pleasure, the most impure, the basest pleasure, which makes them equal to those animals that are distinguished by special lust: roosters and baboons.
It is shameful, shameful for a man in general, and even more so for a Christian man, to equal himself with a baboon. It is a shame, a shame to forget that his body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. For the apostle Paul says in his epistle: “The will of God is your sanctification, that you abstain from fornication; so that each of you knows how to keep his vessel in holiness and honor, and not in the passion of lust, like the pagans who do not know God. For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness.” ().
The holy apostle said: "Those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts" ().
Do you want to be Christ's, do you want to be friends of Christ, sons of God? If you want, then remember this: you must crucify your flesh with passions and lusts, mortify. You need a huge, everyday struggle with your flesh.
This struggle is not equally given to different people, for there are happy people who do not have great sensuality, and there are others who by nature, inherited from their parents, suffer from an unusually high sensuality and lust.
I know such an unfortunate person - one unfortunate woman, extremely pious, who inherited such exceptional lustfulness from her parents. I know how she struggles with this lust. She fights with all her might, comes to self-torture: she collects thorns with prickly thorns and crushes them with her hands so that the thorns stick into her hands. She suffers, she suffers, and yet she falls. But not only such unfortunate ones fall, but also many of us, for whom it is much easier to abstain.
What can we say about such a fall? Let us say that just as out of every fall, so also out of this fall, one can and must rise. We fall often, we fall in many respects, and if we fall in this respect, then we must climb out of that abyss, from that abyss into which we fell, climb out with all our might, calling for the help of the Holy Spirit, like a person who has fallen into an abyss, to climb out from her.
And what do people who fall into the abyss do? They get out of it with all their might, not sparing their hands, stained with blood, scratched on sharp stones, their nails torn off, their legs wounded - trying with all their might to get out.
There is fornication in wine, for nothing excites our lust so much as precisely drunkenness: having drunk wine, a person becomes a plaything in the hands of a prodigal demon.
A person who eats excessively, who is always idle, who does not want to work, who lives riotously and is only busy with entertainment, dancing, going to theaters and cinema, a person who sleeps like pampered women until 11 o'clock in the morning, will certainly and inevitably be a fornicator. for he does everything so that the lust of the flesh will bind him in his fetters.
And if a person is busy with constant work, physical or mental, if there is no time to be distracted from this work, having finished his work, in the evening he will strive only for rest. He will soon be satisfied with the necessary food and go to bed; he needs nothing so much as rest, he has no time for lust, no ugliness.
So, therefore, humility, fasting, strenuous work, constant fasting, constant prayers are the means by which we can free ourselves from the power of the prodigal demon. And how infinitely many unfortunate people are, especially among young people, who read passionate novels and stories with great interest and insatiability, which describe dirty pictures of depravity and lust. What a poison! If a person relishes them in a dirty novel or story, then he kindles his lust.
And we must act differently: not only not to kindle lust with pornographic writings and pictures, but we must strive to follow lust, and as soon as we notice that such images appear in our thoughts, now catch and try to grab the snake by the neck, near its head, and smash it head, for if we do not do this, then the serpent will imperceptibly crawl into your heart and poison you with fornication. And the seductive, impure images that the ancient serpent instills in your heart will easily and quickly turn into admiring these thoughts, and admiring them then turns into the deed itself.
We must remember what we heard recently in Psalm 136: you need to grab these Babylonian babies by their feet and smash their heads against a stone, until they are babies, until they mature, until they take possession of your heart ().
This is the task before you: the task of complete chastity, chastity not only of the flesh, but also of the spirit. But, as I said, very many take the sin of fornication lightly, do not consider it serious, and our job is to stop you, to make you think again.
What can help you with this? Those who correct themselves and receive remission of this sin at confession will be admitted to the Holy Chalice. And if any of you receives such an excommunication from Communion for a while, let him not complain, do not be upset. We must think deeply and say to ourselves: if so, then the situation is serious; it seemed to me a small sin, and the Holy One excommunicates me from Communion. Do not grieve, do not think that you can die without receiving Communion of the Holy Mysteries. Any prohibition of Communion is lifted in case of mortal danger.
Now you understand why Ephraim the Syrian prays to God to give him the spirit of chastity. May we, all sinners, all guilty of this sin, pray to God for salvation and turn to St. Ephraim the Syrian for help: “Help, help us in this struggle: we are weak, but you are strong!” Amen.
Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian - for humility
Grant the spirit of humility to me, O Lord, to Your servant.
Remember that the commandment of humility is the first commandment of beatitude, and if the first, then the most important. Have you ever heard the word of God proclaimed by the prophet Isaiah: “Thus says the High and Exalted One, the One who lives forever—Holy is His name. I live in the heights of heaven and in the sanctuary, and also with the contrite and humble in spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and revive the hearts of the contrite.” ().
Don't you want Himself to live with you? And if you like, remember, remember well: He Himself says that He lives in the heart of the humble and revives their hearts, but how much we need the quickening of our hearts!
Don't you want God to look upon you? And if you want, know and remember that God looks down on the humble in heart. Remember, remember the words of the Apostle James: "God opposes the proud, gives grace to the humble" ().
Do you want the Lord to resist you, don't you want to receive grace? And if you like, remember what humility is, what a holy virtue that is so pleasing to God, for which God lives with us and looks down on us.
This is the opposite of pride. The humble are the poor in spirit, remembering their shortcomings, directing their gaze into the depths of their hearts, they always tirelessly observe the movements of their hearts, they follow any impurity that they see in their hearts.
The saints, who always kept the commandments of Christ, loved Christ, in whose mind's eye the Lord always stood, always remembered humility and always prayed for it.
Christ says: "Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart"(). The Lord commands to learn humility from Him, the Lord commands to imitate Him in humility. Humility was manifest throughout the Lord's earthly life. It began from His very birth, for He was born as the humblest, simplest, most inconspicuous person, was born in a den for cattle, was laid in a manger.
And then all his life, didn't He give countless examples of humility? When Herod burned with rage, wanted to kill the Newborn Savior and sent his soldiers to beat the Bethlehem babies, couldn’t the Lord send one legion of angels from the legions that were always at His disposal, couldn’t He strike Herod? Of course he could, but He preferred to show humility and fled to Egypt from the wrath of Herod.
Didn't he set a perfect, extraordinary example of humility by washing the feet of his disciples? This represents the limit of humility.
And about the humility that He showed before the court and after the court, when He was led to Golgotha, crucified on the cross - human lips do not dare to speak about it, it is so immeasurable, so great.
The Lord tells us to learn humility from Him. And who now remembers humility? Humility is a quality of the human soul, which the proud stigmatize with contempt, for these people do not believe in Christ, they chose not the path of Christ, but other paths: they say that this is the spirit of slavery, that the humble are slaves, deprived of the quality of the most necessary, necessary, deprived of the spirit protest, resistance by force to the grave calamities of mankind.
Is there any truth in this? None, not a trace. It is necessary to say about the humble not what the slanderers say, but something completely different: that they are not slaves, subject to evil and violence, but the only conquerors of evil and violence. It must be said that only they are waging a real fight against evil, because they eradicate the very sources of evil from their hearts and the hearts of other people. They do not believe that the cause of evil lies only in the imperfection of social relations.
The humble is a true warrior of Christ, not a slave.
But how little humility, infinitely little now! The vast majority of people despise humility, strive for primacy and predominance in this world. It is almost impossible to find truly humble people, they do not think about humility, humility is forgotten, completely forgotten. Those who walk with all their hearts along the path of Christ, who learn humility from Him, think about humility. Only saints are truly humble.
It may seem strange how saints, who surpass other people to a great extent in moral virtues, in the height they have reached, can consider themselves, consider themselves completely sincerely lower than all others. The basis of their holiness is that they do not exalt themselves over anyone, but condemn their hearts.
The saints with extraordinary vigilance watched every movement of the heart and saw the slightest impurity in it, and if they saw it, they always remembered this impurity and therefore considered themselves unworthy before God.
People who are proud and daring dare to judge everything that is most lofty and holy; the humble are devoid of insolence, modest, quiet. Examples of this are found in many in Holy Scripture and in the lives of saints.
Who is greater before God than the righteous Abraham, who heard great promises and is called the friend of God, and this Great One never ceased to call himself dust and ashes. Who is greater before God than David, the prophet and king, and he said of himself: "I am a worm, not a man - a reproach in people"(). These were his completely sincere words. Who was greater before God in his labors than the apostle Paul? And he calls himself the first sinner, he was so alien to impudence and exaltation: he was timid, not impudent, he spoke of himself that he was among the Corinthians "in weakness and fear and great trembling"(). This deep humility is an example for all of us, infinitely far from it.
We need to diligently always think about humility and ask God for it. We cannot acquire this virtue by any of our own efforts. Humility - a great gift of God - is received by those who love God with all their hearts and strive to fulfill the commandments of Christ. Only to them will the Lord give this great gift. Their heart is humble, and when a person's heart is humble, the Holy Spirit dwells in him.
See what a great happiness it is to be humble, see how difficult it is to be humble. Have hope and know that every step along the path of Christ brings you closer to holy humility. If you multiply and frequent such steps, like the apostles and saints, by this you will draw closer to God. The Lord Jesus Christ told the disciples: “Let the greatest among you be a servant to all, for whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” ().
How infinitely often these words of Christ come true, how many proud, striving to rise above all, then fall below all. How many were humble, insignificant, born in a beggarly family, who lived in poverty at the beginning of their lives, and then became great people. Such is the story of the great Moscow saints.
Many, many others also came from the lowest social background and were exalted by God for their great, immeasurable humility. The Lord says: “Many of the first will be the last, and last first» (). This is how it happens in our life, this is how it will be at the Last Judgment. The first will be the last, and the last, the insignificant, the despicable, will be the first. A lot, a lot of work is needed in order not to forget humility, a lot, a lot of work in order to acquire it.
We must remember the words of the Apostle Peter: “But clothe yourselves with humility of mind, while obeying one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”(). Remember, God opposes the proud, and only gives grace to the humble. Remember that even before the death of the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ humbled Himself. We need to strive for humility, constantly ask God for it: Lord and Lord of my life, grant the spirit of humility to me, Thy servant!
Know and remember that if a person constantly keeps these holy words in mind, he will receive from God the deep virtue of humility. Amen.
Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian - for patience
Lord and Master of my life, grant me the spirit of patience!
Oh, how we must ask for this spirit of patience! Oh, how we must acquire patience! For the Lord Himself said: "By your patience save your souls" ().
In patience is the salvation of our soul. Why is it so? Because the Lord Jesus Christ said: "Narrow is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life"(). This path is difficult, difficult, and the Lord told us, and the apostles tell us that this path - the path of Christian life - is the path of suffering, the path of sorrows. “You will be in a world of sorrow, but dare, as Az conquered the world” ().
If so, if the whole Christian path is the path of suffering, the path of sorrows, only in patience is the salvation of the world. We can save our souls only by patience.
The Apostle James says in his conciliar epistle: “With great joy, my brethren, receive when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience; patience must have a perfect effect, so that you are perfect in all its fullness, without any defect. ” ().
You see, patience has a perfect effect, patience makes us perfect in its entirety without any flaws. The Apostle Paul says: “You need patience so that, having done the will of God, you will receive the promise”(), - eternal life, the Kingdom of God.
Be patient: without patience it is impossible to be saved. This apostle, like all the other apostles, endured many, many great sorrows, persecutions, persecutions, and in the end - martyrdom. All the apostles suffered it, except for John the Theologian, who died of natural causes in extreme old age.
And the apostle Paul says: “The signs of an apostle have been set before you with all patience, signs, wonders, and powers.”(). (Everyone saw my apostolic dignity not only in the signs and wonders that I did, but also in my patience).
You see how great patience is: the apostle, along with signs and wonders, calls patience a sign of the apostles, a sign of holiness, a sign of the friends of God. He says in another message: “But we show ourselves as servants of God, ... in great patience, in calamities, in difficult circumstances” ().
To all he showed his apostolic face in great patience. And to his disciple, Bishop Timothy, he bequeathed: “But you, man of God, ... prosper in righteousness, piety, faith, love, patience, meekness” ().
If the apostle had to excel in patience so much, then how can we, so weak Christians, reject this virtue? How can we reject patience when we so easily begin to grumble against God, if He sends the inevitable suffering for Christians? Never, never should one reject patience, for without it the path to the Kingdom of God is absolutely impossible.
You know that great patience is needed even in worldly affairs, what shall we say about our path, about our spiritual life? It is immeasurably more important to us than to worldly people. How to acquire patience? Get used to endure, get used to not grumbling - and everyone is very inclined to grumble. And, of course, ask God for patience.
If we ask God for patience, we will ask for whatever pleases Him, and it will be with us according to the word of Christ: “If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him” ().
Isn't that a good thing - patience? A petition for patience is a petition pleasing to God, and God will not leave, God will help every Christian who calls for patience under the weight of his cross. God will help every unfortunate person, burdened with a large family and languishing in poverty, if he asks for patience.
But it happens that evil people also ask, walking the dark, sinful path, doing evil at every step; they also languish under the weight of their evil life, it happens that they also ask for patience. And God will not give them patience: this would mean to facilitate their black, sinful life, to contribute to it. He will not give them, but to all those good ones who humbly ask for patience on their Christian path, the Lord will give patience, as the Apostle Paul says: “Faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength, but when tempted will give relief, so that you can endure” ().
It gives patience, it does not burden anyone beyond strength, if only they would not fall into cowardice, if only they would remember that our troubles and sufferings, that our grief is nothing compared to what our Lord Jesus Christ endured for us. And therefore we must endure a lot, seeking consolation, “Looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who, instead of the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the Throne of God. Think of Him who endured such reproach from sinners against Himself, so that you do not become exhausted and weaken in your souls. ().
That's what you need to be strengthened, that's where you can draw from, endlessly draw patience - from the cross of Christ.
Look more often at the Holy Cross, at the Savior Crucified on the Cross, and pray with Ephraim the Syrian: Lord and Master of my life, grant me the spirit of patience, Thy servant. Amen.
Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian - for love
Lord and Master of my life, grant the spirit of love to me, Thy servant.
For love, which is the fulfillment of the whole law, we ask for love. If we do not have love, then, according to the word of the holy Apostle Paul, we "... ringing copper or sounding cymbal" ().
If we have the gift of prophecy and great knowledge, and have faith that moves mountains, but do not have love, we are nothing. If we distribute all our property to the poor and give the body to be burned, but we do not have love, we are nothing. That's what love is. If there is no love, no matter how perfect we may be, we are nothing.
Love is everything, for everything that the Lord Jesus Christ said, that He accomplished during the days of His earthly life, and above all, that He revealed on Golgotha, is a continuous great sermon about love. This means that love is something that must always be asked for, persistently, constantly. Love is that which to acquire is the greatest and main task of our life, for our task is to draw us closer to God, to become perfect, just as our Heavenly Father is perfect. And how to approach God without love? Without it, we are infinitely far from God.
Love is what all the saints cultivated in their hearts, what is given from God as the greatest gift of God's grace for the fulfillment of Christ's commandments.
There are happy people who are born with a soft, meek, loving heart; it is easier for them to achieve Christian love in their life than for everyone else, especially for those unfortunate ones who are born with a rough, cruel heart, little capable of love.
If a person was born with a meek heart, he still has to endure a lot, go through the path of suffering on the Cross, so that the love of Christ flares up in his heart with a bright flame; he must multiply this love that is given to him.
Christian love filled the hearts of people in ancient times, especially in the time of the apostles, when people loved each other like brothers, fulfilling the commandment of Christ. Of them the Lord could say: “By this they will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” ().
And now, where is love now, who will find it by day with fire? A terrible time will come, about which the Lord speaks, indicating the signs of His second coming. He said, among other things, and so: “Then many will be offended, and betray one another, and hate one another, and because of the increase of iniquity, the love of many will grow cold.” ().
We see this in our time, this is what torments, tears our hearts. We see many people who hate each other, betray each other, in whose hearts love has grown cold, and there are no traces of it left.
It is hard, unbearably hard to live, to see that instead of the love of Christ, hatred, mutual hatred rages. What a horror, an unspeakable horror we experienced so recently, when a people professing Christ, in alliance with other Christian peoples - the German people - committed such atrocities, such abuses of the law of love, such as the world has not seen.
What is left of the law of love in those villains who buried children and the elderly alive in the ground, smashed the heads of newborns on stones, exterminated tens of millions of people? Where is Love? There was no trace of her, love is forgotten.
Instead of the law of Christ's love, the world lives by the law of universal enmity. Whoever follows the newspapers of what is happening in the world shudders when he sees how the most satanic untruth triumphs, how the great powers encourage political violence that deserves deep condemnation.
And around us? Living in a city is more dangerous than in a dense forest, because there are many bandits in the city, full of malice and hatred. For the people in the city - baptized people who were once Christians - have become more evil, more dangerous than animals. Holy love is trampled on, trampled on with dirty boots, the Gospel of Christ is trampled on, no one wants to hear about love.
What should we do, how should we be? Shall we also become wolves, of which there are so many around? Of course not. Christ's must be preserved until the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of Christ must be preserved in the hearts of Christ's small flock, and those horrors of life, the horrors of unrighteousness, trampled love, which we see daily and hourly, should encourage us to kindle the holy Christ in our hearts. love.
How to do it, to whom love is given? Only to those who fulfill the commandments of Christ, who follow the narrow path of suffering, without turning off this path, no matter what suffering and persecution threatens. Go, go, go endlessly along this way of the cross, go without looking back, go to the light of Christ. If we stubbornly and unceasingly move towards the light, then we will come.
How can you love people who torture us: thieves, bandits, rapists who do us great harm? This is possible, perhaps not completely, but at least to a small extent. Think what is pity? This is one of the forms of the love of a saint. Shouldn't we feel sorry with all our hearts for people who have rejected Christ, who are walking along the path of perdition, who are going to their father -? Shouldn't you feel sorry for them? It is impossible to love them with pure, complete love, but it is possible to pity them, lamenting the heart that these unfortunate people are on the path of death. If we do not curse these people, we will fulfill the law of Christ even in relation to them.
Do you know that the great Saint Seraphim of Sarov was attacked by robbers, several peasants from a village neighboring the monastery, beat him with mortal combat, crushed his skull, broke his ribs so that he lost consciousness and lay in the monastery hospital for several months until the Most Holy Mother of God came heal him. How did he react to the robbers? They were caught, handed over to the court, and the Monk Seraphim begged with tears not to punish them, but to let them go. He wept, he pitied them, and therefore loved them.
Such pity was shown by quite a few other saints. This is how the saints treated those who did great evil to them. So God Himself tolerates sinners, even endured such a terrible robber as Barbarian, who killed three hundred people, then repented, offered God such repentance as cannot be imagined, and was forgiven by God, was loved by God, even received from Him the gift of miracles.
The Lord Himself is so long-suffering towards serious sinners, how dare we hate and curse them? We should feel sorry for them, and pity, as I said, is one of the forms of love.
If one can even pity the murderers, the villains, then what shall we say about the less serious sinners - about the unfortunate thieves, about all those who perish in sins? They must be pitied even more than the Monk Seraphim pitied his murderers. Let no one say: “How can I love these people who are poisoning our lives and disgracing the Russian people?” Let everyone not curse, but pity them, and then the love of Christ will dwell in our hearts. Christ's imperceptibly, day after day, penetrates into the heart of a person who tries to please God, always prays, humbles his flesh with fasting, tries to help the people around him.
The love of Christ pours out into the heart of such a person, fills it to the brim and overflows, as it poured out at the Monk Seraphim on sinners who came to him in thousands. Pray to God for such love with the words of St. Ephraim the Syrian: “Lord and Master of my life, grant the spirit of love to me, Thy servant!” And God will give you the spirit of love. Amen.
Conclusion of the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian
The great prayer of Ephraim the Syrian ends with an extremely important petition:
.
The condemnation of our brothers is our deepest universal habit. The condemnation of our neighbors is what we are always busy with, and we leave the most important of all our deeds - the consideration of our transgressions.
No one has such a custom: from the beginning of the day until the very night we think about everything, do everything, only we do not do the important thing - considering our heart. No one is engaged in this, except for a small, small number of people who have dedicated themselves to God, they have this most important, main occupation: they are looking for the impurities of sin in their hearts. When they find it, they easily and quickly get rid of it, because when they find some kind of impurity in their hearts, they become disgusted and try their best to get rid of it. When they see sins, they will repent and be cleansed of them.
Remember the words of the Apostle Paul to us: “And why are you judging your brother? Or are you also, that you humiliate your brother? We will all stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ."(). When we condemn others, we do not remember, we do not notice that we ourselves are guilty of the same. And we know that there is a judgment of God not only for the committed sins, for which we condemn our neighbors, but also for the very condemnation: “Do you really think, man, that you will escape the judgment of God by condemning those who do such things and doing the same yourself?”() The Lord leads you yourself to repentance, and not to the condemnation of others. Don't worry about others.
Remember how they brought to the Lord a woman taken in adultery and asked: “Teacher, Moses ordered such sinners to be stoned. What do you think?" The Lord Jesus Christ did not immediately answer. He sat in the courtyard of the temple and wrote something with his finger in the sand. And only when he was asked a second time, he gave the most amazing answer he could give: “He who is without sin among you, be the first to throw a stone at her.”. With great shame, bowing their heads, the scribes and Pharisees, who considered themselves righteous, began to disperse one after another. And Jesus wrote in the sand, and finally raised his head and asked: "Where are your accusers? Nobody has condemned you. ...And I do not condemn you. Go ahead and don't sin." ().
What an amazing prohibition of condemnation, how clearly the Lord said that one should think first of all and most of all about one's sins. He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone. We are not without sin, which means we do not dare to throw a stone of condemnation at others, but we are constantly throwing stones, every day and every night we are throwing stones of condemnation: “Who are you, condemning another's slave? Before his Lord he stands or he falls. And he will be raised, for God is mighty to raise him up. We will all stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ."(). We need to think about this judgment over us, about ourselves, and not be concerned with other people's sins. See how holy and important this law is.
What should we do if we see a person who obviously sins and deserves condemnation? And then one should not condemn, one should put the barrier door on one’s lips, not condemn the sinner, but pity him, remember that his answer is heavy before God, and silently offer up a short prayer: Lord, forgive him. And then the demon of condemnation will flee immediately, for demons flee from prayer. If we condemn, the demon will remain, and another time we will condemn, and we will condemn without end.
Where does the spirit of condemnation come from? From pride, from the fact that many consider themselves superior and better than others. Often there is condemnation from envy: we envy those who have received spiritual gifts, sometimes even just pious people, and envy leads to condemnation. They condemn from malice, from hatred. And there is very little love, but there is a lot of anger and hatred in our hearts. This malice, this hatred prompts us to condemn our neighbors, closes our eyes to our own sins and shortcomings.
We condemn a person very often and without any envy. It often depends on an ingrained habit of judgment. Judgment, like everything else, becomes our habit if we constantly condemn.
Anything that is often done becomes our skill. If someone has envy, hatred owns the heart, the habit of condemning will take root, it will always, incessantly, tirelessly condemn.
This habit must be eradicated, not allowing it to grow in us. You must catch yourself in every condemnation, condemn yourself for every condemnation. Having condemned ourselves once or twice, we will learn to refrain and stop judging others, and focus our spiritual gaze on our own heart.
Thus, let us fulfill what we ask in the prayer of Ephraim the Syrian: Grant me to see my sins and do not condemn my brother, for you are blessed forever and ever.
On March 8, 2011, on Tuesday of the first week of Great Lent, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia prayed during the statutory service at the Resurrection Cathedral of the Intercession Stauropegial Convent in Moscow. At the end of the service, the Primate of the Russian Church addressed the faithful with the primatial homily
“During Great Lent, we repeatedly repeat the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian, the words of which are well known to us: “Lord and Master of my life, do not give me the spirit of idleness, despondency, lust and idle talk.” In prayer, the vices that are destructive to the human soul are listed, and we turn to God so that the All-Merciful Creator will protect us from these vices and remove them from our lives.
“It is the use of the power of other people that is the most significant aspect of power, which is at the same time a great temptation,” Patriarch Kirill emphasized the high responsibility of those who have any power. - "That's why it is important that the goals that stand before those in power are pleasing to God."
“Why, then, does Saint Ephraim especially single out arrogance, putting the mention of this vice into his penetrating prayer? Because arrogance is a sin. Power is not a sin; moreover, the word of God says: “All power is from God” (cf. Rom. 13:1). This does not mean that all power is good, it does not mean that all power is justified by God, but it does mean that the very institution of power is blessed by God. In fact, already in paradise, in the primordial family, Adam was the first. Throughout the history of the human race, power has played a huge role in organizing people's lives.
His Holiness the Patriarch spoke about the manifestations of the sin of lust for power, arrogance: “Love of power, lust for power can also manifest itself in everyday life ... it often happens that a stronger one, having gained the upper hand, enjoys his power and makes another - a wife or husband - unhappy just because lust, lust for power even in these microscopic dimensions - on the scale of just one family - destroys the souls of people and brings sorrow, ”-
“In order for arrogance or lust for power not to dominate us, especially over those who are invested with power, we must remember the words of St. Orthodox Church.
"May the Lord give everyone who has power - both large and very small - wisdom and understanding that through power one can gain salvation and through power one can destroy the soul."
“May the Lord help us all to keep the words of St. Ephraim the Syrian in our hearts. Amen,” the Patriarch concluded his heartfelt address to the faithful with these words.
A WORD AFTER THE MORNING SERVICE
ON TUESDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK OF THE GREAT
LENT IN THE RESURRECTION CATHEDRAL OF POKROVSKY
STAUROPEGIAL WOMAN'S MONASTERY
On the sin of arrogance, or lust for power
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!
During Great Lent, we repeatedly repeat the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian, the words of which find a lively response in our soul: “Lord and Master of my life, the spirit of idleness, despondency, lust and idle talk, do not give me.” We turn to the All-Merciful Creator with a prayer to protect us from these vices that are destructive to the human soul.
Among other sins, the prayer mentions the vice of arrogance, or lust for power. Throughout the history of the human race, the institution of power has great importance in the organization of people's lives. Power is power, and power has always been desirable for a person - after all, it is often with the help of power that people strive to achieve their goals. But if a person who is not invested with power, solving his problems, relies, as a rule, only on his own strengths and bears responsibility only for himself, then those who have power to achieve goals use the strengths, capabilities and abilities of other people. However, they also bear a deep responsibility before God - both for themselves and for them. The use of other people's power, being the most significant aspect of power, is at the same time a great temptation and temptation, especially when power is seen as a means to achieve personal goals or used as a source of pleasure and enjoyment in having others obey your will. It is from this perception and use of power that we ask God to protect us, turning to Him with the words of the prayer of the saint
Ephrem the Syrian. Power is not an easy cross, requiring from everyone who is endowed with it, constant work, attention and vigilant care for their neighbors, for those who, due to the prevailing circumstances, found themselves in a dependent position. It is very important that those in power pursue only charitable, just, worthy goals in their activities. Otherwise, the efforts of many people through the mechanism of power can be directed to achieve ungodly goals, and then the one with power will lead into temptation, lead astray those who are forced to work with him,
Why does Saint Ephraim, in his penetrating prayer, mention arrogance? Because arrogance is a sin, power is not a sin. Moreover, the Word of God says: “All power is from God” (Rom. 13:1). This does not mean that all power is good and justified, but it does mean that the very institution of power is blessed by God. Already in paradise, in the primordial family, Adam was the first and foremost, and Eve was given to him as a helper (Genesis 2:18).
Someone may say: “But most people do not have power, why does the monk suggest that everyone pray to the Lord for protection from the vice of lust for power?” In particular, monastics can ask such a question, because the Monk Ephraim composed this prayer primarily for those with whom he labored together - for the monks, monastics. What is the power of monks? And what power do most people have? Many, understanding by this term only political, economic power, the power of influential and powerful people, may ask with bewilderment: “Well, what kind of power do I have?”
However, arrogance, lust for power can also manifest itself in everyday life, and this happens quite often. How many conflicts and quarrels occur in the family due to the fact that the spouses are in an irreconcilable struggle for power over each other! And it often happens that a stronger one, having suppressed an opponent and having won a “victory”, enjoys his power, humiliating and making another - a wife or husband - unhappy, because love of power even on such microscopic scales - on the scale of only one family - destroys the soul and brings sorrow.
Often and in labor collectives, and in various informal groups, the person who has more influence and enjoys higher authority revels in his ability to influence those around him with authority.
Whenever someone seeks to receive only pleasure from power, he sins, for power is given to serve others. She has no other God-blessed goal, as soon as serving others. And this concerns
not only influential and powerful people who hold in their hands the reins of government of entire nations, but everyone who has at least some kind of power, whether it be the power of a word or thought, persuasion or example - all this can serve either the death or the salvation of a person.
In order not to let the sin of lust for power enslave us, especially those who are invested with power ex officio, we must always remember and repeat the words of St. Ephraim addressed to the Lord: “Give me not the spirit of lust.”
But in addition to sincere and heartfelt prayer that the performance of imperious official powers or simply authority in the family, team or society does not turn into a love of power, you need to constantly keep your thoughts and actions, your lifestyle and style of communication with others under control. Here is what St. Tikhon of Zadonsk said about the vice of arrogance: “Love of power is a great evil in a person and the beginning of all evil ... We know that the lawless Herod was not afraid to kill so many thousands of innocent babies, just not to lose royal power. 0, the great evil is lust for power! A person wants to control others, but he cannot control himself... You must first learn to control yourself, and then take power over others.”
May the Lord grant to everyone who has power - both great and very little - wisdom and a clear understanding that through power one can gain salvation and through power one can destroy the soul. And in order for any exercise of power or use of personal authority, whether in the Church, society or state, to contribute to the prosperity and well-being of people, you need to ask the Lord to get rid of the temptation of arrogance and to give inner humility, the ability to realize one's sinfulness, weakness, unworthiness before the face of God. Then the possession of power will not become an obstacle in order to accomplish one’s salvation through service to one’s neighbors, as many great men and women who were counted among the holy saints did it, being involved in the royal, princely, bishopric and many other types of high service in the human race. May the Lord help everyone to tremblingly keep in their hearts the words of the inspired prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian!
Amen.
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During Great Lent, during each prayer rule or prayer, the penitential prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian "Lord and Master of my life" is read.
St. Ephraim the Syrian, the son of a farmer from the city of Nisibis in Mesopotamia, lived in the 4th century, being reckless and irritable in his youth, but, having accidentally ended up in prison on charges of stealing sheep, he received his sight, was honored to hear the Voice of God and humbled himself. After that, he went to James of Nisibis, studied the Holy Scriptures and led an ascetic life in the mountains until the capture of Nisibis in 363 by the Persians. Since that time, he settled on a mountain near the city of Edessa, taught the people, preached Christianity to the pagans, refusing the rank of bishop, offered to him by St. Basil the Great in Caesarea. St. Ephraim died in 373 in the rank of deacon. Lord and Master of my life,
do not give me the spirit of idleness, despondency, arrogance and idle talk.
The spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love, grant me to Your servant.
Hey, Lord the King,
grant me to see my sins,
and do not judge my brother,
for blessed art thou unto the ages of ages, amen.
God, cleanse me a sinner!
The special significance of this prayer for believers lies in the fact that it lists the most important components of repentance, indicates what exactly needs to be done, what to make efforts for. For the goal of these efforts, feats is to free ourselves, first of all, from an illness that prevents our communion with God.
A general explanation of prayer is given in the Law of God by Archpriest Seraphim Slobodsky:
my belly- my life
Spirit of idleness- tendency to idleness or laziness
Despondency- hopelessness
Loyalty- lust for power, i.e. love to rule and rule over others
idle talk- pronunciation of empty words (idle words), as well as the pronunciation of bad and swear words
Don't give me- don't let me
chastity- sanity, prudence, as well as purity and integrity of the soul
humility- consciousness of one's imperfection and unworthiness before God, and when we do not think of ourselves that we are better than others (humility)
patience- patience is needed when enduring any inconvenience, deprivation and impiety; and it is also necessary in order to bring the good work begun to the end
love- love (to God and neighbor).
Oh Lord- Oh my God!
Grant me sight Let me see, let me know.
under brother of course every other person.
Like bless you because you are worthy of praise
God, cleanse me a sinner!
Saint Ephraim the Syrian expressed in prayer the pain and suffering of the human soul that is hungry for God, seeking salvation in him.
"Lord and Master of my life"
Appeal to the Lord God: "Lord and Master of my life"
You are my mentor, my wisdom, my inspiration and my comforter. Lord, strengthen me in faith in You and in Your saving teaching.
"Do not give me the spirit of idleness, despondency, arrogance and idle talk"
"Deliver me from the spirit of idleness, despondency, arrogance and idle talk"
"Spirit of Idleness". Lord, do not let me be idle, empty and spend time carelessly. Each person has talents and knowledge given by You that need to be used for the benefit of people and Your glory. Idleness is the root of all sins, because it poisons the spiritual energy.
"Spirit of Despondency". The fruit of idleness is despondency. A person, being in the power of despondency, is deprived of the opportunity to see anything good and positive; everything is bad for him, he denies everything. Pessimism is truly a diabolical power over us. Lord, do not let me lose heart. The one who gives in to despondency does not believe in God's Providence, in God's care for us, that each of us has a task and that everything has its own reason. Therefore, we must always believe, pray, hope and expect help from You.
"Spirit of Curiosity". Curiosity is love for power, for power in the family, in the team of colleagues, in politics. It is idleness, laziness and despondency that fill our life with ambition. Laziness and despondency pervert our attitude to life, deprive it of meaning, and, as if compensating for this, a thirst to rule is born in us. God forbid that I love to rule over others, to command and manage everyone, to always be in the first place, to insist on my own, to be proud. Don't let me put my desire above others. Let me do only Your will. Help me be humble.
"Spirit of idle talk". Man alone among all the creatures created by God received the gift of speech. The Holy Fathers see in this "the imprint of the image of God in man." But, being the highest gift, speech at the same time is the judgment of man, for the word can become a means of falling, self-destruction, deceit and sin. The word can save and kill, inspire and poison. God forbid me to idle talk - to speak idle words, to talk about idle objects that no one needs. Do not let me sin with verbosity, idle talk - which give rise to condemnation and insult.
“The spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love, grant me to Your servant”
"Spirit of Chastity". The distortion of our opinions, concepts, of our whole life, the impossibility of seeing things as they are, in their integrity - that's idleness.
The opposite of it is precisely chastity, inner unity with the whole world, a sense of true values, spiritual control over one's own emotions and over one's own body.
Help me Lord to be chaste. (The chaste one - who has kept himself in virgin purity or marriage purity, immaculate). Help me, Lord, to be morally pure: in deeds, in words and thoughts.
"The Spirit of Humility and Patience". The first wonderful fruit of integrity and chastity is humility. We learn humility by contemplating Christ, measuring and comparing every word, every deed, our whole life with Christ. Humility is the opposite of vanity that plagues our world.
Following humility, we pray for patience. Patience is indulgent and allows you to see the depth of things.
And, finally, a petition for love, it is the fruit and foundation of all virtues and deeds and can be given by God alone - this is the gift and goal of the entire spiritual path and experience. God is love, the New Testament says (I John 4:8). Only through love is man deified, that is, he is likened to God. Help me, Lord, to be humble, calm, not to be indignant in vain - help me to be patient. All these sins close our spiritual eyes and we do not see everything as it is. Humility and patience solves many of our difficulties.
Help me, Lord, to love everyone in word, deed and thought.
“Yes, Lord the King, grant me to see my sins, and do not condemn my brother.”
"Lord the King, help me see my sins and not judge others."
In the latest request: "Let me see my sins and not judge my brother"- everything is brought together. Now we face one danger - pride. Everything can turn into pride: the good deeds that we remember, and the sight of our sins, and false piety and humility, and self-condemnation for show. And only when both chastity, and humility, and patience, and love unite in us into one whole, then our main enemy - pride - begins to annihilate and melt.
Judgment of people is a great sin and comes from our selfishness, hostility and envy towards people. As a rule, we do not notice our sins, we justify them, they seem insignificant to us. We see the sins of others clearly, even the smallest ones. The Lord Jesus Christ teaches us, "And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but you do not feel the beam in your eye" (Matthew 7:3). In order not to sin with condemnation, we need to learn to see our sins, then it will be easier for us to endure the weaknesses of others and we will be less inclined to condemn them.
Lord, help me see my sins and not judge others.
"For blessed art thou unto the ages of ages, amen." Conclusion of the prayer: Lord, may You be blessed for all time, amen.
Lord, may You and Your Holy will be always, everywhere and everywhere.
Here is the main content of the Great Lenten Prayer of Ephraim the Syrian.
The repentant prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian inspired Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin to create a beautiful poem "The desert fathers and the blameless wives":
Desert fathers and blameless wives,
To fly with your heart in the region of correspondence,
To strengthen it in the midst of the valley storms and battles,
Laid down many divine prayers;
But none of them make me happy
Like the one that the priest repeats
In the sad days of Great Lent;
More and more often she comes to my lips
And strengthens the fallen with an unknown force:
Lord of my days! The spirit of idleness is dull,
Love of command, this hidden serpent,
And do not give idle talk to my soul.
But let me see my, oh God, sins
Yes, my brother will not accept condemnation from me,
And the spirit of humility, patience, love
And revive chastity in my heart.
The prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian touches the poet and strengthens the fallen with an unknown force. According to the words of the prophet Zechariah, compunction is a gift of God that comes to a person along with grace and instructs him to look at God, Whom they pierced ... to weep ... and mourn (Zech. 12: 10); tenderness is, first of all, a repentant feeling.
“Touches” means “causes a feeling of repentance”, “excites the desire to pray”.
This recognition is very significant, since the poem was written on July 22, four months after Lent ended. The last time in the temple in 1836 it was pronounced on March 25 on Great Wednesday at the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts.
Both the transcription of the prayer and the poetic "preface" to it indicate that the poet had an idea of prayer experience and knew well the liturgical texts of the Great
post. That is why Pushkin was able to convey the "meaning and spirit" of the prayer of Ephraim the Syrian.
A.Sokolovsky
Delve deeper into this prayer, think about why he does not simply ask to get rid of such and such vices and give such and such virtues. Why does he say: "Do not give me the spirit of idleness, despondency, arrogance and idle talk." Why he speaks of the spirit of vices, speaks of the spirit of virtues - this is important to understand.
You know that things have their own smell, peculiar to them. If your things remain in your room, different vessels, everything that was consumed during life in it, and the room remains locked, your smell, the spirit of these things, will remain in it. You know that if you pour a fragrant substance into a vessel, then empty the vessel and wash it, the aroma will remain for a long time; and vice versa, if something stinking is poured in, then the stinking spirit will remain for a long, long time. This is what happens in the human soul. In the soul of a person, all the vices that a person sins leave their spirit, their mark, on the other hand, all the good that he creates leaves their light. If a person has always done evil deeds, if his soul is saturated with vices, the spirit of these vices will remain in the soul forever. If a person lives a good life, does a lot of good, if he constantly sanctifies his soul with prayer, he is imbued with the spirit of prayer, the spirit of virtues, the spirit of righteousness.
We know from everyday experience that we can already with a brief acquaintance, sometimes at the very first meeting, we can catch what kind of spirit a person is. If we meet a person who is mired in sins, you will catch what kind of spirit this person is. It is similar to how a dog searches for a smell, which remains even on the tracks of a person, and leads to this person.
Every person has his own spirit, and so St. Ephraim the Syrian asks God not only to deliver him from vices and give virtues, he asks that the Lord give him the spirit of these virtues, to deliver him from the spirit of vice - even so that there is no trace, the smell of vice, so that it smells sweet of Christ.
You must know that it is much easier to get rid of individual vices than to get rid of the spirit of these vices. This spirit clings extremely tenaciously to our hearts, and it is possible to completely get rid of the vicious spirit only gradually, praying to God for help, so that God will deliver us from this evil spirit. This is how the words of Ephrem the Syrian should be understood. Perhaps they can be understood more directly.
We always live and act under the spiritual influence of two kinds: on the one hand, the grace-filled holy influence of God Himself, the Angels of the Saints, and, in particular, our Guardian Angel, on the other hand, the spirit of Satan, the demonic spirit, always pours out on us in a dark stream. And just as among the Angels of Light there are Angels-carriers of individual holy virtues, so among demons there are carriers of individual sins that always affect us. So St. Ephraim asks God that the grace of God would drive away the dark, crafty spirits of demons that lead us to sin.
You see what these deep words of Ephraim the Syrian mean. Ask consciously to free us from the very spirit of wickedness, malice, all vices, which is extremely difficult, since the power of demons over us is extremely strong. Remember that by your own efforts you cannot avoid the dark, disastrous influence of these spirits and humbly pray to God, as Ephraim the Syrian teaches to pray:
“Lord and Master of my life! Do not give me the spirit of idleness, despondency, arrogance and idle talk! Grant the spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love to me, Thy servant. Yes, Lord the King, grant me to see my sins and not condemn my brother, for blessed are you forever and ever. Amen".
Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian - for idleness
Lord and Master of my life! Do not give me the spirit of idleness, despondency, arrogance and idle talk!
Life has been given to us so that we hasten, hasten to do the great work of purifying our hearts, following the Lord Jesus Christ. But this following is strenuous work, often hard work, and not idleness. This is the transfer of suffering for the Lord Jesus Christ, and idleness does not suffer, avoids suffering.
Do you know that all the saints, who, it would seem, did not need labor, who devoted their entire lives to spiritual exploits, divided the time of day into three parts: one part - prayer, the other part - reading the word of God, one part - work , labor. They lived in the desert, in the wild Libyan desert, lived in the forests of the Far North, in impenetrable wilds, and devoted one part of their time to work.
They chose different kinds of work: weaving baskets, matting, planting vegetable gardens, cutting wood, building cells, churches and entire monasteries. What they did with their hands was sold to the nearest city, they ate themselves and fed the poor. They considered work an important and necessary thing.
The holy apostle Paul preached God for whole days, and at night he made tents. By the light of the moon or lamp, he worked diligently, considering work obligatory for himself. His main work, his main aspiration was to run, to hasten as much as he could towards the goal - to flee to the Kingdom of God.
Do you know his amazing words: “Brethren, I do not consider myself accomplished; but only, forgetting what is behind and stretching forward, do I strive for the goal, for the honor of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” ().
He, not at all considering himself to have achieved it, strove forward, forgetting what had already been achieved, strove for a higher goal, for receiving the highest calling of the Divine in Christ Jesus.
This is an example of a life opposite to the life of idle people. You will not find any trace of idleness in the life of the Apostle Paul, in the life of fasting hermits, in the life of a monastic, in the life of great saints. They all worked from morning to night. Idleness was alienated, idleness was considered a great and fatal evil.
It is necessary, hearing the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian, which is so often repeated, to carefully listen to every word of the prayer, remember, delve into the meaning of these words and imprint them forever in your heart. I will help you capture them. Today I captured the petition of St. Ephraim for deliverance from the spirit of idleness.
Remember that life is short, you must hurry, hurry, as the apostle Paul hastened - you must hurry in the work of the Lord. Amen.
Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian - for despondency
Lord and Master of my life! Spirit of despondency do not give me.
What is the spirit of despondency? This is what is called discouragement. People who do not understand Christianity at all, who do not understand our spiritual life, think that the entire Christian religion is full of a spirit of despondency. Looking at the monks walking around in black clothes with downcast eyes and turning over the rosary, they think that the whole religion is dull, like the kind of monks. And this is not so at all. This contradicts the spirit that permeates everything, for tell me, can a person with a breakdown in spirit have the spiritual strength, spiritual vigor necessary to walk along the narrow path, tirelessly struggling with demons? Of course not.
Our religion is not a religion of despondency; on the contrary, it is a religion of cheerfulness, energy, willpower, strength of character. Our religion does not produce despondency, but something quite the opposite, what the Apostle Paul says: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, mercy, faith, meekness, temperance. There is no law for them." ().
This is the true spirit, the essence of our religion: not despondency at all, but righteousness, peaceful joy in the Holy Spirit. Can one who possesses this joy be despondent? Of course not.
People often make mistakes when judging a person's appearance. A true Christian does not look like people who indulge in the joys of life. He is always peaceful, often appears to be deeply thoughtful, walks with his head down, indulging in his thoughts. Does this mean that he is despondent, discouraged? This means that the joys of the world, which other people appreciate, are far from Christians, alien to him, just as children's games and amusements are alien to an adult.
The thoughts of a Christian are focused on the eternal, on the Kingdom of God, turning to the Lord Jesus Christ, therefore he is always serious and thoughtful. Sometimes it happens that even Christians become despondent from time to time, there comes a decline in spirit. They, having already gone far along the path of Christ, the path of renunciation of the world, sometimes return in their thoughts to their former path; it seems to them that they have strayed from this path in vain, that it would be good to follow the wide beaten path along which most people go. Then they fall into despair.
This is the state of those people who have come to know the great mysteries of Christ, have left the wide path of the temptations of the world, have followed the path of suffering for Christ. They are seduced, stopped by legions of demons, prevented from walking along the path of Christ, presenting pictures of the joyful life that they left, a picture of family happiness, the bliss of friendship, they are pulled back from the great path, back to this path.
And often demons manage to achieve their goal: a person falls into despondency, loses his spirit, loses his zeal for the Lord Jesus Christ, and this despondency is a great danger that lies in wait for every Christian on his path for Christ, this is a devilish temptation. All the saints were subjected to these slanders of the spirits of darkness, and in the vast majority of cases, by prayer, fasting, and vigil, Christians defeated the spirit of despondency cast by the devil. But there were also those in whose souls the spirit of despondency grew and grew, and they left the path of Christ. And when they left, they felt abandoned by God, the emptiness and heaviness of life became unbearable for them, and they often ended their lives by suicide.
That is why all the saints considered despondency to be a great danger, a great misfortune, and directed all their forces to the struggle against the spirit of despondency.
Even saints can fall into despondency. Why, where? No longer from Satan, not from the spirits of darkness. Despondency arises when they are temporarily abandoned by God's grace. This happened to all the saints, this is a necessary test for every one who strives in piety. It is necessary that a person does not attribute to himself, to his strengths, to his merits, everything that he has already achieved. He needs to be reminded that he did not achieve this on his own, but only by God's grace.
When a person reaches a high life, he sometimes thinks about himself, and God's grace leaves him for a while. He then falls into a heavy, unbearable state of mind, his heart immediately becomes empty. Instead of the warmth sent from God, cold settles in the heart, instead of light, impenetrable darkness sets in, instead of joy, deep despondency. The Lord does this in order to remind the ascetic that he walks the path of Christ not by his own strength, but by the grace of God.
This is one source of discouragement. What other sources are there? I spoke to you about idleness, you should understand that idleness is one of the mothers of despondency. Idle people, not working and completely secure, drowning in luxury, people who are satiated with the blessings of life, lose their taste for life, they get bored with everything, everything becomes uninteresting, boring, they do not find joy in anything, their hearts are filled with despondency - this heavy and dangerous enemy of our salvation.
Another source of discouragement: there are people who tend to see everything in a gloomy light, they are called pessimists. They tend to be in such a mood, to focus their thoughts on the dark - sinful. They raise the question: where is the justice of God, where is the truth, if the poor, but the pious suffers, and the unbeliever is rich, walking on crooked paths, blessed?
If a person is inclined to notice in life only the dark, only the bad, the despondency that seizes him grows and grows, it comes to the point that the person does not see anything good and commits suicide. So strong is the spirit of despondency. The second time I say how he can bring to suicide.
There is another source of despondency, the most frequent source. These are sorrows, unfortunate cases that we experience in life. A loved one, a loved one will die, a child, a husband, a mother will die. The person falls into despair. The world is not dear to him, he thinks only of his dear one who has died, a poor man wanders in thought near the grave, imagines his loved one lying in a coffin and decomposing. Deeper and deeper becomes despondency.
What is the remedy for this despondency? No need to wander around the grave with your thoughts, remember the past, shed tears. Died far, far away. It is necessary to fly away to where the dear one, beloved with all the power of thought, has gone. Know that his soul is before God and the angels, rejoicing in his liberation. If you focus not on the dark, but on the light, not on the perishable, but on the eternal, the spirit of despondency will go away.
Serious bodily illnesses sometimes plunge into despondency. There are many people who impatiently bear diseases. And there were saints who lay bedridden with illness all their lives and praised God for it. It is necessary to remember such people and be able to accept the illnesses sent from God. There is no need to refuse the help of a doctor, for the wise son Sirahov says: “He created a doctor to help people” ().
A doctor is a servant of God who can relieve suffering and drive away the spirit of despondency.
These are the sources and causes of discouragement. The main means of dealing with them is. This is a remedy that has been tested by all the saints for many, many centuries. There is no more effective means than prayer, a constant request to God for help.
When you enter into a conversation with God, He comforts you, drives away the spirit of despondency. When you come to the temple of God, where everything is so far from worldly fuss, listen carefully to the hymns, and your spirit will leave the dark region of despondency and soar.
And if you proceed to the powerful means of combating despondency, which the Lord has given, if at confession you open your heart before the shepherd of the Church, and if after this you partake of the Body and Blood of Christ, you will feel relief and joy, and then the spirit of despondency will be driven out of you with shame.
Do not focus your thoughts on the gloomy, on the sinful, on the heavy, but, lifting up the spirit of grief, with your heart abide with God, in the halls of heaven, where there is no access for dark spirits that bring despondency.
Here's what every Christian needs to know about discouragement.
And what can be said about people who hardly know Christ, who follow the path of the world, who seek joy and consolation from the world? In appearance they often seem contented, cheerful, cheerful, as if they have no despondency. Don't think that it is, don't be tempted by their sight, but consider avoiding them from the path. If only they knew what was going on in the depths of their hearts. In the depths of their souls, the denunciation of conscience never ceases. No one can hear the conscience. The inner man raises his head at times and begins to yell. This is the constant suffering of those who pursue worldly prosperity. The Apostle Paul says: “Sadness even according to Bose, repentance unrepentantly does for salvation, sadness same worldly death does" ().
If you do not turn from sorrow for the world to sorrow for God, you will perish. Remember the severity of despondency, remember that the heart of a Christian should be filled with joy in the Holy Spirit, the joy of striving for the light, should be alien to the sorrow that fills the hearts of sinners.
Always remember this, and may the Lord have mercy on you, and may Saint Ephraim assist you with his prayers. Amen.
Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian - for arrogance
Lord and Master of my life! Do not give me the spirit of arrogance!
What is the spirit of curiosity? This is the desire to excel, to rule over others, to take first place. This desire to excel destroyed the archangel - the head of all angels - and made him Satan, cast him out of heaven. This desire to dominate ruined Korah, Dathan and Aviron, who envied the glory of Moses when he led the people of Israel through the wilderness into the land of Canaan; they wanted to overthrow him and usurp power, and the Lord punished them with a terrible execution: the earth opened up and swallowed them up with all their families.
Ambitiousness moved all heretics who exalted themselves above Christ, they wanted to put their own instead of the current of the Church, or else they wanted to become leaders in the Church.
Curiosity moved all the people who shook the world with their state uprisings. There were writers with corrupt thoughts who corrupted entire generations.
Curiosity - the passion to rule - the Lord condemned in a speech against the scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. He condemned their passion to be the first, their desire to be presented at feasts, to receive greetings befitting the leaders of the people. The Lord condemned them and said to His disciples, and through them to all of us: "Who wants to be the first, let him be ... servant to all "(). This is the opposite of arrogance - it orders to strive not for a high position, but to be the last, to be a servant to everyone.
You see how ambition is the passion to have influence, the passion to take the first place, how it is contrary to the spirit of the Gospel, the spirit of humility. And she owns everyone, there is no one who would not be infected with her - even small children. We know what happens when children play: some little boy will stand out, start to command, then command everyone, he is ready to enter into a fight when someone disputes his leadership.
Even among hermits, even in monasteries, where there should be no arbitrariness, where everyone should remember covenant to be everyone's servant, even there arrogance dominates people, although in a secret form. Before people, they do not seek superiority, but by excessive fasting and vigil they try to excel over everyone.
In worldly life, this passion dominates everyone: everyone strives for the highest position, they crave encouragement, everyone wants honor. Many parents instill ambition in their children, a passion to excel, try to make them occupy the highest position in life, and thereby corrupt their children.
Isn't it necessary to understand that the highest position is the lot of a few, they cannot all excel, occupy a high position. In fact, this is the lot of exceptional people, marked by God. Extremely many strive to occupy such a social position, do not disdain any means to achieve this goal, use connections, fawn, serve, do not disdain any means, just to achieve their goal, to occupy a high position in society, to become one of those in power.
Often, often, the Lord punishes them: their unfortunate passion ends in failure. They become embittered, refuse social work, go into the family circle and become isolated in family life. But pride torments them even here, and they torment their families, they torment their neighbors, and there is no peace in their souls.
These are the fruits of arrogance, that is why Saint Ephraim in his great prayer asks God to deliver him from the corrupting spirit of arrogance, so opposite to humility, without which one cannot even take a step in the Christian life.
If so, if it is not necessary to strive for the highest rank, to strive for primacy, how can we say that we should not strive to rise, to strive for the highest dignity, but only the highest, not perishable and worthless dignity, but to acquire that dignity that is great in the eyes of God's. The path to honor has been shown to all of us, higher than which there is none, with which no earthly achievements, no honor can be compared. The way to the Kingdom of God is shown to us, it is said that we can become friends of God, children of God. We will achieve this goal only by striving to fulfill all Christ's commandments. There is no need to be embarrassed if we are placed in a low, imperceptible position in society, we must remember that the Lord knows how to lead us onto an extremely wide path when we do not wait, do not strive for earthly glory.
The Lord often, in addition to our efforts and will, gives this glory. Glory flees from those who pursue it, who yearn for it, and finds those who run from it. True glory, glory from God, is given to those who do not pursue it.
It is necessary, without thinking about power over people, to delve into how you can develop your abilities and talents given from God; humbly, quietly delve into the development of one's abilities in silence, in ignorance of the world. And it may happen, as has happened more than once, that the Lord will raise such a person to unattainable heights of glory.
We know many examples from the history of science and philosophy, from the lives of prominent scientists who spent their lives in poverty, in ignorance of the world, were even persecuted and persecuted, were in complete contradiction to what people infected with the vice of arrogance are looking for; in silence, in poverty, in solitude, they worked on the tasks of science and philosophy and did deeds that glorified them in the history of mankind, made them bright stars of the progress of mankind.
Remember, the Lord knows how to mark people, to distinguish human deeds done according to the commandments of Christ. Who wants to be the first let it be the last, let it be a servant to everyone "().
Pray with Ephraim the Syrian for deliverance from the grave vice of arrogance. From this vice, may the Lord deliver you all. Amen.
Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian - for idle talk
Lord and Master of my life, do not give me the spirit of idle talk!
And Saint Ephraim prays about this, and the holy prophet David says in his psalm: “Lay, O Lord, a guardianship over my mouth, and a gate of protection over my mouth.” ().
And the Lord Jesus Christ Himself said that for every idle word we will give an answer at the Last Judgment (). Think about how serious it is, how hard it is: to give an answer for each, for a single idle word.
But tell me, is there anything else that would be treated easier than the word? It is amazing, amazing how people do not understand the enormous, colossal significance of the human word.
Our ability to speak makes us much like God Himself. created the whole world with a word (), the word of God has tremendous, powerful power. You know that the prophet Elijah resurrected the dead with a word (), stopped the rain with his word, closed the sky and caused hunger (), brought down rain on the earth ().
What is the power of the word? Do not think that the word escaping from the mouth is scattered in the air, and nothing remains of the word. This is not true. The word lives, lives for centuries, thousands of years. The words that were spoken by the great prophets of God, who lived many centuries before the birth of Christ, still live. The great words of Moses, the great words that the holy apostles once spoke, those words that came from the lips of the ascetics of God, the teaching of the Church of God, have been alive for thousands of years.
And if a word lives for thousands of years, it means that it is something extremely important. The word, proceeding from our mouths, always produces an extremely deep effect on the people around us, even on people far from us.
Every kind, wise word lives in people's hearts and brings good fruits for many years. Any evil word - slander, lies, slander - also lives for an extremely long time, for many years, instills in the minds, in the hearts of both close and distant people, directs their thoughts, their desires. Hearing our evil words, they are poisoned by them, imitate us and emit the same evil, poisonous words.
The graceful and wise words of the saints create truth in the world, do eternal good, and evil, sinful words bring dishonor, hatred, bring great harm to people around, even to all of humanity.
Words are alive, rushing like radio waves, rushing through space and pouring into the hearts and minds of people. Words are a huge force that connects or separates people. Uniting when the word is full of truth and truth, separating when it is full of slander and malice towards people. If people were deprived of the word, they would become like animals, and human life would be upset.
That is how great, how deep is the meaning of the human word. That is why Saint Ephraim prays for deliverance from idle talk, from idle talk.
You have all met a lot of people in your life, especially women, who chatter, chatter and chatter endlessly, irresistibly, and at the same time do not know their language of any fatigue: grinds, grinds and grinds. Everything they say is empty, no one needs it. And Ephraim the Syrian prays to God to deliver him from idle talk. He was afraid of falling, lest his tongue would destroy him, and these unfortunate talkers are not afraid of anything.
You know that people often endure these idle talk - they chatter, and let them talk to themselves - but it seems to them that they listen to them with pleasure, do not know that in the depths of their hearts everyone is weary of them, hate them. So great is the evil of idle talk, the evil that is caused by their chatter.
If the tongue talks and idles, then thoughts wander, not focusing on anything deep, true, important, wander aimlessly everywhere, as an unfortunate mongrel wanders, wagging its tail. Both their thoughts and feelings, as well as the direction of their desires, their activity - everything is empty, insignificant. The soul is starving, a person is disgusted by others, he inflicts grave, grave harm on himself. This is the meaning of idle talk.
Wise people who live a spiritual life never talk idle, they are always silent and concentrated. In ancient Greece, philosophers and sages were held in high esteem. Philosophers did not accept anyone as their disciple before the person proved that he knew how to keep silent. And would any of the idle talkers now pass the test of silence? Of course not.
If the vice of idle talk is so heavy, how to get rid of it, what to do with our irrepressible tongue? You need to do what Ephraim the Syrian did: you need to pray to God for deliverance from this vice, and the Lord Jesus Christ will grant what you ask. It is necessary to avoid communication with people who talk idle, to go far, far away from them, to seek the company of a few wise ones who open their mouths to say something useful, from whom you will not hear idle, soul-damaging words.
Watch yourself extremely carefully, acquire the habit of observing what you say, what your tongue is doing, get used to keeping your tongue in check. Don't let him talk idle. Remember in the evening what they said during the day, whether they chatted, whether they insulted anyone, whether they lied, whether they were sneaky. If you learn this habit, you will get used to watching your tongue, watching every movement and holding it back.
Remember, the more a person is focused on the main, inner, on the true, the more time he relies on reading the Gospel, Holy Scripture, the works of the holy fathers, the more he is imbued with their wisdom and the more he loses the desire to idly chat. To acquire power over the language is a great thing.
The Apostle James in his conciliar epistle says: “Whoever does not sin in the word, that person is perfect, able to bridle the whole body” ().
Do you understand what it means to harness the whole body? This means subordinating the body to the highest goals of spiritual life, curbing all lusts, passions, everything bad that the flesh attracts. Begin by curbing the tongue, and if you achieve this goal, attain perfection and curb your whole body. And if you bridle your whole body, you will be pure and righteous before God. May the Lord grant you all this purity and righteousness, and may Ephraim the Syrian always remind you of this. Amen.
Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian - for chastity
Lord and Master of my life, grant me the spirit of chastity!
Have you paid attention to the fact that even such a great ascetic, desert-dweller, such a great saint as Ephraim the Syrian, prayed that the Lord would give him the spirit of chastity. Did he, the holy elder, really need this prayer? It is not for us to judge, he himself judged that it is necessary to pray about this, and all the saints prayed about this.
Why did they pray? Because they knew that the Lord required from them, as well as from all Christians, complete, unconditional chastity, chastity not only of the flesh, but also of the spirit. Even in our thoughts, we do not dare and should not violate chastity, for the Lord Himself said, “that whoever looks lustfully at a woman is already fornicated with her in my heart(). And no one can avoid unclean thoughts, and the saints struggled painfully with these thoughts for many years.
I have already told you about how the Monk Martinian, a young man, fought desperately against this passion, how, when he was seduced by a depraved woman who managed to penetrate into his cell, he stood on the burning coals in order to overcome the carnal passion in himself.
So the saints fought for decades, and the main means in their struggle was fasting, humility, and, for all the holy fathers say that there is no greater protection from carnal lusts than humility.
A person, if he acquires humility, is freed from them, and proud people, alien to humility, are completely overwhelmed by this base passion. Remember this: humility is the first and most important way to free us from lust.
Do you know how many among us are easily, extremely easily related to the violation of the seventh commandment, how many such Christians who do not consider this a serious sin, who say: “After all, I am pious, I try my best to fulfill the commandments of Christ, I try to do works of mercy , won't the Lord forgive this little weakness"?
Those who speak so deeply are deeply mistaken, for what they call a small weakness, the apostle Paul calls it quite differently. He is so strict in this regard that in Ephesians he says: “But fornication and all uncleanness and covetousness should not even be named among you, as befits saints” ().
You can’t even think about them, you can’t even talk about them, as befits saints. He says that adulterers and fornicators and drunkards will not enter the Kingdom of God. But isn't it scary, isn't it an indication of the apostle that against the seventh commandment is not only a weakness that God will forgive. The apostle directly says that those who violate this commandment - fornicators and adulterers - will not enter the Kingdom of God ().
And where will they be? Of course, in a place of darkness, in a place of eternal torment. Think about it. Do not tell any of you that nature itself is so arranged that this passion is natural. This is completely wrong, human nature is designed so that people give birth to children, and not to defile themselves. For the apostle Paul says that everyone is outside the body: outside the body pride, vanity, ambition, envy, anger, since these are all passions of the soul, but fornication and adultery in the body itself, defiles not only the spirit, but also our body.
Didn't the Apostle Paul say that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and if the temple, then our bodies must be clean, not defiled by anything. To destroy the temple of the Holy Spirit, to make the members of our body members of a harlot. The apostle says with horror: “Let it not be so!” ()
How many among people are those who turn carnal passion into a constant pleasure, the most impure, the basest pleasure, which makes them equal to those animals that are distinguished by special lust: roosters and baboons.
It is shameful, shameful for a man in general, and even more so for a Christian man, to equal himself with a baboon. It is a shame, a shame to forget that his body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. For the apostle Paul says in his epistle: “The will of God is your sanctification, that you abstain from fornication; so that each of you knows how to keep his vessel in holiness and honor, and not in the passion of lust, like the pagans who do not know God. For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness.” ().
The holy apostle said: "Those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts" ().
Do you want to be Christ's, do you want to be friends of Christ, sons of God? If you want, then remember this: you must crucify your flesh with passions and lusts, mortify. You need a huge, everyday struggle with your flesh.
This struggle is not equally given to different people, for there are happy people who do not have great sensuality, and there are others who by nature, inherited from their parents, suffer from an unusually high sensuality and lust.
I know such an unfortunate person - one unfortunate woman, extremely pious, who inherited such exceptional lustfulness from her parents. I know how she struggles with this lust. She fights with all her might, comes to self-torture: she collects thorns with prickly thorns and crushes them with her hands so that the thorns stick into her hands. She suffers, she suffers, and yet she falls. But not only such unfortunate ones fall, but also many of us, for whom it is much easier to abstain.
What can we say about such a fall? Let us say that just as out of every fall, so also out of this fall, one can and must rise. We fall often, we fall in many respects, and if we fall in this respect, then we must climb out of that abyss, from that abyss into which we fell, climb out with all our might, calling for the help of the Holy Spirit, like a person who has fallen into an abyss, to climb out from her.
And what do people who fall into the abyss do? They get out of it with all their might, not sparing their hands, stained with blood, scratched on sharp stones, their nails torn off, their legs wounded - trying with all their might to get out.
There is fornication in wine, for nothing excites our lust so much as precisely drunkenness: having drunk wine, a person becomes a plaything in the hands of a prodigal demon.
A person who eats excessively, who is always idle, who does not want to work, who lives riotously and is only busy with entertainment, dancing, going to theaters and cinema, a person who sleeps like pampered women until 11 o'clock in the morning, will certainly and inevitably be a fornicator. for he does everything so that the lust of the flesh will bind him in his fetters.
And if a person is busy with constant work, physical or mental, if there is no time to be distracted from this work, having finished his work, in the evening he will strive only for rest. He will soon be satisfied with the necessary food and go to bed; he needs nothing so much as rest, he has no time for lust, no ugliness.
So, therefore, humility, fasting, strenuous work, constant fasting, constant prayers are the means by which we can free ourselves from the power of the prodigal demon. And how infinitely many unfortunate people are, especially among young people, who read passionate novels and stories with great interest and insatiability, which describe dirty pictures of depravity and lust. What a poison! If a person relishes them in a dirty novel or story, then he kindles his lust.
And we must act differently: not only not to kindle lust with pornographic writings and pictures, but we must strive to follow lust, and as soon as we notice that such images appear in our thoughts, now catch and try to grab the snake by the neck, near its head, and smash it head, for if we do not do this, then the serpent will imperceptibly crawl into your heart and poison you with fornication. And the seductive, impure images that the ancient serpent instills in your heart will easily and quickly turn into admiring these thoughts, and admiring them then turns into the deed itself.
We must remember what we heard recently in Psalm 136: you need to grab these Babylonian babies by their feet and smash their heads against a stone, until they are babies, until they mature, until they take possession of your heart ().
This is the task before you: the task of complete chastity, chastity not only of the flesh, but also of the spirit. But, as I said, very many take the sin of fornication lightly, do not consider it serious, and our job is to stop you, to make you think again.
What can help you with this? Those who correct themselves and receive remission of this sin at confession will be admitted to the Holy Chalice. And if any of you receives such an excommunication from Communion for a while, let him not complain, do not be upset. We must think deeply and say to ourselves: if so, then the situation is serious; it seemed to me a small sin, and the Holy One excommunicates me from Communion. Do not grieve, do not think that you can die without receiving Communion of the Holy Mysteries. Any prohibition of Communion is lifted in case of mortal danger.
Now you understand why Ephraim the Syrian prays to God to give him the spirit of chastity. May we, all sinners, all guilty of this sin, pray to God for salvation and turn to St. Ephraim the Syrian for help: “Help, help us in this struggle: we are weak, but you are strong!” Amen.
Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian - for humility
Grant the spirit of humility to me, O Lord, to Your servant.
Remember that the commandment of humility is the first commandment of beatitude, and if the first, then the most important. Have you ever heard the word of God proclaimed by the prophet Isaiah: “Thus says the High and Exalted One, the One who lives forever—Holy is His name. I live in the heights of heaven and in the sanctuary, and also with the contrite and humble in spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and revive the hearts of the contrite.” ().
Don't you want Himself to live with you? And if you like, remember, remember well: He Himself says that He lives in the heart of the humble and revives their hearts, but how much we need the quickening of our hearts!
Don't you want God to look upon you? And if you want, know and remember that God looks down on the humble in heart. Remember, remember the words of the Apostle James: "God opposes the proud, gives grace to the humble" ().
Do you want the Lord to resist you, don't you want to receive grace? And if you like, remember what humility is, what a holy virtue that is so pleasing to God, for which God lives with us and looks down on us.
This is the opposite of pride. The humble are the poor in spirit, remembering their shortcomings, directing their gaze into the depths of their hearts, they always tirelessly observe the movements of their hearts, they follow any impurity that they see in their hearts.
The saints, who always kept the commandments of Christ, loved Christ, in whose mind's eye the Lord always stood, always remembered humility and always prayed for it.
Christ says: "Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart"(). The Lord commands to learn humility from Him, the Lord commands to imitate Him in humility. Humility was manifest throughout the Lord's earthly life. It began from His very birth, for He was born as the humblest, simplest, most inconspicuous person, was born in a den for cattle, was laid in a manger.
And then all his life, didn't He give countless examples of humility? When Herod burned with rage, wanted to kill the Newborn Savior and sent his soldiers to beat the Bethlehem babies, couldn’t the Lord send one legion of angels from the legions that were always at His disposal, couldn’t He strike Herod? Of course he could, but He preferred to show humility and fled to Egypt from the wrath of Herod.
Didn't he set a perfect, extraordinary example of humility by washing the feet of his disciples? This represents the limit of humility.
And about the humility that He showed before the court and after the court, when He was led to Golgotha, crucified on the cross - human lips do not dare to speak about it, it is so immeasurable, so great.
The Lord tells us to learn humility from Him. And who now remembers humility? Humility is a quality of the human soul, which the proud stigmatize with contempt, for these people do not believe in Christ, they chose not the path of Christ, but other paths: they say that this is the spirit of slavery, that the humble are slaves, deprived of the quality of the most necessary, necessary, deprived of the spirit protest, resistance by force to the grave calamities of mankind.
Is there any truth in this? None, not a trace. It is necessary to say about the humble not what the slanderers say, but something completely different: that they are not slaves, subject to evil and violence, but the only conquerors of evil and violence. It must be said that only they are waging a real fight against evil, because they eradicate the very sources of evil from their hearts and the hearts of other people. They do not believe that the cause of evil lies only in the imperfection of social relations.
The humble is a true warrior of Christ, not a slave.
But how little humility, infinitely little now! The vast majority of people despise humility, strive for primacy and predominance in this world. It is almost impossible to find truly humble people, they do not think about humility, humility is forgotten, completely forgotten. Those who walk with all their hearts along the path of Christ, who learn humility from Him, think about humility. Only saints are truly humble.
It may seem strange how saints, who surpass other people to a great extent in moral virtues, in the height they have reached, can consider themselves, consider themselves completely sincerely lower than all others. The basis of their holiness is that they do not exalt themselves over anyone, but condemn their hearts.
The saints with extraordinary vigilance watched every movement of the heart and saw the slightest impurity in it, and if they saw it, they always remembered this impurity and therefore considered themselves unworthy before God.
People who are proud and daring dare to judge everything that is most lofty and holy; the humble are devoid of insolence, modest, quiet. Examples of this are found in many in Holy Scripture and in the lives of saints.
Who is greater before God than the righteous Abraham, who heard great promises and is called the friend of God, and this Great One never ceased to call himself dust and ashes. Who is greater before God than David, the prophet and king, and he said of himself: "I am a worm, not a man - a reproach in people"(). These were his completely sincere words. Who was greater before God in his labors than the apostle Paul? And he calls himself the first sinner, he was so alien to impudence and exaltation: he was timid, not impudent, he spoke of himself that he was among the Corinthians "in weakness and fear and great trembling"(). This deep humility is an example for all of us, infinitely far from it.
We need to diligently always think about humility and ask God for it. We cannot acquire this virtue by any of our own efforts. Humility - a great gift of God - is received by those who love God with all their hearts and strive to fulfill the commandments of Christ. Only to them will the Lord give this great gift. Their heart is humble, and when a person's heart is humble, the Holy Spirit dwells in him.
See what a great happiness it is to be humble, see how difficult it is to be humble. Have hope and know that every step along the path of Christ brings you closer to holy humility. If you multiply and frequent such steps, like the apostles and saints, by this you will draw closer to God. The Lord Jesus Christ told the disciples: “Let the greatest among you be a servant to all, for whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” ().
How infinitely often these words of Christ come true, how many proud, striving to rise above all, then fall below all. How many were humble, insignificant, born in a beggarly family, who lived in poverty at the beginning of their lives, and then became great people. Such is the story of the great Moscow saints.
Many, many others also came from the lowest social background and were exalted by God for their great, immeasurable humility. The Lord says: "Many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first"(). This is how it happens in our life, this is how it will be at the Last Judgment. The first will be the last, and the last, the insignificant, the despicable, will be the first. A lot, a lot of work is needed in order not to forget humility, a lot, a lot of work in order to acquire it.
We must remember the words of the Apostle Peter: “But clothe yourselves with humility of mind, while obeying one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”(). Remember, God opposes the proud, and only gives grace to the humble. Remember that even before the death of the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ humbled Himself. We need to strive for humility, constantly ask God for it: Lord and Lord of my life, grant the spirit of humility to me, Thy servant!
Know and remember that if a person constantly keeps these holy words in mind, he will receive from God the deep virtue of humility. Amen.
Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian - for patience
Lord and Master of my life, grant me the spirit of patience!
Oh, how we must ask for this spirit of patience! Oh, how we must acquire patience! For the Lord Himself said: "By your patience save your souls" ().
In patience is the salvation of our soul. Why is it so? Because the Lord Jesus Christ said: "Narrow is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life"(). This path is difficult, difficult, and the Lord told us, and the apostles tell us that this path - the path of Christian life - is the path of suffering, the path of sorrows. “You will be in a world of sorrow, but dare, as Az conquered the world” ().
If so, if the whole Christian path is the path of suffering, the path of sorrows, only in patience is the salvation of the world. We can save our souls only by patience.
The Apostle James says in his conciliar epistle: “With great joy, my brethren, receive when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience; patience must have a perfect effect, so that you are perfect in all its fullness, without any defect. ” ().
You see, patience has a perfect effect, patience makes us perfect in its entirety without any flaws. The Apostle Paul says: “You need patience so that, having done the will of God, you will receive the promise”(), - eternal life, the Kingdom of God.
Be patient: without patience it is impossible to be saved. This apostle, like all the other apostles, endured many, many great sorrows, persecutions, persecutions, and in the end - martyrdom. All the apostles suffered it, except for John the Theologian, who died of natural causes in extreme old age.
And the apostle Paul says: “The signs of an apostle have been set before you with all patience, signs, wonders, and powers.”(). (Everyone saw my apostolic dignity not only in the signs and wonders that I did, but also in my patience).
You see how great patience is: the apostle, along with signs and wonders, calls patience a sign of the apostles, a sign of holiness, a sign of the friends of God. He says in another message: “But we show ourselves as servants of God, ... in great patience, in calamities, in difficult circumstances” ().
To all he showed his apostolic face in great patience. And to his disciple, Bishop Timothy, he bequeathed: “But you, man of God, ... prosper in righteousness, piety, faith, love, patience, meekness” ().
If the apostle had to excel in patience so much, then how can we, so weak Christians, reject this virtue? How can we reject patience when we so easily begin to grumble against God, if He sends the inevitable suffering for Christians? Never, never should one reject patience, for without it the path to the Kingdom of God is absolutely impossible.
You know that great patience is needed even in worldly affairs, what shall we say about our path, about our spiritual life? It is immeasurably more important to us than to worldly people. How to acquire patience? Get used to endure, get used to not grumbling - and everyone is very inclined to grumble. And, of course, ask God for patience.
If we ask God for patience, we will ask for whatever pleases Him, and it will be with us according to the word of Christ: “If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him” ().
Isn't that a good thing - patience? A petition for patience is a petition pleasing to God, and God will not leave, God will help every Christian who calls for patience under the weight of his cross. God will help every unfortunate person, burdened with a large family and languishing in poverty, if he asks for patience.
But it happens that evil people also ask, walking the dark, sinful path, doing evil at every step; they also languish under the weight of their evil life, it happens that they also ask for patience. And God will not give them patience: this would mean to facilitate their black, sinful life, to contribute to it. He will not give them, but to all those good ones who humbly ask for patience on their Christian path, the Lord will give patience, as the Apostle Paul says: “Faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength, but when tempted will give relief, so that you can endure” ().
It gives patience, it does not burden anyone beyond strength, if only they would not fall into cowardice, if only they would remember that our troubles and sufferings, that our grief is nothing compared to what our Lord Jesus Christ endured for us. And therefore we must endure a lot, seeking consolation, “Looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who, instead of the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the Throne of God. Think of Him who endured such reproach from sinners against Himself, so that you do not become exhausted and weaken in your souls. ().
That's what you need to be strengthened, that's where you can draw from, endlessly draw patience - from the cross of Christ.
Look more often at the Holy Cross, at the Savior Crucified on the Cross, and pray with Ephraim the Syrian: Lord and Master of my life, grant me the spirit of patience, Thy servant. Amen.
Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian - for love
Lord and Master of my life, grant the spirit of love to me, Thy servant.
For love, which is the fulfillment of the whole law, we ask for love. If we do not have love, then, according to the word of the holy Apostle Paul, we "... ringing copper or sounding cymbal" ().
If we have the gift of prophecy and great knowledge, and have faith that moves mountains, but do not have love, we are nothing. If we distribute all our property to the poor and give the body to be burned, but we do not have love, we are nothing. That's what love is. If there is no love, no matter how perfect we may be, we are nothing.
Love is everything, for everything that the Lord Jesus Christ said, that He accomplished during the days of His earthly life, and above all, that He revealed on Golgotha, is a continuous great sermon about love. This means that love is something that must always be asked for, persistently, constantly. Love is that which to acquire is the greatest and main task of our life, for our task is to draw us closer to God, to become perfect, just as our Heavenly Father is perfect. And how to approach God without love? Without it, we are infinitely far from God.
Love is what all the saints cultivated in their hearts, what is given from God as the greatest gift of God's grace for the fulfillment of Christ's commandments.
There are happy people who are born with a soft, meek, loving heart; it is easier for them to achieve Christian love in their life than for everyone else, especially for those unfortunate ones who are born with a rough, cruel heart, little capable of love.
If a person was born with a meek heart, he still has to endure a lot, go through the path of suffering on the Cross, so that the love of Christ flares up in his heart with a bright flame; he must multiply this love that is given to him.
Christian love filled the hearts of people in ancient times, especially in the time of the apostles, when people loved each other like brothers, fulfilling the commandment of Christ. Of them the Lord could say: “By this they will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” ().
And now, where is love now, who will find it by day with fire? A terrible time will come, about which the Lord speaks, indicating the signs of His second coming. He said, among other things, and so: “Then many will be offended, and betray one another, and hate one another, and because of the increase of iniquity, the love of many will grow cold.” ().
We see this in our time, this is what torments, tears our hearts. We see many people who hate each other, betray each other, in whose hearts love has grown cold, and there are no traces of it left.
It is hard, unbearably hard to live, to see that instead of the love of Christ, hatred, mutual hatred rages. What a horror, an unspeakable horror we experienced so recently, when a people professing Christ, in alliance with other Christian peoples - the German people - committed such atrocities, such abuses of the law of love, such as the world has not seen.
What is left of the law of love in those villains who buried children and the elderly alive in the ground, smashed the heads of newborns on stones, exterminated tens of millions of people? Where is Love? There was no trace of her, love is forgotten.
Instead of the law of Christ's love, the world lives by the law of universal enmity. Whoever follows the newspapers of what is happening in the world shudders when he sees how the most satanic untruth triumphs, how the great powers encourage political violence that deserves deep condemnation.
And around us? Living in a city is more dangerous than in a dense forest, because there are many bandits in the city, full of malice and hatred. For the people in the city - baptized people who were once Christians - have become more evil, more dangerous than animals. Holy love is trampled on, trampled on with dirty boots, the Gospel of Christ is trampled on, no one wants to hear about love.
What should we do, how should we be? Shall we also become wolves, of which there are so many around? Of course not. Christ's must be preserved until the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of Christ must be preserved in the hearts of Christ's small flock, and those horrors of life, the horrors of unrighteousness, trampled love, which we see daily and hourly, should encourage us to kindle the holy Christ in our hearts. love.
How to do it, to whom love is given? Only to those who fulfill the commandments of Christ, who follow the narrow path of suffering, without turning off this path, no matter what suffering and persecution threatens. Go, go, go endlessly along this way of the cross, go without looking back, go to the light of Christ. If we stubbornly and unceasingly move towards the light, then we will come.
How can you love people who torture us: thieves, bandits, rapists who do us great harm? This is possible, perhaps not completely, but at least to a small extent. Think what is pity? This is one of the forms of the love of a saint. Shouldn't we feel sorry with all our hearts for people who have rejected Christ, who are walking along the path of perdition, who are going to their father -? Shouldn't you feel sorry for them? It is impossible to love them with pure, complete love, but it is possible to pity them, lamenting the heart that these unfortunate people are on the path of death. If we do not curse these people, we will fulfill the law of Christ even in relation to them.
Do you know that the great Saint Seraphim of Sarov was attacked by robbers, several peasants from a village neighboring the monastery, beat him with mortal combat, crushed his skull, broke his ribs so that he lost consciousness and lay in the monastery hospital for several months until the Most Holy Mother of God came heal him. How did he react to the robbers? They were caught, handed over to the court, and the Monk Seraphim begged with tears not to punish them, but to let them go. He wept, he pitied them, and therefore loved them.
Such pity was shown by quite a few other saints. This is how the saints treated those who did great evil to them. So God Himself tolerates sinners, even endured such a terrible robber as Barbarian, who killed three hundred people, then repented, offered God such repentance as cannot be imagined, and was forgiven by God, was loved by God, even received from Him the gift of miracles.
The Lord Himself is so long-suffering towards serious sinners, how dare we hate and curse them? We should feel sorry for them, and pity, as I said, is one of the forms of love.
If one can even pity the murderers, the villains, then what shall we say about the less serious sinners - about the unfortunate thieves, about all those who perish in sins? They must be pitied even more than the Monk Seraphim pitied his murderers. Let no one say: “How can I love these people who are poisoning our lives and disgracing the Russian people?” Let everyone not curse, but pity them, and then the love of Christ will dwell in our hearts. Christ's imperceptibly, day after day, penetrates into the heart of a person who tries to please God, always prays, humbles his flesh with fasting, tries to help the people around him.
The love of Christ pours out into the heart of such a person, fills it to the brim and overflows, as it poured out at the Monk Seraphim on sinners who came to him in thousands. Pray to God for such love with the words of St. Ephraim the Syrian: “Lord and Master of my life, grant the spirit of love to me, Thy servant!” And God will give you the spirit of love. Amen.
Conclusion of the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian
The great prayer of Ephraim the Syrian ends with an extremely important petition:
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The condemnation of our brothers is our deepest universal habit. The condemnation of our neighbors is what we are always busy with, and we leave the most important of all our deeds - the consideration of our transgressions.
No one has such a custom: from the beginning of the day until the very night we think about everything, do everything, only we do not do the important thing - considering our heart. No one is engaged in this, except for a small, small number of people who have dedicated themselves to God, they have this most important, main occupation: they are looking for the impurities of sin in their hearts. When they find it, they easily and quickly get rid of it, because when they find some kind of impurity in their hearts, they become disgusted and try their best to get rid of it. When they see sins, they will repent and be cleansed of them.
Remember the words of the Apostle Paul to us: “And why are you judging your brother? Or are you also, that you humiliate your brother? We will all stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ."(). When we condemn others, we do not remember, we do not notice that we ourselves are guilty of the same. And we know that there is a judgment of God not only for the committed sins, for which we condemn our neighbors, but also for the very condemnation: “Do you really think, man, that you will escape the judgment of God by condemning those who do such things and doing the same yourself?”() The Lord leads you yourself to repentance, and not to the condemnation of others. Don't worry about others.
Remember how they brought to the Lord a woman taken in adultery and asked: “Teacher, Moses ordered such sinners to be stoned. What do you think?" The Lord Jesus Christ did not immediately answer. He sat in the courtyard of the temple and wrote something with his finger in the sand. And only when he was asked a second time, he gave the most amazing answer he could give: “He who is without sin among you, be the first to throw a stone at her.”. With great shame, bowing their heads, the scribes and Pharisees, who considered themselves righteous, began to disperse one after another. And Jesus wrote in the sand, and finally raised his head and asked: "Where are your accusers? Nobody has condemned you. ...And I do not condemn you. Go ahead and don't sin." ().
What an amazing prohibition of condemnation, how clearly the Lord said that one should think first of all and most of all about one's sins. He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone. We are not without sin, which means we do not dare to throw a stone of condemnation at others, but we are constantly throwing stones, every day and every night we are throwing stones of condemnation: “Who are you, condemning another's slave? Before his Lord he stands or he falls. And he will be raised, for God is mighty to raise him up. We will all stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ."(). We need to think about this judgment over us, about ourselves, and not be concerned with other people's sins. See how holy and important this law is.
What should we do if we see a person who obviously sins and deserves condemnation? And then one should not condemn, one should put the barrier door on one’s lips, not condemn the sinner, but pity him, remember that his answer is heavy before God, and silently offer up a short prayer: Lord, forgive him. And then the demon of condemnation will flee immediately, for demons flee from prayer. If we condemn, the demon will remain, and another time we will condemn, and we will condemn without end.
Where does the spirit of condemnation come from? From pride, from the fact that many consider themselves superior and better than others. Often there is condemnation from envy: we envy those who have received spiritual gifts, sometimes even just pious people, and envy leads to condemnation. They condemn from malice, from hatred. And there is very little love, but there is a lot of anger and hatred in our hearts. This malice, this hatred prompts us to condemn our neighbors, closes our eyes to our own sins and shortcomings.
We condemn a person very often and without any envy. It often depends on an ingrained habit of judgment. Judgment, like everything else, becomes our habit if we constantly condemn.
Anything that is often done becomes our skill. If someone has envy, hatred owns the heart, the habit of condemning will take root, it will always, incessantly, tirelessly condemn.
This habit must be eradicated, not allowing it to grow in us. You must catch yourself in every condemnation, condemn yourself for every condemnation. Having condemned ourselves once or twice, we will learn to refrain and stop judging others, and focus our spiritual gaze on our own heart.
Thus, let us fulfill what we ask in the prayer of Ephraim the Syrian: Grant me to see my sins and do not condemn my brother, for you are blessed forever and ever.
