*) Currently Metropolitan of Khabarovsk and Amur- Approx. Ed.
These are abstracts. I used them during the report, so I placed them here. In large print, the main, in my opinion, ideas are highlighted. Lowercase - the main quotes, mainly St. Feofan.
In his work "The Soul of Man. The Experience of Introduction to Philosophical Psychology" (M., 1917; re-ed.: St. Petersburg, 1995) Semyon Ludwigovich Frank had to admit: “The word “consciousness”, which, at first glance, everyone understands in the same way, that is, refers to the same circle of phenomena, is in fact one of the most ambiguous and indefinite words in human language”(Frank. 1995, p. 469). For those almost ninety years that have passed since the writing of these lines, the final clarity on this issue has not come. Many approaches to the problem of consciousness eventually led to many different points of view on it..
Rubinshtein S.L. speaking of personality:
Precisely because any activity comes from the individual as its subject, and thus, at each given stage, the individual is the initial, initial one, the psychology of the individual as a whole can only be the result, the completion of the entire path traversed by psychological knowledge, covering the whole variety of mental manifestations. , successively revealed in it by psychological knowledge in their integrity and unity.
“The question ... of the study of personality is the question of its self-consciousness" (Rubinshtein), therefore, such thoughts could be attributed to self-consciousness.
The logic here is simple:
- firstly, initially self-consciousness is presented as a black box, we do not know anything about it reliably;
- secondly, the only acceptable methodological approach in this case is to explore the diversity of mental manifestations; of course, scientific methods;
- and, thirdly, from this particular knowledge, like mosaics, to put together an image in its entirety, to build a complete theory of self-consciousness.
But even after the first glance, it becomes clear: this path is endless, and the goal is unattainable (if this is the path to follow).
– Is there enough scientific methodological basis for studying the properties of the human spirit, which include self-consciousness? I think no. Scientific methods are fully applicable to only material phenomena; personality, self-consciousness - phenomena of a spiritual order;
- it is unlikely that it will be possible to study at least one mental manifestation: almost inevitably there will be (and have arisen) different points vision, and from them - different hypotheses, theories, schools. What can we say about diversity.
– But even if we assume that it will still be possible to investigate (and therefore build a generally accepted theory) each mental manifestation, this does not mean at all that it will be possible to put together a complete picture of self-consciousness from these mosaics. Again, generally accepted.
Yes, and S.L. noted: " No matter how great the importance of the problem of personality in psychology, the personality as a whole cannot in any way be included in this science.. And, consequently, self-consciousness.
The patristic paradigm is built on other foundations. The main one is that self-consciousness is not a “black box” at all, the personality is revealed in its entirety through the Gospels, through the image of Christ. Moreover, the Personality is perfect, divine. The Holy Fathers revealed the spiritual and ascetic aspects of self-consciousness. And the psychologists of the Russian school (Snegirev, Nesmelov, Zenkovsky) are psychological.
The topic of my speech is “The problem of self-consciousness in the patristic understanding”. But with your permission, I'll reformulate it a bit: “The Phenomenon of Self-Consciousness. patristic approach". The most complete and systematic (of the works known to me) this approach is set forth in the fundamental work of St. Theophan the Recluse "Inscription of Christian morality". My report is based on this work. As necessary, in order to reveal or explain certain thoughts of St. Feofan, I will refer to the works of V.A. Snegirev and prot. Vasily Zenkovsky.
« self-awareness, - writes Prot. Basil, - is the main sign of personality in a person. It “has as its object ... the depth and inexhaustibility of life inside a person; and therefore self-consciousness is ... consciousness of one’s unity, one’s “I”, one’s originality, separateness ”. This depth and inexhaustibility can hardly be expressed in words. Especially to find a scientific definition.
Such attempts are known. Here is one of them: a vertical contour that unites all levels and subsystems of a person, forms its vertical, hierarchically ordered integrity, upon reaching which the maximum synergistic effect is manifested, and the level of entropy of a person as a living system is maximally reduced". Absurdum per absurdum.
Because V.A. Snegirev defines consciousness as " simply the presence in the soul of some particular state, alive and active, or some sum of them". AND St. Theophan the Recluse does not seek to give an exhaustive definition in ratio, realizing the impossibility of this. It is limited to the following: A special turn of consciousness is self-consciousness, or self-knowledge. It is predominantly turned inward and distinguishes itself from its actions, rising above both.».
And then begins what the holy fathers call spiritual reasoning, the highest gift of God. What is this turnover? Not at all in the fact that self-consciousness is consciousness turned inward, on itself; it can also be directed outward. Self-consciousness is moral consciousness, that is, consciousness through the prism of moral feeling.
Man is a moral being, which means that he must possess consciousness proper moral, called self-consciousness, in which a person recognizes himself as a person obliged to expedient activity, to deeds in response, to be accounted for».
Strange, isn't it? However, here are the words of S.L. Rubinstein: " Human consciousness is in general not only theoretical, cognitive, but also moral consciousness, - and then an even stronger statement, - It receives its psychologically real expression in the inner meaning that everything that happens around him and by himself acquires for a person.».
Thus, moral consciousness is, by definition, self-consciousness.
Any act of self-consciousness (be it a thought, an image, an act) is invariably accompanied by a moral feeling. This moral feeling, on the one hand, is experienced as something integral, unified, and on the other hand, it arises as an aggregate, the interaction of other feelings. V.A. Snegirev identifies four of them:
« One's own (and others') actions, regardless of their pleasantness and usefulness, a person
- distinguishes between good and bad;
- feels the need, the inclination to do good and avoid bad (sense of duty);
- feels the opportunity, has the freedom to choose what to incline his will to (sense of freedom, moral freedom);
- feels satisfaction in the soul when doing good and torment when doing evil (approval or torment of conscience);
- experiences a sense of approval, when good is accompanied by pleasure, and evil is accompanied by punishment (sense of justice);
The last four arise in the soul so quickly, almost simultaneously, that they merge into a single state, a feeling". Which is the moral feeling.
We note again that such a complex emotional-sensual moral process accompanies every act of self-consciousness.
And once again we emphasize: any spiritual action that does not include a moral feeling is not an act of self-consciousness. Even if it is directed inward. (The moral feeling, being directed to any object, “makes it its own”, including it in the sphere of personal experiences (but such as those described above), as it were, includes it in the sphere of personality).
The more intense and stable the moral feeling, the clearer and more distinct self-consciousness. The person is on a higher moral level. It is obvious.
But another phenomenon of exceptional importance is connected with self-consciousness: religious consciousness. V.A. Snegirev states the following: The idea of an infinite almighty Being is an integral part of the process of self-consciousness… The degree of clarity of this last idea is therefore always proportional to the degree of clarity of the first one: the idea of one’s own personality is vague, indefinite, and the idea of an infinite Personality is also vague; a person clearly, definitely and distinctly recognizes the peculiarity of his own personality and its properties, - clearly, definitely, an idea arises of the singularity and main properties of the infinite Personality».
In other words, the clearer my self-consciousness (the clearer my personality is represented in my mind, the more intense the moral feeling), the clearer my perception of God.
For many years St. Theophan peered into the movements of his own soul and the souls of a huge number of people who communicated with him and were edified by him. He points out three elements of self-consciousness "in which a person recognizes himself as a person obliged to expedient activity, to reciprocal deeds, subject to account."
According to St. Feofanu has three main such structural elements: expediency, duty and responsibility. Those. awareness of the fact that I:
1. is obliged to perform certain deeds that
2. must have a specific goal (accompanied by a sense of duty to achieve it) and
3. be accountable (before someone or something).
Actually, the entire colossal, deepest work “The Outline of Christian Moral Teaching” is a very detailed vector of spiritual and moral development. Its two poles: a sinner man (unenlightened by grace) is the initial state. Ultimately, the goal of development is a true Christian, a spiritually successful person. What are the spiritual states of the sinner and the Christian?
The main difference between them is the ability to rise above oneself and above the outside world. St. Feofan speaks about this ability very capaciously and intelligibly. I will quote his words:
about a person who works for sin and passions, it is undoubtedly known that he does not rise above the external world, but, on the contrary, is carried away by it, lives in it, as if co-dissolving with it, which is why he is called external, living outside himself, gone from himself. He considers the well-being of his external things to be the well-being of his own person, and, on the contrary, their inauspiciousness - his misfortune. That is why an attempt at damage or damage itself in clothing, house, furniture, place, etc. shake him deeply, strike him to the very heart.
He also does not rise above his inner world, but just as with external things, he is carried away by the mechanism of his internal movements. They usually say: I thought, I was in oblivion, I don’t remember what happened to me and around me ... that is, at that time he was carried away by the movement of thoughts, or was beside himself with joy, heartbroken, lost his temper in his hearts .. i.e. surrendered to the movements of the heart; or you will not be remembered in troubles and worries: one is necessary, another is necessary ... that is, to constantly drive forward and forward the diverse desires of the will. It is obvious that the one who is committed to sin has no power over his internal movements, but is pressed into them, as it were, drawn by them, like a soldier constrained within a regiment. And this is not just for one hour, but constantly. Such is the law of his inner life: to be conducted as a follower.
This is the most dangerous of the deceptions of the face of a sinner. Everything that arises inside, he considers himself to be himself and stands for it as for himself, as for his life. That is why he does not want to deny himself anything.
Meanwhile, how little is instilled in us from outside from Satan and the world, besides what arises from the sin that lives in us, which also should not be considered itself?
The first act of the gracious awakening of the sinner is to extract the soul from the mechanism of its inner and outer life and in elevation above its course ... Here, therefore, the first possibility is set for true and complete consciousness .
Here are the words famous psychologist IN AND. Slobodchikov: “The practice of working with consciousness means that, thanks to the aspiration of a person, his actions, consciousness ceases to be something spontaneous, related to nature (being) by direct automatic functioning. Consciousness for the first time begins to be a reflection. Reflection also acts as a break, as a person’s exit from complete absorption in the immediate ... process of life in order to develop an appropriate attitude towards it ”(Human psychology, p. 183. It is said about the same thing, but in different language).
From this moment it begins, because the first glance of a person under the influence of grace turns on his essential relationships: on them, first of all, the light of her falls. Then, one who is already attentive to himself does not descend from this height of the spirit. His eye is lifted up over all his own and over all that is in contact with him, and he is aware of everything and sees it clearly, like a guardian.
Self-consciousness is in the true Christian at the highest degree of perfection. So - he clearly knows his actions; to know his actions means:
remember clearly the facts of inner and outer life,
– how pure or sinful they are,
- fully remember, be aware of their "strength and meaning" (meaning - what are they for, where do they lead in a given situation, their purpose? Or content?),
- what motivated them
He knows what he means himself, what awaits him, in what state he is, in what relationship to others ...
- what is his internal state now, at this, current moment,
What is his relationship with people
- what spiritually he is in this period of life,
- what is the trend of his spiritual development.
"Be sober, be awake,because your adversary the devil walks,like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.Resist him with firm faith."(1 Peter 5:8-9).
“But alas! and Satan immediately, ready to devour me at every step, disputes me with the Lord.
Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt
“The black forces of darkness are powerless. People themselves, moving away from God, make them strong, because, moving away from God, people give the devil rights over themselves.
Elder Paisios the Holy Mountaineer
Dark forces. Spiritual scolding. About the impotence of demons. Distinguish between the Spirit of God and the evil spirit.
Rev. Barsanuphius of Optina (1845-1913) said that in the world the majority of even believing people do not believe in the existence of demons, but here it is the truth. Here is a story my father once told me:
- Father Ambrose showed the demons to Father Benedict (Orlov) in this way. He covered him with a mantle, then led him to the window and said:
— See?
“Yes, I see, father, I see that many prisoners are coming, dirty, tattered, with terrible brutal faces. Father, why so many of them? They go, they go, and there is no end, and who let them into the skete alone? Probably the whole skete was cordoned off by the Cossacks? And these prisoners all go, go, disperse to the right, to the left, behind the church.
“Well, do you see Father Benedict?
“Yes, father, what is it?”
- These are demons. Do you see how much should be for each of the brethren?
- Father, is it?
- Well, now look.
Father Benedict looked again, and saw nothing more, everything was quiet as before.
You see how many we have to fight against, but, of course, God allows the fight according to the strength of each ...
S. A. Nilus in the book “The Servant of the Mother of God and the Seraphim” about Nikolai Alexandrovich Motovilov describes such a case:
“Once in a conversation with the Monk Seraphim, a conversation touched upon enemy attacks on a person. The secularly educated Motovilov, of course, did not fail to doubt the reality of the manifestations of this misanthropic force. Then the monk told him about his terrible struggle for 1001 nights and 1001 days with demons and the power of his word, the authority of his holiness, in which there could not be a shadow of lies or exaggeration, convinced Motovilov that demons exist not in ghosts or dreams, but in the real bitter reality.
Ardent Motovilov was so inspired by the story of the old man that he exclaimed from the bottom of his heart:
- Father! How I wish I could fight demons!
Father Seraphim interrupted him in fear:
- What are you, what are you, your love of God! You don't know what you're talking about. If you knew that the smallest of them can turn the whole earth with its claw, you would not have volunteered to fight them!
“But, father, do demons have claws?”
“Oh, your love of God, your love of God, and what do they teach you at the university?! Don't know that demons don't have claws. They are depicted with hooves, claws, horns, tails, because it is impossible for the human imagination to come up with a more vile kind of this kind. Such, in their vileness, they are, for their arbitrary falling away from God and their voluntary opposition to Divine grace from the angels of light, as they were before falling away, made them angels of such darkness and abomination that they cannot be portrayed by any human likeness, but a likeness is needed - Here they are depicted as black and ugly. But, being created with the power and properties of angels, they have such an irresistible power for man and for everything earthly that, as I told you, the smallest of them with his claw can turn the whole earth. One Divine grace of the All-Holy Spirit, bestowed on us, Orthodox Christians, for the divine merits of the God-man, our Lord Jesus Christ, it alone makes all the intrigues and mischief of the enemy insignificant!”
Archpriest Valentin Sventsitsky (1882-1931) in conversations on selected places of the creations of St. John of the Ladder he writes:
“We must speak more about demons. The holy fathers often mention them. This word confuses the worldly man. He is told that only illiterate people can believe in the existence of demons. That this is a sign of ignorance, that this is a simple superstition inherited by an ignorant people from their ancestors along with faith in brownies, mermaids, witches and sorcerers.
So think those for whom there is no other world than the one that surrounds us, which we see and touch. For them there is no God, no devil, no angels, no immortal human souls, no hell, no heaven, no eternal life: a person for them is a part of this material world. Die, rot, and that's it. For them, matter is a random combination of some " atoms", and life, therefore, is nothing but a series of pleasant or unpleasant accidents. Nobody invisible, according to their understanding, stands behind the visible world.
For us believers, the substance itself has an invisible spiritual basis. And the world is not an accident, but something that has great meaning, for it is guided by the Providence of God. For us there is the Lord Almighty. For us, besides this world, there is another world, in which there is its own existence, its own laws. For us, this world contains a multitude of Angels, some of which have fallen away from the Lord and are waging war with Him, seeking to tear away human souls from salvation. That spiritual, invisible world is in some contact with the earthly world. Our inner life is also influenced by our guardian angels, and the dark demonic forces also influence us, drawing us to destruction.
Demons are not an abstract concept, not a symbol, not an allegory, and, even more so, not a product of ignorance. They are the undoubted, active and personal beginning of the other world. That is how the Holy Church always treated them, that is how the holy fathers always treated them.
To many saints who have reached spiritual heights, the Lord gave them eyes to see.
Our Reverend and God-bearing Father Seraphim of Sarov says that "their appearance is vile."
How can one trust the slanders of demons? How can you listen to them? How can you obey?
Do not believe him, when he will torment your soul, striving to take the path of spiritual life, with doubts. Do not believe when he, having mastered your sleep, will disturb you "prophetic dreams" and, most importantly, do not believe when he slanders life, presenting it to you as a meaningless path to the grave.
A person, whether he is a believer or an unbeliever, cannot live on his own. He works either for God or for the devil.
Here is how he writes about it Hieromartyr Seraphim, Bishop of Dmitrov, (1871-1937):“The human heart is never empty: either the Lord or the devil lives in it. There can be no void. A person works either for the Lord or for the devil. When you have to meet a person working for a demon, you feel that someone is visible near him, someone looks into his eyes. Especially among the demoniac."
Venerable Anthony the Great (251-356) said: “A pure soul, being good, is sanctified and illuminated by God, and then the mind thinks about good and gives birth to God-loving intentions and deeds. But when the soul is defiled by sin, then God turns away from it, or better, the soul itself separates itself from God, and the crafty demons, having entered into thought, inspire the soul with unsimilar deeds: adultery, murder, theft, and similar demonic evil deeds.
Archimandrite Boris Kholchev (1895-1971) writes that “if the soul has broken its connection with God, if it is not in union with the Heavenly Father, if it is not likened to the Heavenly Father… The devil reigns in such a soul; the soul is likened to the devil, and not to the Heavenly Father.
In the soul there can be either the Kingdom of God or the kingdom of the devil.
If you pay attention to the life of the saints, to their labors and deeds, you will see that they strived to ensure that the Kingdom of God was in their souls, that the devil, sin, was expelled from their souls, that their souls were god-like, that the Kingdom of Heaven was in their souls. The life of the saints of God is a struggle for the Kingdom of God; they fought to drive evil out of their souls—sin—and to have God reign in their souls.”
“A person will be paid by the owner for whom he works,” says and Elder Paisius Svyatogorets (1924-1994), - if you work for a black master, then already here he will make your life black. If you work for sin, then the devil will pay you back. If you cultivate virtue, then Christ will pay you. And the more you work for Christ, the more enlightened and joyful you become.”
Venerable Macarius the Great (4th century) writes: “The evil spirits bind the (fallen) soul with chains of darkness Why can’t she desire to love the Lord as much as she wants to believe, or as much as she wants to pray, because since the time of the first man’s transgression, opposition both openly and secretly has taken possession of us in everything.
Saint John of the Ladder (649) writes: " All demons try to darken our minds first, and then they inspire what they want; for if the mind does not close its eyes, then our treasure will not be stolen; but the prodigal demon uses this remedy far more than anyone else. Often, darkening the mind, this lord, it induces and compels us to do before people what only madmen do. When, after some time, the mind becomes sober, then we are ashamed not only of those who saw our disorderly actions, but also of ourselves for our obscene actions, conversations and movements, and we are horrified at our former blindness; why some, reasoning about this, often lagged behind this evil (Lestv.15, 82).
Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk (1724-1783) writes about the devil and the people working for him: “The head and inventor of sin is the devil, the first apostate with his evil angels from God and his Creator: that rebel and opponent of God is followed by people who were created in the image of God and so with great honor, in the image ... of God , - respectable from God, and retreat from God, their Creator, Father and Provider, who by their own will sin, and so from God's children become the sons of the devil, and instead of the image of God, in a diabolical way, as some kind of terrible monster, they are imprinted on the soul; whence, from this evil seed of the devil, ungodly fruits and fruits are born and come into the world. For just as those who bear the image of God, true Christians, to God, their Father, from whom they were born by water and the Spirit, are conformed to love, patience, mercy, truth and other virtues, so those who have the image of Satan in themselves are likened to it by evil deeds: hatred, malice, envy, cunning and others. Disgusting before God is the head and leader of sin, disgusting are his followers, poor and accursed people.
It is very disastrous and terrible to be the son of the devil. But sin, the evil and devilish seed, leads a person to this terrible calamity. For the sinner who commits sin and does not want to repent of this prince of darkness, like the son of his father, repeats in his temper and in practice shows that he is from this bad father, since he creates the evil fruits of his evil seed, that is, sins. For by the fruit the seed is known, and as the seed is, such is its fruit. The devil resists and does not submit to God, and the unrepentant sinner remains in the same disobedience. Listen to this, everyone, and reason, whose son you are, even though you bear the name of Christ. True and true is the word of the apostles: everyone who commits sin is from the devil; And every tree is known by its fruit(Luke 6:44), as the Lord says about it.”
Saint Theophan the Recluse (1815-1894) writes: “If our intelligent eyes were opened, what would we see around and around us? On the one hand - the bright world of God, angels and saints, on the other - hordes of dark forces and dead sinners carried away by them. Among them are living people, one part of which leaned towards the light side, the other towards the dark side; the middle lane seems to be left for a struggle in which some win, others are defeated. Some demons drag, already beaten, into their dark region; others stand and fight, accept and give defeat: blood from wounds and wounds after wounds, and all stand. They bow down to the ground from the force of blows and exhaustion of strength, and again straighten up and shoot arrows at enemies again. Who sees their work? God is one. With them, guardian angels relentlessly, above them from above is a descending ray of grace-filled light.
Any help to the struggling one is ready, but it must be accepted willingly. The inclination of the will is the condition of its strength. As soon as a person with consciousness and freedom stands on the side of good, then both the light of grace and the angels are with him. But as soon as his autocracy inclines to the side of sin, the ray of grace departs from him, and the angel retreats. Then dark forces surround the person, and the fall is ready. They bind him with captives (chains) of darkness and take him to a dark area. Will he be saved, and who will save him? He will be saved, and the same angel of God and the same grace will save him. The sinner sighs - and they approach and teach his fingers to curse with darkness. If it gets up, it will get up and again begin to hit the enemies, driven away and already throwing arrows from afar. If he cheers, he will fall again; if he wakes up, he will be raised again. How long? Until then, until death comes and finds him either in a fall or in rebellion.
Hieroschemamonk Alexander (1810-1878), a recluse elder of the Gethsemane Skete told the student: “If anyone knew what efforts the enemy makes to turn a person away from prayer (and from virtue in general), that he is ready to give a person all the treasures of the world for this,” the student asked the elder: “Father, is such an enemy has power and authority? The elder replied: “Power is not taken away from the enemy, as we see from the life of St. Eudoxia (March 1, old style). When the Archangel Michael lifted up the soul of the Monk Eudokia into the air, then he appeared in a terrible way and said to the Archangel: “Leave your rage and loosen a little the bonds with which I am bound. You will see that in the twinkling of an eye I will destroy the human race from the earth and I will not leave its heritage.” You see that he has power, only he has no power, even over pigs, as can be seen from the Holy Gospel (Mark 5, 12-13).
came to the old man Ambrose of Optina (1812-1891) some gentleman who does not believe in the existence of demons. The father told him the following: “A gentleman came to the village to visit his friends and chose a room for himself for the night. They tell him: don't lie down here - it's unfavorable in this room. But he didn't believe it and just laughed at it. He lay down, but suddenly he hears at night that someone is blowing right into his bald head. He covered his head with a blanket. Then this someone went to his feet and sat on the bed. The guest was frightened and rushed to run away from there as fast as he could, convinced by his own experience in the existence of a dark force. But even after this story, the master said: “Your will, father, I don’t even understand what kind of demons they are.” To this, the elder replied: “After all, not everyone understands mathematics, but it exists.” And he added: “How can demons not exist when we know from the Gospel that the Lord Himself commanded demons to enter a herd of pigs?” The master objected: “But isn’t this allegorical?” “So,” the old man continued to convince, “both pigs are allegorical, and pigs do not exist. But if there are pigs, then there are demons.”
Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt (1829-1908) writes: “The phenomena of demons so occupied the minds of some ascetics that they even attempt to explain the psychology and properties of these phenomena.
Simeon the New Theologian about demons he says: “There are other mental forces, demons that mentally approach the soul and tempt it, perturbing its natural movements, for it is always in motion, being by nature ever-moving.
According to Anthony the Great, demons are not visible bodies, but we are bodies for them when our souls receive dark thoughts from them, for having accepted these thoughts, we accept the demons themselves and make them manifest in the body.
The ascetics considered prayer to be the main and most important means of getting rid of the manifestations of demons.
I wonder how the ascetic imagined Ilya Ekdik attitude of demons to prayer. Here are his true words about this: “He who threatens with a stick at dogs irritates them against him, and the demon is irritated by the one who forces (forces) himself to pray.”
... The kingdom of life and the kingdom of death go side by side, I say they go, because they are spiritual. Head of the first, i.e. The kingdom of life is Jesus Christ, and whoever is with Christ is undoubtedly in the realm of life; head of the second, i.e. The kingdoms of death, there is the prince of the power of the air - the devil with the spirits of evil subordinate to him, of which there are so many that far exceed the number of all people living on earth. These children of death, subjects of the prince of the air, are in a constant stubborn war with the sons of life, i.e. with faithful Christians, and by all means of cunning they try to incline them to their side, through the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, because sin, crime is their element, and through sins, if we do not repent of them, we go over to their side .
Those for whom sins are, as it were, a daily need, who drink iniquity like water, they do not bother, because they are their property, as long as they live carelessly about their souls; but if they only turn to God, acknowledge their sins, voluntary and involuntary, and ... the war will flare up, the hordes of Satan will rise up and lead a continuous battle.
From this you see how necessary it is to seek Christ as the ruler of life, the conqueror of hell and death.
Every sorrow and distress comes from lack of faith, or from some kind of passion, hidden inside, or from any other impurity visible to the All-Seeing, and, therefore, from the fact that the devil is in the heart, but Christ is not in the heart.
Christ is peace, freedom of the soul, and inexpressible light.
Oh, how carefully the devil and the world sow with their tares the field of Christ, which is the church of God! Instead of the word of God, the word of the world, the word of vanity, is zealously sown. Instead of temples, the world has invented its own temples - temples of the vanity of the world: theaters, circuses, meetings. Instead of holy icons, which peace lovers do not accept, there are picturesque, photographic portraits, illustrations and various other types in the world; instead of God and saints, the world reveres the adoration of its celebrities - writers, actors, singers, painters, who own public trust and respect to the point of reverence.
Poor Christians! Completely fallen away from Christ! Instead of spiritual garments, all attention in the world is turned to perishable clothing, to fashionable dresses and various exquisite ornaments, resonating with brilliance and high cost. In illness, and in bodily weakness in general, as well as in sorrow, a person at first cannot burn for God with faith and love, because in sorrow and illness the heart hurts, and faith and love require a healthy heart, a calm heart, and therefore there is no need grieve very much that in sickness and sorrow we cannot, as we should, believe in God, love Him and pray fervently to Him. Everything has its time. Sometimes praying is an inauspicious time.
God is life. He gave life and existence to everything. He is the Existing and Almighty, for everything is from Him and everything is supported by Him: we know His One Existing One. The devil is death, because he voluntarily deviated from the belly - God, and just as God is the Existing, so he, the devil, due to the complete falling away from the Existing, is the culprit of the bearing, the culprit of dreams, delusions, for truly he cannot bring anything into being by the word, he is a lie like God is the truth! False thoughts in faith immediately expose themselves, kill the life of the heart, a sign that they come from a liar, a dreamer who has the power of death - the devil. True thoughts show their truth in practice: they enliven the heart - a sign that they come from the life-giving Spirit of God, the belly: the same way, from their fruit you will know them. Do not be indignant and do not stagnate in embarrassment and bewilderment when murderous thoughts will crowd in your head and oppress your heart, your soul. They are false, they are from the devil - murderers. Drive them away and don't ask where they came from, these uninvited guests; you will instantly recognize them by their fruits. Do not enter into competition with them, they will lead you into such a labyrinth that you will not get out, you will get confused and exhausted.
... The devil is such an evil knitting needle that at any time and everywhere climbs into your heart eyes, eclipsing and suppressing them, it is such a poisonous dust that constantly rushes about in our mental atmosphere and sits caustically on the heart, eating away and boring it. When the enemy fails to occupy a Christian on the path of salvation with sorrows and narrowness, poverty and various other hardships, illnesses and various misfortunes, he rushes to the other extreme: he takes him with health, peace, softness, relaxation, heart and soul insensibility of spiritual blessings or the richness of life external. Oh, how dangerous is that last state! It is more dangerous than the first state of sorrow and oppression, the state of illness, etc. Here we easily forget God, stop feeling His mercy, doze off and sleep spiritually.
…Because in the Kingdom of the All-Good and All-Powerful God there are fallen evil spirits, and it is air and earth that have their place, and since man from the very beginning was drawn to evil by them, as they have always been and now are, and will be together with the human race until the end of time, then they constitute, so to speak, the environment in which we are surrounded and in which we live. People, beings free and, moreover, fallen, although restored by the Son of God and standing in this grace freely by faith, good disposition towards God and good deeds, must be protected by constant prayer to God from the opposing forces that are fighting against our soul, wanting to catch us in their captivity. and make them like them in spirit. Everyone must be extremely careful, so that in our spirit and in our deeds we do not become accustomed to the spirits of wickedness in high places; lest they become the breath of our soul instead of God, lest the evil that is their nature become our evil. However, we must always keep in mind that there is pain, who is in us, rather than who is in the world(1 John 4, 4) that the Lord also contains them in His full power and only allows, as much as His truth, goodness and wisdom allows, to act in the world, to admonish and correct people. But there are people who have the devil in their clothing, food, and drink, just as true Christians put on Christ, feed on His Body and Blood. Everywhere in the world there is duality - one against the other: spirit and body, good and evil. Satan has his slanderers and helpers to spread his dominion among people; God has angels, whom he gives to every Christian to protect him and to guide him to the blessed Kingdom of Christ.
When the devil is in our heart, then an extraordinary, killing heaviness and fire in the chest and heart; the soul is extremely shy and darkened; everything irritates her; feels disgust for every good deed; he interprets the words and deeds of others in relation to himself crookedly and sees in them a malicious intent against himself, against his honor, and therefore feels a deep, murderous hatred for them, rages and breaks for revenge: from his fruit you shall know him(Matthew 7:20)."
Archpriest Grigory Lebedev in one of the sermons he talks about what you need to know about the devil: “Today I will talk about the devil. Astonishment? I understand you. In the twentieth century, during the victorious march of scientific knowledge, in largest city country - the center of scientific research, from where every day the radio carries around the world the cry of the triumph of science and materialism - and suddenly ... in such an environment, we are talking about the devil! What an anachronism! What a relic! After all, this is the Middle Ages! Who believes in the devil now? Even people who believe and consider themselves reasonable believers, or understand the gospel and patristic reasoning about the devil allegorically, i.e. by the devil they mean sin and the power of sin, indicating that the Savior speaks of the devil, adapting to popular beliefs, or, in embarrassment for the naivety of the Gospel, they simply shrug their shoulders, not daring to say their main thought: “This is outdated for our time,” or else they belittle the church teaching about the devil and, not knowing how to connect it with life, share this teaching superficially, having the most vague ideas about Satan.
Let people think what they want about the devil, and the devil is, and Christ in today's gospel story says more than that: he not only exists - he controls people's lives. The Lord healed a woman who had been suffering from an illness for 18 years, and when the scribes asked Christ the tempting question why He performed the healing on Saturday, the Lord answered: “Will you untie the donkey on Saturday to water it? So, I untied the woman that Satan had kept bound for 18 years.” See? Satan not only exists, but acts as if he is the master of life. Let us not, however, delve into the question of the existence of the devil... This would lead us to research inappropriate for liturgical teaching, but let us take the most graphic evidence of this existence, both theoretical - from our mind, and practical - from life.
Here is proof from the mind. Do you believe in the immortality of the soul? Believe. Does that mean the soul lives on after death? Yes. So, an evil soul, corrupted, gloomy, dark, is this how it passes? It's clear. So such a black soul is the spirit of darkness. And he goes to the world of evil spirits like himself. Since this world is the world of rational beings, it must have and has its own organization, its own ideals, tasks and goals, its own modes of action, ways of life. The Holy Church believes that at the head of this world are its founders, the first spirits of evil that fell away from God, permeated with lies, soldered with malice, wise by thousands of years of experience. Their task is to fight the Light. Their leadership of the entire world of evil spirits tends towards waging a final struggle against the realm of Truth, i.e. kingdom of Christ. Hence, the whole life of the world is a struggle with good, the planting of evil or sin, because evil and sin are identical concepts.
And the world of good is saturated with invisible spirits of evil, the whole existence of which pursues one goal: to extinguish the Light, to destroy good, to plant hell everywhere, so that darkness and hell would triumph everywhere. Here are the most basic concepts about the kingdom of evil and its inhabitants. This is a completely real kingdom! Now, at least with one stroke, let us approach his being practically, i.e. from life experience. Again, avoiding lengthy references to experience, let us dwell on two phenomena of life. You have observed in yourself, in those around you—unless, of course, you know how to peer into life—forces acting in a person, in spite of his will and even in addition to his consciousness! Such states occur at every turn. These are all states of passion, states of lust, carnal sensuality, states of anger, passions for wine, games, etc. Their name is legion! Conditions when a person does not belong to himself, but is drawn, as bound, powerless and weak-willed, as a slave, obedient to someone else's will. Science, of course, will not call this force evil and Satan, it will call it physical and mental heredity, pathology, psychosis, and so on. But this is a superficial explanation! When a person is “drawn” against his will, against his consciousness, when he suffers, suffers, struggles and is still powerless, when this force is completely objective in a person, like a second “I”, when it is recognized as something alien and hostile to me, then the scientific explanation is of little use. Not! The Church, guided by the word of God, speaks shorter and simpler: here is a strange power in a person, here is the power of destruction and evil, here a person is no longer free, he is bound by the devil, here is Satan. And besides passions, the power of evil and darkness sometimes manifests itself in people, apparently quite usually. It manifests itself when evil cannot bear the Light it has to face. For example, why can't a dissolute woman endure the presence of the greatest modesty and chastity? Now she's getting angry. Why are there cases when a mother or a father vilifies, persecutes his daughter or son, if they have embarked on God's path? It seems that if the daughter goes “for a walk”, it is easier for them than she will be in the temple all the time. Why is this? Why do people wake up with a spirit of malice when meeting with a clergyman or even with a secular church person? It would seem that the person is meek and decent in appearance and does not behave provocatively, humbly, but they rage against him. Why? Yes, these are all manifestations of possession under the influence of the forces of evil. Darkness cannot bear the world that denies it, and raises the malice of hell.
So, dark spirits of evil exist, and they invade our lives. And if you don't consider this reality of evil invading your life, you are committing two of the greatest mistakes. The first mistake: a person destroys Christianity, makes it meaningless, takes out its soul, makes Christianity dead, unnecessary. So in our time, Christianity has become a void for so many who call themselves Christians. What is the meaning of Christianity? In the rebirth of man through the destruction of evil in man. What is the meaning of the coming of Christ? In the fight against evil, in the destruction of evil, in the victory over Satan, the liberation of man from the power of evil and his salvation. The apostle says so: “To deprive by death of power that which has the power of death, that is, the devil.” (Heb. 2:14). And if you, by virtue of your lack of faith and rationality, exclude the struggle with the devil and victory over him from the work of Christ, then you destroy the power of Christianity. You then reduce Christ to the role of an exalted moralist who taught good, and nothing more. And if in your life, as Christians, you do not enter the fight against the devil, then you are dead in Christianity. It gives you nothing, and you will be cold, empty, sleepy, boring, receiving nothing from Christ and the Church. It is so indeed! Aren't most Christians like that? Aren't the majority lifeless? That's how it should be!
The second greatest mistake is made when the thought of the devil and the need to fight him disappears from the life of a Christian. Then the person himself gives himself to the elements of evil, gives freely and voluntarily. The following happens: a person thinks that everything around is calm, there is no enemy, and he is carefree, lives without looking back, the forces of the soul are asleep, all spiritual movements are accepted as their own, as natural. This state of human carelessness is used by the power of evil, because there are no obstacles for it. Souls are calm, souls are carefree, souls are open... Take a person with bare hands without resistance. Tragic picture! The man assured himself that there is no enemy - everything happens according to natural laws. And the enemy is laughing… He comes freely when everything is open and takes care of it.
One French writer (Huysmans) said amazing words: "The greatest victory of the devil was to convince people that he does not exist". Do you hear? Yes, this is Satan's greatest victory. He instilled this. What devil?! Yes, he never was, and no! It's a stupid old prejudice! And the devil stepped aside. And now he's laughing evilly. He is not there, there is no enemy ... Down with attention, precaution! He will host. Everything is open before him, come into the person and do with him what you want. It happened just as if thieves and bandits assured people that they did not exist, that there was no theft. People would open doors wide open, indulge in carelessness. Oh, how theft and crime would then flourish!
Yes, in material matters, people cleverly lock themselves with ten locks, guard the good, but they don’t think of saving the good of the soul. The soul is a passageway. All wide open. You are afraid of thieves, but you are not afraid of a spiritual bandit! And no excuses will help people. There is a corrupter and a thief of their lives, their irreconcilable, terrible enemy. He tirelessly does his job. People are bound by him, they are his obedient slaves.
Don't say, "Oh, if only we could see it and make sure that it exists!" It's easy to see him. Learn to look. You don't know how to look! You are blind. You do not see yourself, but how do you want to see the devil? Here you will first learn to see yourself and then, believe me, you will see the devil. Pray that the Lord will send you a good mind, a sober conscience, open your inner eyes so that you never forget your primordial enemy, always be ready to fight him, guard the entrances to your soul, and then the power of God will be at your right hand, and your soul will not be bound by Satan, as the gospel woman was bound by him. May the Lord grant you, through the prayers of your bright spirit - your guardian angel, to avoid the devil's slavery and be free children of God, building up your salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory, honor and worship forever and ever.
Spiritual warfare
Saint Anthony the Great (251-356) about the fight against dark forces says (from the life of the saint):
“God Himself has commanded us to always watch with unflagging attention what is happening in our souls, because we have very cunning enemies in the fight - I mean demons- and we, according to the apostle, will have an unceasing struggle with them. Countless numbers of them rush in the air, whole hordes of enemies surround us from all sides.. I could not explain to you all the differences between them; I will only briefly describe the ways in which they try to deceive us, which I know. First of all, we must firmly remember that God is not the author of evil and that the demons did not become evil by His will: such a change in them did not occur by nature, but depended on their own will. As created by a good God, they were originally good spirits, but for their very exaltation they were cast down from heaven to earth, where, stagnant in evil, they deceived the peoples with false dreams and taught them idolatry; but for us Christians, they are immensely envious and incessantly raise all kinds of evil against us, fearing that we will inherit their former glory in heaven.
The degrees of their immersion in evil are different and varied: some of them have reached an extreme fall into the abyss of wickedness, others seem less malicious, but all of them, to the best of their ability, fight in different ways against every virtue. Therefore, we need intense prayers and feats of abstinence in order to receive from God the gift of reasoning, to comprehend the differences between evil spirits, to recognize in each individual case their various cunning and deceit and reflect everything the same Christian sign- The Cross of the Lord. Having received this gift, the holy Apostle Paul inspired: Let us not be offended by Satan: let us not be unreasonable for his intentions(2 Cor. 2:11). It is necessary that we also imitate the apostle and warn others about what we ourselves suffered, and in general - instruct each other mutually.
For my part, I have seen many insidious deceptions from demons, and I tell you about this as children, so that, having a warning, you can save yourself in the midst of the same temptations. Great is the malice of the demons against all Christians, and especially against the monks and virgins of Christ. Everywhere they place temptations in their lives, they try to corrupt their hearts with ungodly and impure thoughts. But let none of you be afraid of this, because with fervent prayers to God and fasting, demons are immediately driven away. However, if they stop attacking for a while, do not think that you have completely won; for after a defeat, demons usually attack later with even greater force. Cunningly changing the methods of struggle, if they cannot seduce a person with thoughts, then they try to seduce or intimidate him with ghosts, taking the form of a woman, then a scorpion, then turning into some giant as tall as a temple, into entire regiments of warriors or into any other ghosts that all disappear at the very first sign of the cross. If they recognize their deceit in this, then they are soothsayers and strive, like the prophets, to predict future events. If even in this case they suffer disgrace, then they call on their prince himself, the root and focus of all evil, to help themselves in the struggle.
Many times our venerable father Anthony the Great spoke about exactly the same diabolical image that appeared to him, which was presented to the God-enlightened gaze of Job: his eyes are a vision of a daylight. From his mouth come out like burning candles, and like sparks of fire are placed: from his nostrils comes the smoke of a furnace burning with coal fire: his soul is like coal, and like a flame comes out of his mouth(Job 41:9-12). In such a terrible form, the prince of demons appeared. He would like to instantly destroy the whole world, but in reality he has no power: the omnipotence of God tames him, just as an animal controls the bridle, or as the freedom of a captive is destroyed by his fetters. He is afraid of the sign of the cross, and the virtuous life of the righteous, and St. Anthony says this about it:
— Great power, beloved brethren, has a pure life and undefiled faith in God against the devil.. Believe my experience - for Satan, the vigilance of people living according to the will of God, their prayers and fasts, meekness, voluntary poverty, modesty, humility, love, restraint are terrible, but most of all - their sincere love for Christ. The highly exalted serpent himself knows well that he is condemned to be trampled underfoot by the righteous., according to the Word of God: Behold, I give you power to tread on the serpent and scorpion and on all the power of the enemy(Luke 10:19).
The Monk Anthony told for the spiritual benefit of the listeners, and this is what else:
“How many times demons attacked me under the guise of armed warriors and, taking the forms of scorpions, horses, animals and various snakes, surrounded me and filled the room in which I was. When I started to sing against them: These are in chariots, and these are on horses: but we will call on the name of the Lord our God(Ps. 19:8), then, driven away by God's grace-filled help, they fled. Once they appeared even in a very bright form and began to say:
“We have come, Antony, to give you light.
But I screwed up my eyes so as not to see the devil's light, I began to pray to God in my soul, and their ungodly light went out. After a little while, they appeared again and began to sing before me and argue with each other about the Scriptures, but I was like a deaf man and did not listen to them. It happened that they shook my very monastery, but I prayed to the Lord with a fearless heart. Often around me there were shouts, dances and ringing; but when I began to sing, their cries turned into mournful cries, and I praised the Lord who destroyed their strength and put an end to their fury.
“Believe me, my children,” continued Antony, “that I will tell you: once I saw the devil in the form of an extraordinary giant who dared to say about himself:
“I am God’s power and wisdom,” and he turned to me with these words: “Ask me, Anthony, for whatever you want, and I will give it to you.”
- I, in response, spat in his mouth and, armed with the name of Christ, completely rushed at him, and this giant, in appearance, immediately melted and disappeared in my hands. When I was fasting, he again appeared to me under the guise of a black man who brought bread and persuaded me to eat.
“You,” he said, “are human and not free from human weakness; make some indulgence to your body, otherwise you may get sick.”
But I realized that this was the insidious seduction of the crafty serpent, and when I turned to my ordinary weapon - the sign of the Cross of Christ, it immediately turned into a stream of smoke, which, stretching towards the window, disappeared through it. Demons often tried to seduce me in the desert by suddenly appearing as a ghost of gold, hoping to seduce me either by looking at it or by touching it. I will not hide the fact that the demons began to beat me many times. But I patiently endured the beatings and only exclaimed:
“No one can separate me from the love of Christ!”
From these words they came into mutual fury against each other and, finally, they were driven out not according to me, but according to God's command, according to the words of Christ: I saw Satan like lightning from heaven falling down(Luke 10, 18)…
How many myriads of evil demons, and how countless are the types of their wiles! Even after they saw that we, having come to the knowledge of our passions and our shame, are already trying to avoid the evil deeds to which they lead us, and we do not incline our ears to the evil advice that they suggest to us, they did not lag behind, but set to work with a desperate effort, knowing that their fate has already been finally decided and that their legacy is hell, for their extreme malice and disgust (from God).
May the Lord open the eyes of your hearts so that you can see how numerous are the wiles of demons and how much evil they cause us every day - and may grant you a heart of courage and a spirit of discernment, so that you can offer yourselves to God as a living and blameless sacrifice, beingware of envy of demons at all times and their evil advice, their secret machinations and covert malice, their deceptive lies and blasphemous thoughts, their subtle suggestions that they put every day in the heart, anger and slander, which they incite us to, so that we slander each other, only justifying ourselves, condemning others, so that we slander each other, or in sweet language, they hid bitterness in our hearts, so that they would condemn the appearance of their neighbor, having a predator inside themselves, so that they argued among themselves, and went against each other, in the desire to put on their own I seem honest.
Every person who delights in sinful thoughts falls voluntarily, when he is happy (sympathizes) with what is invested in him from enemies and when he thinks to justify himself only by apparently done deeds, being inside the dwelling place of an evil spirit who teaches him all evil. The body of such a person will be filled with shameful shames - for whoever is such, demonic passions take possession of them, which he does not drive away from himself. Demons are not visible bodies; but we are bodies for them when our souls receive dark thoughts from them; for, having received these thoughts, we receive the demons themselves, and we make them manifest in the body.
... Resist the devil and try to recognize his wiles. He usually hides his bitterness under the guise of sweetness, so as not to be open, and arranges various phantoms, red in appearance - which, however, in fact, are not at all the essence - in order to deceive your hearts with a cunning imitation of the truth, which is worthy of attraction: to all his art is directed to this, in order to oppose with all his might every soul that works well for God. He puts many and different passions into the soul, in order to extinguish the Divine fire in it, in which all power; especially takes the peace of the body and what is connected with it. When he finally sees that they are wary of everything of this kind and do not accept anything from him, and do not give any hope that they will ever listen to him, he retreats from them with shame. Then the Spirit of God dwells in them.
dying Saint Anthony the Great admonished his disciples with these words: “I beg you, my dear children, do not lose the fruits of your many years of abstinence, but zealously and successfully continue what you have begun 
you feats. You know how many different obstacles demons put up for us, but do not be afraid of their insignificant power. Trust in Jesus Christ, firmly believe in Him with all your heart, and all demons will flee from you. ... Try to lead a godly life - and you will surely receive a reward in heaven. Avoid all communication with schismatics, heretics and Arians; you know that I never had a friendly conversation with them because of their evil designs and Christ-born heresy. Most of all, try to fulfill the commandments of the Lord, so that the saints would accept you after your death into eternal monasteries, as relatives and friends. Remember, meditate, and always reason about it.”
Saint John Cassian the Roman (350-435) about the influence of dark forces on us 
writes: “Dark forces predominantly act on us through thoughts., and of course we it would be easier to deal with them if we were not constantly and not in small numbers surrounded by these unfriendly enemies- but this is nothing to be afraid of. These enemies are sure to constantly slander us,but they only sow and arouse evil in us, and do not force it. If they were given the power not to inspire only evil, but also to forcefully attract to it, then no matter what sinful desire they wanted to kindle in our hearts, not a single person could avoid sin because of it. But we see that just as they have been given permission to incite us, so we have been given both the power to cut off such incitements and the freedom to consent to them. Why be afraid? - However, if anyone is afraid of their violence and attacks, we, on the other hand, offer God's protection and God's help, which is more powerful than those, as they say:there is pain who is in you, rather than who is in the world(1 John 4, 4), - Whose intercession with incomparably greater force will fight against us than with what the enemy side rises against us. For God not only inspires good deeds, but also patronizes them and brings them to the end; so that sometimes, without our will and our knowledge, it draws us to salvation.
So it's decided that no one can be deceived by the devil, except for one who himself desires to give him his will consent. What Ecclesiastes clearly expressed in these words: as if there is no arguing of the one who creates the evil one soon: for this sake, the heart of the sons of men is convinced in them, hedgehog to create evil(Eccl. 8:11). It is obvious, therefore, that everyone sins because when evil thoughts attack him, he does not immediately repulse them with contradiction. For it is said: resist the devil and flee from you(James 4:7).
Other bewilderment may be born, how these evil spirits enter into communion with the soul They talk to her insensitively, instill whatever they want into her, see her thoughts and movements and use them to her detriment. “But there is nothing surprising in this. The spirit can enter into communion with the spirit, and secretly influence it, instilling what it desires.. For between them, as between people, there is a certain similarity and affinity by nature. But for them to mutually enter into each other and master each other, this is absolutely impossible. This can only truly be attributed to the Deity.
…But how do unclean spirits know our thoughts? – They do not read them directly in their souls, but cognize them from the discovery of them in external sensory signs, i.e. from our words and actions. But they cannot in any way penetrate those thoughts that have not yet come out of the soul. Even whether the thoughts they themselves inspire are accepted and how they are accepted, they learn not from the soul itself, and not from the inner, in it, as a result, secretly occurring movements, but from the manifestations of it outside the soul. So, for example, if, with the omnipresence of the thought of gluttony, they see that a monk began to look out the window and at the sun, or inquire what time it is, then they will know from the fact that he has perceived gluttony lust. And it is not surprising that air forces recognize this and similar things in such a way when we see that intelligent people also manage to recognize the state of the inner person by their eyes, face and other external signs. Those who, like spirits, are undoubtedly much finer and more penetrating than people, can recognize this the more surely.
It is necessary to know that not all demons kindle all passions in people, but certain spirits are associated with each passion; for some of them delight in unclean and shameful lusts, some love blasphemy, some anger and rage, some are comforted by sorrow, some by vanity and pride, and each one sows that passion in human hearts, which he himself especially enjoys; but not all arouse their passions together, but alternately, according to the time, place, and acceptability of the tempted one.
And then you should know that not all of them are equally evil and equally strong. The weakest spirits are attacked by the new and weak, and when these are defeated, then the strongest are sent, and thus gradually the warrior of Christ must endure more and more strong battles, in proportion to his own progress and the increase of his spiritual strength. And none of the Saints could have endured the anger of such and so many enemies, or resisted their slander and ferocious fury, if in our struggle the most merciful intercessor and ascetic Christ was not always present in us, did not equalize the forces of those who are fighting, did not reflect and curb indiscriminate raids of enemies, and did not create with temptation and abundance, as if you were able to bear us(1 Corinthians 10:13).
Saint John of the Ladder (649): “If you constantly pray to the Heavenly King against your enemies in all their attacks, then be trustworthy: you will work a little. For they themselves will soon depart from you, because impure these they do not want to see you receive crowns by prayer for your war with them, and moreover, scorched by prayer like fire, they are forced to flee. Drive away these dogs that come to you with the weapon of prayer, and no matter how much they continue to be shameless, do not yield to them.
Saint John Chrysostom (347-407) writes that “the devil is shameless and insolent; moreover, it attacks from below, however, and in this way wins. And the reason for this is that we ourselves do not try to be above his blows: for he cannot rise high, but grovels on the earth, and therefore the serpent is his image. …What does it mean to attack from below? To overcome by means of earthly things, by means of pleasures, wealth and all worldly things. Therefore, if the devil sees that someone is soaring towards the sky, then, firstly, he cannot jump on him, and secondly, if he decides, he will quickly fall himself: after all, he has no legs - do not be afraid , has no wings - do not be afraid, he crawls only on the ground and grovels among earthly affairs. Let you have nothing in common with the earth, then you will not need labor. The devil does not know how to fight openly, but, like a serpent, hides in thorns often lurking in the charms of wealth. If you cut these thorns, then he, immediately becoming timid, will run away, and if you know how to speak him with Divine spells, then you will immediately wound him. We have spiritual spells - the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and the power of the Cross. This spell not only drives the dragon out of its lair and throws it into the fire, but even heals wounds.
If many, although they pronounced (this spell), but were not healed, then this happened from their lack of faith, and not from the impotence of what was said; in the same way, many touched Jesus and pressed him, but did not receive any benefit, and the bleeding woman, touching not the body, but the edge of his garment, stopped the long-term blood flows. The name of Jesus Christ is terrible for demons, passions and diseases. So, let us adorn ourselves with Him, be protected by Him.
Hieroschemamonk Nikolai (Tsarikovskiy), confessor of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra (1829-1899):“Know that our struggle with the devil for the Kingdom of Heaven will continue until the end of our lives. The devil, as a spirit cast down from heaven for pride and disobedience to God, envied our forefathers, Adam and Eve, and, having deceived them, led them into pride and disobedience to God, and thereby deprived them of paradise. He also now persecutes people, and especially the Orthodox.
With his flattery, he tries in every possible way to enter the soul (head) of a person. With the help of pretense, hiding so that a person does not even suspect him, he presents to him various charms, various faces, stinginess, in accordance with which one is most infected with passion. Whoever delights in one or another of the passions aroused in this way, then the devil enters with this delight to the person, as to his friend, unites with his soul, defiles it, then settles on his heart and kindles it to all sorts of bad, sinful deeds.
If bad, unkind thoughts appear in your mind, this is the devil's coming, an attack. Then you say to the devil: "I do not agree with you" - and do not allow yourself to be delighted by those thoughts. Then your Guardian Angel will drive away the devil from you, and God, for such resistance to the enemy - the devil, will send you the remission of sins as a reward: an unfading crown of glory will be woven for you. Therefore, try in every possible way not to allow the devil to reach the soul, for it is the bride of Christ. God created her so that she would praise Him forever and rejoice before Him forever. The devil uses all his strength to defile her, so that through this she is deprived of the Kingdom of Heaven and Divine joy. And during temptations, one must remember (and not lose heart) that for the thoughts planted by the enemy in the soul, there is still no condemnation of a person, for this is enemy abuse. Only for the pleasure of thoughts and the consent with the argument for sin do judgment from God and His righteous wrath come upon a person.
Reverend Elder Lev of Optina (1768-1841):« ... It is impossible to do without a struggle, in which we sometimes win, and sometimes we are defeated.What is not in your will, leave it as it is,want to keep or put on your own, you can only do yourself harm and apply illness to illness.
Rev. Macarius of Optina (1788-1860) writes about the spiritual warfare waged by the enemy of the human race with all Christians who want to live piously and pleasing to God, and about humility as a victory over him (from letters to worldly persons): “ Our life is a spiritual war with invisible spirits of malice. They revolt us with our pledged passions andencourage to transgress the commandments of God.When we delve into and consider carefully, we find thatfor every passion there is a cure - a commandment opposite to it,and therefore the enemies are trying to prevent us from reaching this salutary cure... In your letter you mention the minutes of a difficult battle with the hater of our salvation. Exactlydifficult without God's help, and when we rely on our mind and strength or give ourselves over to negligence,but even the very falls of every kind are an allowance for exaltation. Saint John of the Ladder writes:Where there is a fall, there was a foreshadowing of pride". Therefore, we should try our best to acquirehumility, because we have a fight withprouddemons, and humility is an easy victory for them ... How can we acquire this treasure - humility? One must learn from the writings of the Holy Fathers about this virtue andhave self-reproach in everything,but to see your neighbors as the best of yourself: do not reproach or condemn them in anything,and accept reproach from them as sent from God to heal our mental illnesses.
It is impossible not to have a battle, but it depends on us whether to win or be defeated. With strong impulses, it is necessary to have abstinence both from food and from seeing, hearing and speaking, and to have moderate sleep, and moreover, the heart is contrite and humble. Without this latter, the former are of little help. When you are overcome, then know that you are punished for exalting and for condemning others.. Humble yourself and the Lord will save you!
In the war of the senses, many are wounded and suffer illnesses: much more so, in this spiritual warfare, many wounds are acceptable from the spirits of malice, and moreover, when we rely on our strength and reason, then we are defeated until we humble ourselves, knowing our weakness.
In battle, resist with humility, as it is written and shown to us from the father, and if it happens to graze, get up again; and know that for your pride you are tempted by them. Run to self-reproach and humility, and not from your cell. Until the monk is erased by various temptations and sorrows, he cannot recognize his weakness and humble himself.
…The main reason for such a strong scolding against you is the poverty of your humility., and when it is impoverished, pride clearly takes its place, and where the fall, although mental, was preceded by pride, and you, apparently, do not try to resist it and do not overthrow it, so it overthrows you. To get rid of it, have yourself the last neck and the worst of all, as if conquered by passions, then you yourself will see the fruit of this deed, and you, on the contrary, you consider yourself better than others, and you reproach and condemn them; who gave you this power? For this, the enemy strongly rises up against you and confuses you with sleepy (prodigal) dreams. Humble yourself and you will receive God's help.
... Whatever way of life we go through, spiritual warfare is always before us from the spirits of malice, disturbing our passions and forcing us to sinful action, which tests our will and love for God - in our struggle. And if we do not have this struggle, then we will not learn art, and we will not recognize our weakness, and we will not acquire humility, and it is so great that it can save us apart from works, as Saint Isaac writes in the 46th Word.
A Christian who spends his life according to the commandments of God must be tested by various temptations: 1) because the enemy, envious of our salvation, tries with all sorts of wiles to hinder us from fulfilling the will of God, and 2) because virtue cannot be firm and true when it is not she will be tested by an obstacle that is contrary to her and will remain unshakable. Why is there constant spiritual warfare in our life.
…N. say, when you humble yourself, then the abuse will subside: sleep less, eat less, beware of idle talk, condemnation and not like to adorn yourself with a good dress, keep your eyes and ears. All these means are protective; not yet allow thoughts to enter the heart, but when they begin to come, rise up and ask for help from God.
Saint Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow (1783-1867):“The enemy is angry at the good. When they stand in goodness with strength and purity, the arrows of a baby are his ulcers (see: Ps. 63, 8). The admixture of imperfection, wrongness, inattention, laziness, passion in thoughts and motives gives access to the walker on impure paths, and he becomes impudent and impudent.
... Truly, this is one of the slanders of the father of lies, that he sometimes says a bad word in the ear of the soul and tries to attribute this crime to her.
This is one of the errors of mental warfare. It is not necessary to become timid, because this would be harmful in repelling an attack.
It is necessary to hastily and firmly take up the weapons of prayer and the word of God. For example: get away from me, Satan. Or: let their sword enter into their hearts (see: Matt. 4:10; Ps. 36:15). One should cry out to God: Save me, O God, as you bring water to my soul(Ps. 62:8).
Those who go inward meet this battle, but those who strive unremittingly so deepen inward and draw near to the light of God that the arrows of darkness do not reach them. Access to the enemy is given either by those who consider themselves to be something, or condemn others, And so on. His own impure thought becomes the path along which he comes and sows his hellish weeds. Humility, condemnation of oneself and sincere repentance crush the bridge of the enemy, and he falls into the abyss.…»
FROMhierarch Theophan the Recluse (1815-1894):
“Here is what you should do when the internal, unkind movements that confuse you come: immediately descend with attention to your heart and stand there, repelling the attacking evil movements and by exertion of will, and more so by prayer to the Lord. That there are attacks, there is no fault in this; but when you don't push them away and take care of them and allow sympathy, then it's your fault.The heart becomes impure from this and loses boldness before the Lord. watch your heart».
writes about spiritual warfare (from letters to spiritual children):
“This world is subject to the devil. Here he finds his tools, with which he persecutes and persecutes the disciple of Christ, wishing to destroy him. But the Lord conquered the world, conquered the devil. By force, against the will of man, the devil cannot harm anyone. Only he falls under the power of the devil, who himself consciously gives him a hand. And whoever resists him, who calls on the help of the Lord Jesus Christ, he is safe, the temptations of demons can even benefit him, or rather, they benefit him.
You need to use your falls and your dilapidation as a means to acquire humility. A person who has acquired humility has a special inner state in which all the attacks of the devil are repelled. Man no longer trusts in himself, but in the Lord. And the Lord is omnipotent and defeated the devil and defeats him in our soul, when we fight not with our strength, but by invoking the Lord and surrendering ourselves to His will ...
There is an "senile" expression: every good deed is either preceded or followed by temptation. And such good deeds as prayer from the heart, and especially communion, cannot remain without the revenge of the devil. He uses all his strength to prevent him from praying properly and from taking communion. And if he could not do this, then he tries to play dirty tricks so that there is no trace left of the benefits received. This is very well known to everyone involved in the spiritual life. That is why it is necessary, with humility and contrition of heart, if possible, to ask the Lord to protect from the wiles of the enemy, acting either directly on the soul, or through people subject to him.
Don't be surprised by this. This scolding is cruel, and unless the Lord builds the house, the builders toil in vain, and unless the Lord preserves the city, in vain there are strenuous. We must surrender ourselves into the merciful hands of God, recognizing before Him our weakness and powerlessness to protect ourselves from enemies visible and invisible ...
The enemy will not leave anyone who wants salvation alone and, therefore, the fight against him to death will not stop. No one can overcome him with his strength. Destroy the work of the devil and the Lord came to earth. He fights against the devil and sin with those who always call on Him for help. A person must also resist sin and the devil with all his strength, using as a weapon the means indicated by the Lord, the Apostles and the Holy Fathers. For the Orthodox, the weapons against the devil are: fasting, prayer, sobriety, humility. Without humility, no means will help, and the Lord does not help the presumptuous and proud, and he will inevitably fall into various networks of the enemy.
Whoever wants to overcome the enemy, to get rid of passions, and does not fight him with the given weapon, he, obviously, will not win. The more humble and humble a person is, the sooner he will get rid of the enemy. To this it must be added that rancor destroys the power of prayer, for the Lord does not accept prayers from a person who is at enmity with his neighbors or has rancor, and sends him first to be reconciled. And without a prayer accepted by God, a person will be alone, and, consequently, the enemy will completely overcome him.. Yes, and the one who fights correctly does not immediately overcome the enemy. This takes time and patience. Fight right, try to be at peace with everyone, accustom yourself to sobriety and unceasing prayer. Humble yourself before God and people, then you will depose the giants one by one and be freed from the captivity of sin.
Endure all reproaches and slander and slander, right and wrong, for they are useful, cleanse the soul from sins and contribute to the growth of humility, if you do not object. Talk like a robber “Worthy according to our deeds is acceptable, remember me, Lord, in Your kingdom.”
“We notice in ourselves the struggle of faith with unbelief, good forces with evil, and in the light - the spirit of churchness with the spirit of the world.. There, in spirit, you clearly distinguish two opposite sides: the side of light and the side of darkness, good and evil, churchliness, religiosity and secularism, unbelief. Do you know why this is? - from the struggle of two opposing forces: the power of God and the power of the devil.The Lord works in sons who are obedient to Himself, but the devil works in sons of disobedience —
the spirit which is now working in the sons of disobedience(Eph. 2, 2). And I often feel in myself the struggle of two opposing forces. When I begin to pray, sometimes an evil force presses painfully and submerges my heart so that it cannot ascend to God.
The more true and stronger the means that unites us with God (prayer and repentance), the more destructive actions are directed against it by the enemy of God and ours, who uses everything for this: our body disposed to laziness, and the weakness of the soul, its attachment to earthly goods. and worries, doubt so close to everyone, lack of faith, unbelief, filthy, crafty and blasphemous thoughts, heaviness of the heart, clouding of thought - by the action of the enemy, everything happens to those who are inattentive to stumble in prayer, on this ladder that leads us to God. That is why there are very few sincere, zealous prayer books; that is why they very rarely fast - Christians repent and take communion ...
Satan often enters through the unworthy communion of the Holy Mysteries, and he tries in every possible way to plant his lie, that is, unbelief, in our hearts, because unbelief is the same as a lie. A murderer from time immemorial, he is trying in every possible way even now to kill a person with his lies and various thoughts, and, having crept into the heart in the form of unbelief or some kind of passion, then he shows himself worthy of himself, more - impatience and malice. And you see that it is in you, but not suddenly, you will often get rid of it, because you usually try to block in your heart all the ways to get out of it with disbelief, bitterness and other generations of yours.
The thought of self-praise has come, of self-gratification - say: "All good in me is done by the grace of God." If the thought of humiliation by any member of your neighbor or yours comes, say: “The whole person is a wonderful work of God's hands; everything in it is well arranged. Pride is a demon; malice is the same demon; envy is the same demon; prodigal abomination - the same demon; violent blasphemy is the same demon; forced conceit in truth is a demon; despondency is a demon; various passions, but one Satan acts in all, and together the barking of Satan in various ways, and a person is one, one spirit, with Satan. Subjected to the vicious and furious violence of various passions and the gnaw of the devil when performing various deeds of God, accept these sufferings for the name of Christ and rejoice in your sufferings, giving thanks to God, for the devil is preparing for you, without knowing it, the most brilliant crowns from the Lord.
Resist the devil urgently. The day is a symbol of the transience of earthly life.
Morning comes, then afternoon, then evening, and with the onset of night and the whole day has passed. So and life will pass. First, infancy, like early morning, then adolescence and courage, like full dawn and noon, and then old age, like evening, God willing, and then inevitable death.
…The enemy is only trying to extinguish faith in the heart and bring into oblivion all the truths of Christianity. That is why we see people who are Christians by name only, but by their deeds they are perfect pagans.
Two forces, completely opposite to each other, influence me: a good force and an evil force, a vital force and a deadly force. As spirit forces, they are both invisible. The good power, according to my free and sincere prayer, always drives away the evil power, and the evil power is strong only by the evil that is hidden in me. In order not to endure the continuous throbbing of the evil spirit, one must constantly have the Jesus prayer in one's heart: Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me. Against the invisible (devil) - the invisible God, against the strong - the Strongest.
The devil as a spirit, as a simple being, can stumble and hurt the soul with one instant movement of an evil thought, doubt, blasphemy, impatience, irritation, anger, an instant movement of the heart’s passion for something earthly, a movement of contemplating fornication and other passions, can inflate the spark of sin, with his characteristic cunning and malice, into a flame raging with hellish power in the insides of a person. We must hold on and with all our might strengthen ourselves in the truth of God, rejecting the lies of dreams and malice at their very beginning. Here the whole person should be attentive, the whole eye, the whole adamant, indestructible in all its parts, solid and invulnerable. ABOUT! Glory, glory to Your victory, Lord! So let me conquer in the power of Your fortress the enemies invisible and visible, all the days of my stomach, until my last breath. Amen".
Saint Silouan of Athos (1866-1938) about spiritual warfare writes: “All who have followed our Lord Jesus Christ are waging spiritual warfare. This war the saints learned by long experience from the grace of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit instructed and admonished them, and gave them the strength to defeat their enemies, and without the Holy Spirit, the soul cannot even start this war, because it does not know and does not understand who and where its enemies are.
Blessed are we, Orthodox Christians, because we live under the grace of God. It is easy for us to fight: the Lord took pity on us and gave us the Holy Spirit Who lives in our Church. We only have the sorrow that people do not know God and how much He loves us. This love is heard in the soul of the one who prays, and the Spirit of God bears witness to the soul's salvation.
Our battle goes on every day and hour.
If he reproached his brother, or condemned, or saddened him, then he lost his world. If he was conceited or exalted over his brother, then he lost grace. If a lustful thought comes, and you do not immediately drive it away, then your soul will lose the love of God and boldness in prayer. If you love power or money, you will never know the love of God. If you have fulfilled your will, then you are defeated by the enemy, and despondency will come into your soul.
If you hate your brother, then you have fallen away from God, and an evil spirit has taken possession of you.
If you do good to your brother, you will find peace of conscience.
If you cut off your will, you will drive away your enemies and you will receive peace in your soul.
If you forgive your brother offenses and love your enemies, then you will receive the forgiveness of your sins, and the Lord will let you know the love of the Holy Spirit.
And when you completely humble yourself, then you will find perfect rest in God.
One unskillful monk suffered from demons, and when they attacked him, he ran away from them, and they chased him.
If this happens to you, then do not be afraid and do not run, but become courageous, humble yourself and say: “Lord, have mercy on me, a great sinner,” and the demons will disappear; and if you run cowardly, they will drive you into the abyss. Remember that in the hour when demons attack you, the Lord also looks at you, how do you trust in Him?
If you clearly see Satan, and he will scorch you with his fire and wants to capture your mind, then again do not be afraid, but firmly trust in the Lord and say: “I am worse than everyone,” and the enemy will depart from you.
If you feel that an evil spirit is working within you, then do not be shy, but confess purely and diligently ask the Lord for a humble spirit, and the Lord will certainly give, and then, as you humble yourself, you will feel grace in yourself, and when you completely humble yourself your soul, then you will find perfect rest.
And a man wages such a war all his life.
The soul that has known the Lord by the Holy Spirit, if after that it falls into delusion, is not afraid, but, remembering the love of God and knowing that fighting with enemies is allowed for vanity and pride, humbles itself and asks the Lord for healing and the Lord heals the soul, sometimes soon, and sometimes slowly, little by little. The obedient one who believes in the confessor and does not believe in himself will soon be healed of all the harm inflicted on him by his enemies, but the disobedient one will not be corrected.
War in the soul with the enemy to the grave. And if in an ordinary war only the body is killed, then our war is more difficult and more dangerous, because the soul can also die.
For my pride, the Lord allowed the enemy to make war twice with my soul so that my soul stood in hell, and I can say that if the soul is courageous, it will stand, and if not, it can perish forever. To all who, like me, will be in such trouble, I write: stand courageously and firmly hope in God, and the enemies will not stand, for the Lord has overcome them. By the grace of God I know that The Lord mercifully takes care of us, and not a single prayer, not a single good thought will be lost before God.”
Venerable Elder Parthenius (Krasnopevtsev) (1790-1855):“The enemy is vigilantly fighting us. First, he fights us from the side, that is, he tempts us with our own passions and lusts; and when he does not have time to overcome the shuia, he fights us with the gum,that is, in our most good deeds he sets up snares for us to fall.
The closer you get to God, the stronger the enemy will grab you. Because If you begin to work for the Lord, prepare your soul for temptation.
The enemy sows his tares in all our good things.
Elder John (Alekseev) (1873-1958) in one of his letters he writes: “You still have not learned how to fight the enemy of the human race. He came to you with his cunning machinations, and you almost fall into despair. Calm down and don't be embarrassed; it is the enemy that inflicts on you memories of past errors; you don’t have to accept them, just don’t pay attention, this is what St. Mark the ascetic writes: “Former sins, being remembered in appearance, harm the trustworthy. For if they bring sadness with them, they remove them from hope, and if they present themselves without sadness, they put the former filth inside.
…When the enemy brings in thoughts of self-praise, then one only needs to remember past sins in order to humble oneself. As it is said in the Fatherland: one ascetic, when the enemy begins to fight him with thoughts of self-praise, then he says to himself: “Old man! Look at your fornication." And in your previous encroachments, God will forgive you, child, be calm.
Elder Michael (Pitkevich) (1877-1962):“When the enemy annoys, wants to irritate, anger, steal the peace of the heart with trifles, annoyances, just say:“Christ is Risen. Christ is Risen. Christ is Risen".He fears these words the most, they burn him like fire, and he will run away from you.
Sorrow from demons cannot be avoided: if they themselves cannot, they send people for that. Here one must always be in suspense, in attention to those who follow the path of self-reproach and repentance. Even if there is a lot of suffering, the Lord will help to endure, seeing his firm faith, determination and humility.
Elder Schemagumen Savva (1898-1980):“After the received spiritual joy and warmth of the heart, one must be ready for some kind of enemy temptation.
The Lord sends such sweet moments of heartfelt impulse to Him, so that by such consolation, by the sweetness of communion with God, to keep the soul of a person with Himself. At the moment of temptation, we must make every effort and ask the Lord for help in order to overcome sin, to abandon it, to show that we really love the Lord, not in words, but in deeds. And for the victory over sin, the Lord sends such mercies! The fight against sin is imputed to martyrdom. If you want to work for the Lord, then get ready for trials, for the dark force will seek to upset your good beginning. Do not succumb to it - and the grace of God will help you conquer everything.
Holy Blessed Matrona of Moscow (1881-1952), healing the sick, she demanded from them faith in God and the correction of a sinful life. So, she asks one visitor if she believes that the Lord is able to heal her. The other, who fell ill with epilepsy, orders not to miss a single Sunday service, at each to confess and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. living in civil marriage she blesses to get married in the Church, everyone must wear a pectoral cross.
She emphasized that it was not herself who helped, but God through her prayers: “What, Matronushka is God, or what? God help!”.
... Often Matrona put her hands on her head and said: “Oh, oh, now I’ll cut your wings, fight, fight bye!” "Who are you?" - he will ask, and in a person he will suddenly buzz. Mother will say again: “Who are you?” - and buzz even more, and then she will pray and say: “Well, the mosquito fought, now that’s enough!” And the man leaves healed.
The help that Matrona gave to the sick, not only had nothing to do with conspiracies, divination, the so-called folk healing, extrasensory perception, magic and other witchcraft actions, during which the “healer” enters into a relationship with dark power, but had a fundamentally different, Christian nature. That is why the righteous Matrona was so hated by sorcerers and various occultists, as evidenced by people who knew her closely during the Moscow period of her life. First of all, Matrona prayed for people. Being a servant of God, richly endowed from above with spiritual gifts, she asked the Lord for miraculous help to those who were ill. The history of the Orthodox Church knows many examples when not only clergy or ascetic monks, but also the righteous who lived in the world healed those in need of help with prayer.
The matron read a prayer over the water and gave it to those who came to her. Those who drank water and sprinkled it got rid of various misfortunes. The content of these prayers is unknown, but, of course, there could be no question of the consecration of water according to the order established by the Church, to which only clergy have a canonical right. But it is also known that not only holy water has beneficial healing properties, but also the water of some reservoirs, springs, wells, marked by the presence and prayer life near them of holy people, the appearance of miraculous icons.
Matronushka did not allow to attach importance to dreams: "Do not pay attention to them, dreams come from the evil one - upset a person, entangle them with thoughts."
Here are her words: "The world lies in evil and charm, and charm - the seduction of souls - will be obvious, beware."
Matronushka said: “The enemy is approaching - you must definitely pray. Sudden death happens if you live without prayer. The enemy sits on our left shoulder, and an angel sits on our right, and everyone has their own book: our sins are written in one, good deeds in the other. Get baptized more often! The cross is the same lock as on the door. She instructed not to forget to baptize food. “By the power of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross, save yourself and defend yourself!”
About sorcerers, mother said: “For someone who has voluntarily entered into an alliance with the power of evil, engaged in sorcery, there is no way out. You can’t turn to grandmothers, they will cure one thing, but hurt the soul. ”
Matushka often told her relatives that she was fighting with sorcerers, with evil power, invisibly fighting with them. Once a handsome old man came to her, with a beard, sedate, fell on his knees in front of her in tears and said: "My only son is dying." And mother leaned over to him and quietly asked: “And what did you do to him? To death or not? He replied: "To death." And mother says: "Go, go away from me, there is no need for you to come to me." After he left, she said: “Sorcerers know God! If only you would pray as they do when they beg forgiveness from God for their evil!”
The mass falling away of people from the Church, militant theomachism, the growth of alienation and malice between people, the rejection of the traditional faith by millions and the sinful life without repentance have led many to grave spiritual consequences. Matrona understood and felt this well.
During the days of demonstrations, mother asked everyone not to go out, to close windows, vents, doors - hordes of demons occupy all the space, all the air and cover all people.
Z. V. Zhdanova asked mother: “How did the Lord allow so many temples to be closed and destroyed?” (She meant the years after the revolution). And mother answered: “It is the will of God, the number of churches has been reduced because there will be few believers and there will be no one to serve.” Why isn't anyone fighting? She: “The people under hypnosis, not their own, a terrible force came into action ... This force exists in the air, penetrates everywhere. Previously, swamps and dense forests were the habitat of this force, because people went to temples, wore a cross, and houses were protected by images, lamps and consecration. Demons flew past such houses, and now people are inhabited by demons due to their unbelief and rejection of God.
The Matrona of Moscow taught to surrender oneself to the will of God. Live with prayer. Often impose the sign of the cross on yourself and surrounding objects, thereby protecting yourself from evil forces. She advised me to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ more often. "Protect yourself with the cross, prayer, holy water, frequent communion ... Let lamps burn before the icons."
Blessed Matrona was an Orthodox person in the deep, traditional sense of the word. Compassion for people, coming from the fullness of a loving heart, prayer, the sign of the cross, fidelity to the holy statutes of the Orthodox Church - that was the focus of her intense spiritual life. The nature of her feat is rooted in the centuries-old traditions of folk piety. Therefore, the help that people receive by prayerfully turning to the righteous woman brings spiritual fruits: people are affirmed in the Orthodox faith, become churched externally and internally, and join the daily life of prayer.
Matrona is known to tens of thousands of Orthodox people. "Matronushka" is the affectionate name given to her by many. She, just as during her earthly life, helps people. This is felt by all those who, with faith and love, ask her for intercession and intercession before the Lord, to whom the blessed old woman has great boldness ...
Elder Paisius Svyatogorets (1924-1994) said: " When turning to God, a person receives from Him the strength, enlightenment and comfort necessary at the beginning of the path.But as soon as a person begins a spiritual struggle, the enemy raises a cruel battle against him. That's when you need to show a little bit of endurance. Otherwise, how will passions be eradicated? How will the old man be put off? How will pride go? And so a person understands that he, on his own, cannot do anything. He humbly asks for the mercy of God, and humility comes to him. The same thing happens when a person wants to get away from a bad habit - for example, from smoking, drugs, drunkenness. At first, he feels joy and quits this habit. Then he sees that others smoke, do drugs, drink, and endure strong language. If a person overcomes this battle, then later it will not be difficult for him to give up this passion, to turn his back on it. We need to get back a little and work hard, fight. Tangalashka does her job - so why don't we do ours?
… Good God created angels. However, out of pride, some of them fell and became demons. God created a perfect creation - man - in order for him to replace the fallen angelic rank. Therefore, the devil is very jealous of man - the creation of God. Demons bawl: "We committed one offense, and You tyrannize us, and people who have so many faults on their account - You forgive." Yes, it forgives, but people repent, and the former angels fell so low that they became demons, and instead of repenting, they become more and more crafty, more and more evil. With fury they rushed to the destruction of the creatures of God. Dennitsa was the brightest angelic rank! And what did he come to… Out of pride, the demons moved away from God thousands of years ago, and out of pride they continue to move away from Him and remain impenitent. If they only said one thing: "Lord have mercy", then God would come up with something (for their salvation). If only they would say "sinned" but they don't say that. Having said "sinned" the devil would become an angel again. The love of God is boundless. But the devil has a stubborn will, stubbornness, selfishness. He doesn't want to give in, he doesn't want to be saved. This is scary. After all, he was once an angel!
... He (all) is fire and fury, because he does not want others to become angels, those who take his former place. And the longer it goes on, the worse it gets. It develops in malice and envy. Oh, that a person would feel the state in which the devil is! He would cry day and night. Even when some kind person changes for the worse, becomes a criminal, he is very sorry. And what to say if you see the fall of an angel!
…God is ready to accept demons, if only they would repent. But they do not want their own salvation. Look - the fall of Adam was healed by the coming of God to earth, the Incarnation. But the fall of the devil cannot be cured by anything other than his own humility. The devil is not corrected because he does not want it himself. Do you know how glad Christ would be if the devil wanted to correct himself! And a person is not corrected only if he does not want it himself.
- Geronda, so what - the devil knows that God is Love, knows that He loves him, and, despite this, continues his own?
How does he not know? But will his pride allow him to humble himself? And besides that, he is also cunning. Now he is trying to acquire the whole world. “If I have more followers,” he says, “then, eventually, God will be forced to spare all His creatures, and I will be included in this plan too!” So he thinks. Therefore, he wants to win over as many people as possible to his side. See where he's headed? “On my side,” he says, “there are so many people! God will be forced to show mercy to me too!” He wants to be saved without repentance!
The devil, who is at the head of egoism, does not say, have sinned”, but endlessly struggling to win over as many people as possible to its side ...
- Geronda, why is the devil called the "world ruler"? Is he really 
rules the world?
“That was still not enough for the devil to rule the world!” Talking about the devil prince of this world"(John 16:11), Christ did not mean that he was a ruler of the world, but that he ruled with vanity, with lies. Is it possible! Would God allow the devil to rule the world? However, those whose hearts are given to the vain, worldly, live under the power of "ruler of this world"(Eph. 6:12). I.e the devil rules over vanity and those who are enslaved to vanity, the world. What does the word "peace" mean? Ornaments, vain trinkets, isn't it? So, under the power of the devil is the one who is enslaved by vanity. The heart, captivated by the vain world, keeps the soul in a state of non-developing, and the mind in darkness. And then a person only seems to be a person, in fact he is a spiritual imbecile.
The greatest enemy of our soul, an enemy greater than even the devil, is the worldly spirit. He sweetly draws us in and leaves us bitterly forever. Whereas if they saw the devil himself, then we would be seized with horror, we would be forced to resort to God and without a doubt go to paradise. In our era, much worldly things have entered the world, much of the spirit of this world. This "worldly" destroys the world. Having taken this world into themselves (becoming “worldly” from within), people expelled Christ from themselves.
... The devil has gone wild, because today's people have given him many rights. People are exposed to terrible demonic influences. One person explained it very correctly. “Earlier,” he says, “the devil dealt with people, but now he doesn’t deal with them. He leads them to (his) path and admonishes: “Well, no fluff, no feather!” And people wander along this road themselves. This is scary.
“Some people say there is no devil.
- Yes, one person also advised me to remove from the French translation of the book "Reverend Arsenius of Cappadocia" those places that speak of demoniacs. “Europeans,” he says, “will not understand this. They do not believe that the devil exists. You see how: they explain everything in psychology. If 
gospel demoniacs fell into the hands of psychiatrists, they would subject them to electric shock treatment! Christ deprived the devil of the right to do evil. He can do evil only if the person himself gives him the right to do so. By not participating in the Sacraments of the Church, a person gives these rights to the evil one and becomes vulnerable to demonic influence.
How else can a person give the devil such rights?
Logic, contradiction, stubbornness, self-will, disobedience, shamelessness - all these are the hallmarks of the devil. A person becomes vulnerable to demonic influence to the extent that he has in himself the properties listed above. However, when a person's soul is cleansed, the Holy Spirit instills in him, and the person is filled with Grace. If a person stains himself with mortal sins, an unclean spirit enters into him. If the sins with which a person has soiled himself are not mortal, then he is under the influence of an evil spirit from outside.
Unfortunately, in our era, people do not want to cut off their passions, their own self-will. They do not take advice from others. After that, they begin to speak with shamelessness and drive away the Grace of God from themselves. And then man, no matter where you step, cannot succeed because he has become vulnerable to demonic influences. A person is no longer in himself, because from the outside he is commanded by the devil. The devil is not inside him - God forbid! But even from the outside, he can command a person.
A person abandoned by Grace becomes worse than the devil. Because the devil does not do everything himself, but incites people to evil. For example, he does not commit crimes, but incites people to do so. And that makes people crazy...
... In the event that the devil has acquired great rights over a person, has prevailed over him, the reason for what happened must be found so that the devil is deprived of these rights. Otherwise, no matter how much others pray for this person, the enemy does not leave.
He hurts a person. his priests 
they scold and scold, and in the end, the unfortunate becomes even worse, because the devil torments him more than before. A person must repent, confess, deprive the devil of the rights that he himself gave him. Only the field of this devil leaves, otherwise the person will be tormented. Yes, even for a whole day, even for two days, reprimand him, even for weeks, months and years - the devil has rights over the unfortunate and does not leave.
... A person is enslaved by passions, giving the devil rights over himself. ...Usually we humans through inattention or proud thoughts, we ourselves allow the enemy to do us harm. If a person deviates from the commandments of God, then passions struggle with him. And if a person left passion to fight him, then the devil is not needed for this. After all, demons also have a “specialization”. They tap a person, find out where he "hurts", seek to reveal his weakness and, thus, overcome him. We must be attentive, close windows and doors - that is, our feelings. It is necessary not to leave open cracks for the evil one, not to let him crawl through them inside. These cracks and holes are our weak spots. If you leave the enemy even a small crack, then he can squeeze in and harm you. The devil enters a person who has dirt in his heart. The devil does not approach the pure creation of God. If a person's heart is cleansed of dirt, then the enemy flees and Christ comes again. Just as a pig, finding no dirt, grunts and leaves, so the devil does not approach a heart that has no uncleanness. And what did he forget in a pure and humble heart? So, if we see that our house - the heart - has become an enemy dwelling - a hut on chicken legs, then we must immediately destroy it so that the tangalashka (tempter demon) - our evil tenant - leaves. After all, if sin lives in a person for a long time, then, naturally, the devil acquires greater rights over this person.
... Once the witchcraft worked, it means that the person gave the devil rights over himself. That is, he gave the devil some serious reason and then did not put himself in order with the help of repentance and confession. If a person confesses, then damage - even if it is raked under him with a shovel - does not harm him. This happens because when a person confesses and has pure heart, sorcerers cannot "work together" with the devil in order to harm this person.
One man told me that his wife is possessed by an unclean spirit, she makes terrible scandals at home, jumps up at night, wakes up the whole family and turns everything upside down. "Are you confessing?" I asked him. "No," he answered me. “It must be,” I told him, “you have given the devil rights over you. These things don't happen out of the blue." This man began to tell me about himself, and finally we found the reason for what was happening with his wife. It turns out that he visited one Khoja, who "for luck" gave him some water to sprinkle his house. This man did not attach any importance to this demonic sprinkling. And then the devil went wild in his house in earnest.
How can witchcraft be destroyed?
You can get rid of witchcraft with the help of repentance and confession. Because first of all, the reason why witchcraft affected a person must be found. He must admit his sin, repent and confess. How many people, tormented by the damage brought on them, come to me in Kaliva and ask: “Pray for me so that I can be freed from this torment!” They ask for my help, but at the same time they do not look into themselves, they do not try to understand how the evil that is happening to them began, in order to eliminate this cause. That is, these people must understand what was their fault and why witchcraft had power over them. They must repent and confess in order for their torment to end.
— Geronda, what if the person who has been corrupted reaches such a state that he can no longer help himself? That is, if he can no longer go to confession, talk with a priest? Can others help him?
- His relatives can invite a priest to the house to perform the Sacrament of Unction over the unfortunate person or serve a prayer service for the blessing of water. A person in such a state should be given holy water to drink so that the evil recedes at least a little and Christ enters at least a little ... "
About the impotence of demons
Holy Saint Anthony the Great (251-356) there was a vision in which Jesus Christ Himself spoke of the impotence of demons to do anything against the will of the person himself. Here is how St. Anthony (from the life of the saint):
“I prayed to God to show me what kind of cover surrounds and protects the monk? And I saw a monk surrounded by fiery lamps, and many angels guarded him like the apple of their eye, shielding him with their swords. Then I sighed and said, “This is what a monk has been given! And in spite of this, however, the devil overcomes him and he falls. And a voice came to me from the merciful Lord and said: “The devil cannot depose anyone; he no longer has any power after I, having assumed human nature, crushed his power. But a person falls from himself when he indulges in negligence and indulges his lusts and passions. I asked: “Is every monk given such a cover?” And I was shown many monks protected by such protection. Then I called out: “Blessed is the human race, and especially the host of monks, which has a Lord so merciful and philanthropic!”
Holy Apostle Hermas asked the Angel of the Lord who appeared to him: “Who does not ask God for strength to fulfill His holy commandments? But the enemy is strong: he tempts the servants of God and keeps them in his power.
No, the angel answered me, the enemy has no power over the servants of God. Those who believe in God with all their heart, he can tempt, but not rule over them. Resist him with courage and he will flee from you.”
Rev. Ambrose of Optina (1812-1891) in one of his letters about the impotence of demons he writes: Be of good cheer and let your heart be strong(Ps. 26:14). In the midst of the annoying and sometimes frightening temptations of the enemy, console yourself with the Apostolic words:God is faithful, Who will not leave you, be tempted more than you can, but with temptation He will create an abundance(1 Cor. 10:13), and repeat this word often to strengthen yourself. Also despise the vain but evil suggestions of the enemy who threatens you with death. His very threats show you the hope that he cannot do anything to you, covered by the grace of God.If he could do anything, he wouldn't threaten.The angel of repentance said to Saint Hermas that the enemy the devil is completely powerless and cannot do anything to a person unless this person voluntarily agrees first to some kind of sin . Therefore, when the enemy bothers you with cold and bad thoughts, resort to the Lord…”
“The temptations of the devil are like cobwebs; that it is only worth blowing on it - and it is destroyed; something like that against the enemy-devil, one has only to protect oneself with the sign of the cross - and all his machinations disappear completely", - said the holy elder Seraphim of Sarov (1759-1833).
And he also taught: No need to give in to fear which the devil leads on young men, and then it is necessary to be especially vigilant in spirit and, casting aside cowardice, remember that although we are sinners, we are all under the grace of our Redeemer, without whose will not a single hair will fall from our head».
Reverend Elder Lev of Optina (1768-1841) writes: “You ask for guidance on how to get rid of the thoughts that find you, the charms and deceit of demons. Truly, the devil’s battle is great: he has strong bows, fiery arrows, many different nets, countless tricks and weapons, through which he seeks to harm the human soul in every possible way, but you want to completely and soon join the army of the King of Heaven, do not be afraid of the enemy who opposes everything good . ... But when we follow the path of virtue, God Himself accompanies us, promising to establish us in the exploits of virtue until the end of time:and behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the age ...(Matthew 28:20). So you, not at all afraid of enemy attacks, “take up the shield of faith, in it you will be able to quench all the arrows of the evil one, kindled, and take up the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
From letters Saint Theophan the Recluse (1815-1894):
“Now have you understood what the intrigues of the enemy are?!They have nothing to fear. They don't have any power. Muddy, excite, but do not define.Our business, as soon as we notice it, is to immediately beat them off;they will come again - again beat them off and under no circumstances agree to them.Watch yourself and learn how to deal with them. You are doing good by throwing yourself on your knees with a prayer when attacked. Get used to the Jesus Prayer, it alone can disperse all the hordes of the enemy!”
Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt (1829-1908):“When on the way to God you encounter obstacles set up by the devil: doubt and unbelief of the heart, also heartfelt malice, sometimes towards persons who deserve unconditional respect and love, as well as other passions, do not be indignant at them, butknow that they are the smoke and stench of the enemy, who will pass from the single mania of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In vain do you work in me, fallen archangel. I am a servant of my Lord Jesus Christ. You, exalted pride, humiliate yourself, so strenuously fighting with me weak. Repent better"- so mentally speak to the evil spirit, which lies a heavy burden on your heart and forces you to evil of various kinds. These words are like a fiery scourge to a proud spirit, and he, put to shame by your firmness and spiritual wisdom, will flee from you. You will see it yourself, touch it and be surprised at the wonderful change in yourself. There will be no heavy, murderous burden for the soul in the heart; them."
Hegumen Nikon (Vorobiev) (1894-1963): "…Do not be afraid. The devil does not do what he would like, but only what the Lord allows him ... "
Elder Paisios the Holy Mountaineer (1924-1994) says that we ourselves, with our sins, give the devil rights over ourselves: « The black forces of darkness are powerless. People themselves, moving away from God, make them strong, because, moving away from God, people give the devil rights over themselves.
Distinguish between the Spirit of God and the evil spirit
Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt (1829-1908):“From the action in our heart of two opposite forces, of which one strongly opposes the other and forcibly, treacherously invades our heart, always killing it, while the other is chastely offended by every impurity and quietly moves away from the slightest impurity of the heart (and when it acts in us, then dies, delights, enlivens and gladdens our hearts), that is, two personal opposing forces — it is easy to see that there is undoubtedly both the devil, as the eternal murderer of men (John 8, 44), and Christ, as the eternal Giver of Life and Savior.
Distinguish within yourself the life-giving Spirit and the deadening spirit that kills your soul. When there are good thoughts in your soul, it’s good for you, it’s easy; when there is peace and joy in the heart, then the good spirit, the Holy Spirit, is in you; and when you have unkind thoughts or unkind heart movements, then it’s bad, hard; when you are inwardly confused, then there is an evil spirit in you, an evil spirit. When there is an evil spirit in us, then, in the midst of heartache and confusion, we usually feel the difficulty of reaching the Lord with our hearts, because an evil spirit binds the soul and does not allow it to rise to God. The evil spirit is the spirit of doubt, unbelief, passions, tightness, sorrow, confusion; and the good spirit is the spirit of undoubted faith, the spirit of virtues, the spirit of spiritual freedom and breadth, the spirit of peace and joy. By these signs, know when the Spirit of God is in you and when the spirit is evil, and as often as possible rise with a grateful heart to the All-Holy Spirit, who gives life and sanctification to you, and with all your might, flee doubts, unbelief and passions with which the spiritual spirit creeps into our soul. the serpent is a thief and the killer of our souls.
You will not experience the actions of the evil wiles of the evil spirit on yourself - you will not recognize and honor, as you should, the benefits bestowed on you by the Good Spirit; If you do not recognize the Spirit that kills, you will not recognize the Life-Giving Spirit. Only because of the direct opposites: good and evil, life and death, do we clearly recognize one and the other; without being exposed to the troubles and dangers of bodily or spiritual death, you will not heartily recognize the Savior, the Giver of Life, delivering from these troubles and from spiritual death ...
It is pleasing to God that a person notices His actions in the heart, because He is light and Truth, while the devil fears this in every possible way, because he is darkness, a lie; but darkness does not come to light, lest its works be revealed. The devil is only strong through darkness, through deceit and lies: expose his lie, bring it to light - and everything will disappear.. He deceives a person into all passions, through deception he puts people to sleep and does not allow them to see things in their true form. The devil's veil lies on very many things.
Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk:“Let us be here with Christ, and in the age to come we will be with Him”
“Every person is either with Christ or with His adversary the devil at the same time. What and whose spirit a person has, with that he is at the same time; with whom he has unanimity, harmony and peace, with that and at the same time. Who truly and sincerely believes in Christ the Son of God ... and sincerely strives for Him, in need ... resorts to Him with prayer, and recognizes and has His protector and helper in everything; He loves him alone, and every man, according to His word; fights against every sin...; he thinks about the heavenly, and not about the earthly; He thanks God for everything, and does His holy will; leaves insults to his neighbor and does not take revenge on him; he sympathizes with the heart of the distressed and suffering; ... and the cross, sent to him by the Heavenly Father, meekly bears ... - he is truly one with Christ at the same time, has unanimity, agreement and peace with Him. He who unites with the Lord is one spirit with the Lord(1 Cor. 6:17). Who loves me - says the Lord, he keeps my word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. You are My friends if you do what I command you(John 14, 23; 15, 14)…
Let us be so here with Christ — and in the age to come we will be with Him…
But let's see what kind of saving Christians ... broke this union and fell into their former disaster. The Lord says: (Matthew 12:30). This word is terrible, but true. The devil is the master and inventor of sin...
Christians who all-perniciously obey his advice and agree with him, and deviate from following him, are at one with him, although they do not understand it, for he darkens their mind and eyes of the heart and deafens their spiritual ears so that they no longer heed the word of God. and did not see their calamity and destruction ...
He who lives in pride and splendor is at one with the devil, for the devil is a proud spirit.
Those who hope for themselves and their strength are at one with the devil, for the devil hopes for himself, his strength and cunning.
The fornicator, the adulterer, and the one who loves uncleanness are at one with the devil, for the devil is an unclean spirit.
Anyone who gossips, eavesdrops, slanders and does other dirty tricks and offends a person is at the same time with the devil, for the devil is an adversary and an intruder.
The slanderer is at one with the devil, for the devil is a slanderer, and from this he has his name (the devil - Greek word and in our language means "slanderer").
A slanderer, a scoffer and a slanderer are at one with the devil, for the devil is a slanderer and a scolder.
Envious and spiteful - with the devil at the same time, for the devil is the spirit of envy and hatred ...
The lover of power and glory is at one with the devil, for the devil always seeks glory and worship from people.
The sorcerer and those who call him to themselves are at one with the devil, for they give themselves to him and ask him for help.
In a word, everyone who lives contrary to the word of God, and does the devil's will, and sins from the will, - at the same time with the devil. For whoever does whose will and agrees with whom, he is at one with it.
This is also shown by the apostolic teaching: Whoever commits sin also commits iniquity; and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He came to take away our sins, and that there is no sin in Him. Whoever abides in Him does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen Him and has not known Him. Children! Let no one deceive you. Whoever does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous. Whoever commits sin is from the devil, because the devil sinned first. For this, the Son of God appeared, to destroy the works of the devil.Whoever is born of God commits no sin, because his seed abides in him; and he cannot sin because he is born of God. The children of God and the children of the devil are known in this way(1 John 3:4-10)…
- What a poor state a man came, Man is made in the image of God and in the likeness: with the devil, the enemy of God, at the same time became. He listened to his evil advice and agreed with him, and lagged behind God, and became one with His adversary. We cannot lament enough for this. You, Lord, have truth, and we have shame on our faces(Dan. 9, 7). Lord, spare us!
- Every person is either with Christ or with the devil; certainly belongs either to one or the opposite part. He who is not with me is against me(Matthew 12:30). Think about it, Christian, and see which part you belong to.
- Christians who transgress the law sin grievously before God, and more so than the pagans. For, having renounced the devil in baptism, they adhered to Christ, and again, lagging behind Christ, they turned away in the footsteps of the devil. The latter is worse for them than the former.. It would be better for them not to know the path of righteousness, than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment given to them(2 Pet.2, 20-21).
- Demon does not rise against demon and stands for each other. But poor man on similar and related man rises. Man must help man in every way, and all men must stand together against the demons and fight, and help each other and protect each other, but the opposite is done by devilish cunning. Man rebels against man, and offends, and persecutes him, which is a great delusion and a terrible clouding of the mind.
- These people, who rise up against people and offend and persecute them, have a devilish spirit in themselves and are possessed by the devil. Therefore, it is necessary to regret them - so that they will not be his eternal captives.
- True Christians follow from the devil temptation and struggle, for they oppose him, and do not deign to his evil advice, therefore he rises up against them and fights with them.
- The devil, what he himself cannot do to a true Christian, he does through evil people, his servants. From here we see various intrigues of evil people against a pious soul.
- Hence, the pious should live carefully and be prudent, so as not to be caught by the devil's nets and the evil intentions of evil people, his servants. Be sober, stay awake, because your adversary, the devil walks like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour(1 Peter 5:8).
- Hence the pious will be persecuted. The devil, when he cannot seduce a pious soul and seduce him after himself, raises persecution against him through evil people in order to seduce her from a good path, and excommunicate her from Christ, and attract her to his part ...
- A Christian who has gone astray after Satan! Remember your vows given at baptism, and repent, with regret and contrition, resort to Christ, who died and suffered for you and will accept you as good and philanthropic. He is waiting for you - so you will return to Him ... There is no salvation and bliss, except for Him and without Him (see Acts 4, 12). Woe to the soul that is not with Christ! Eternal misfortune and death will befall her ... To be with Him is life, to be without Him is obvious death.
- When you stumble and sin in something, do not delay in your sin - so that you do not deviate to the opposite part. But immediately, admitting your sin, repent and pray to the Lord: I have sinned, Lord, have mercy on me!(Ps.40, 5), and your sin will be forgiven. But henceforth beware of sin, like a snake's sting:the sting of death is sin(1 Cor. 15:56). Beware of this sting - but you will not die.To sin is a human thing, but to be and lie in sin is a devilish thing.The devil, as he sinned, since that time has been unceasingly in sin and bitterness, and will remain in that forever. Be careful not to add sin to sin - so that you will not be with the devil.
Compiled by L. Ochai
08.12.2013
Update 03/26/2019
The experience of the 20th century is a demonstrative experience of universal charm. All sorts of "isms", from political to psychiatric, have brought the world to the brink of disaster.
But the experience of true freedom can still be revealed to the world, and this experience is repentance, a change in consciousness. The experience of the transformation of the fallen mind, its sanctification, deification. This is the only true experience, unappreciated by mankind, and if appreciated, then fairly forgotten.
The trouble is, if nothing happens in the life of a Christian, if his soul is lukewarm, like in a village puddle. The trouble is if “everything is normal” and habitual in spiritual life. But what about the Kingdom of God, which is “needy”, but what about “zeal for great gifts”, but what about that “perfection” to which the Lord calls us?! In a word, each of us is called to the fullness of spiritual life and to be content with less is a sin not only of laziness and indifference, but, above all, dislike of God.
It's like we're living in a "pretend". We pretend to pray, pretend to fast, pretend to repent, and nothing happens in our life. No transformation, no insight and change of consciousness!
Lent is a time of overcoming the flesh, a time of effort by which a different vision of the world is acquired: incomparable, amazing, perfect ... infinitely surpassing all human experiences. What the Lord calls the Kingdom of God is within us.
Satan is deprived creativity, he only perverts God's ideas and all "isms" from psychiatric to political are just surrogates of truth, fakes that exploit one property of the human soul. This property is longing for the Kingdom of God!
Fasting and prayer are the means of acquisition. “Give blood and receive the Spirit,” say the holy fathers. By "blood" here we mean the experience of abstaining from sensual pleasures and pleasures, forcing oneself to fulfill the commandments of God, to the Christian life. Here's what: in the transformation of the soul, in reconciliation with God.
Without this real and bright reconciliation, without the amazing experience of the Paschal meeting with the Risen Christ, human life loses its meaning, and there is absolutely nothing to fill it with.
Fasting is the germination of faith through the land of human wickedness, and Easter is the long-awaited meeting of the sprout with the Sun!
In the St. Petersburg studio of our TV channel, Archpriest Grigory Grigoriev, Doctor of Theology, Honored Doctor of the Russian Federation, Professor, Doctor of Medical Sciences, psychotherapist-narcologist, teacher of the St. Petersburg Orthodox Theological Academy, rector of the Church of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist in the village of Yukki .
Our today's theme sounds so: "Consciousness of the God and consciousness of the person". Sounds very unusual. Why did you choose to phrase it that way?
I think that the task of our today's program "Wind of Joy" (which we air on the last Thursday of every month) is to help people put their soul's navigator in the right place so that the Lord's wind of joy fills the sails of a person's soul. Every person has altered states of consciousness. And in order to understand what altered states of consciousness are, one must understand what clear consciousness is. Holy is the Lord alone, a clear state of consciousness is a state of holiness. The Lord alone is holy by His nature, and an Orthodox person becomes holy by receiving the sacrament of Holy Baptism. Life is the time between baptism and the burial of a person. And during this interval, this holiness is constantly lost, and as the holiness is lost, altered states of consciousness arise.
The Holy Fathers said that a person's thoughts are internal, actually human, and external, coming from outside. And external ones are of three kinds: from God, from the evil one, and from other people. Internal and external thoughts in the mind of a person arise simultaneously. That is, the brain is both a receiver and a transmitter, it is a walkie-talkie that operates in the mode of reception and transmission. And if a person maintains a state of inner holiness, then he receives external thoughts from God, and if he does not support this, then these thoughts come from the evil one.
And it often happens that a person begins to hear what other people do not say. We have all faced such a situation when someone convinced us: “I heard it myself, you said it.” And I, for example, know for sure that I could not say this. But the person who heard it that way is not lying, he is telling the truth. That is, he perceived these thoughts from the evil one that entered him as the speech of the one with whom he was talking. And this is called an altered state of consciousness, what Christ said about: "You will have eyes - and you will not see, you will have ears - and you will not hear." That is, you will see and hear not what is, but what Satan inspired in you.
Here's to this modern people attach little importance. We should not be afraid of external thoughts. The Lord told us that nothing that enters a person defiles him, but it defiles what comes out of a person. That is, if we do not have holiness and we do not have enough spiritual immunity, then these thoughts penetrate us - and with the help of dialogues, the concept of the fall of man is created. The man himself says: yes, this, of course, is bad, this is a violation of God's commandment, on the one hand; but, on the other hand, it is very good. An altered state of consciousness is what Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky spoke about: “The soul of a Russian person is wide: both God and Satan fit in it. One must narrow the soul down to one God.”
We can imagine a wide but not deep body of water. For example, our Gulf of Finland near the dam. Once it was called the Marquis puddle. Maybe not many people understand why Marquis's puddle, but when strong winds begin, the color of the water in the bay becomes brown, brown, clay. Because there are shallow depths, and the wave mixes all the booze, all bottom sediments - and everything is stirred up. This is the state of an altered consciousness, when both God and Satan are in the soul, when the soul is wide. And when the soul narrows down to one God, it turns into an ocean. When even the strongest storm is over the ocean, the water in the ocean is transparent, because no waves reach the ocean floor. A submarine can dive into the depths of the ocean - and there will be peace and quiet.
And when a person's soul becomes deep, when the Lord alone lives in it, then all the hurricanes of thoughts that sweep through our emotions do not affect the soul. Because we sacredly understand the words of the Savior: "Nothing that enters a person defiles him." A man says: “Lord, have mercy,” and all this recedes from him. That is, the state of holiness is a state of transparency of the soul and spirit of a person. It is the ability to recognize good and evil. We will devote today's program to this topic and try to measure the time s x opportunities to analyze this really very important problem for people, because it has practical significance.
- A question from a viewer: “I have two questions for you. First, what should true repentance be like? And second: how about is it wrong to reproach oneself for good deeds?
Of course, you have asked very important questions, but it is still important for us that all this be included in the framework of the topic of an altered state of consciousness. Repentance can occur only in a clear and transparent state of consciousness. And a clear and transparent state of consciousness is possible only in a state of holiness, restoration of the image and likeness of God, which the first man Adam lost when he violated God's command not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
In our earthly life, repentance is restored through the New Testament. Because all the religions that existed before Christ were ladders to God that people tried to build to heaven. And the New Testament is a ladder that the Lord lowered down to people. And the New Testament is the communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, which restore the image and likeness of God. That is, the New Testament is the sacrament. The Lord pronounces the words "New Testament" three times in three evangelists: Matthew, Mark and Luke. And each time in the context: "This is My Body, this is My Blood of the New Testament." In general, the concept of "New Testament" by Christ is not pronounced outside the acceptance of His Body and Blood.
True repentance is impossible without communion. That is, when a person's soul fire goes out, he will never be able to see it. dark spots. And in order to see them, it is necessary that a source of inner light appears. Repentance is the restoration of a state of holiness in which we see the dark places of our soul. That is why, in this context, I would say that repentance is impossible only with a logical understanding of sin. Logical reflection can help this repentance, but it can interfere in some way.
Because a person, studying sins, will find them all in himself, like a student of a medical institute who studies a textbook of psychiatry and makes himself all the diagnoses: personality accentuations, and psychopathy, and neurosis, and manic-depressive psychosis, and schizophrenia, and all kinds of read diseases that a person does not actually have. Yes, they can develop. Because the vision of sin is the vision of the main link of sin. Therefore, the Lord hid our sins from us because of His mercy and because of our weakness. If we saw our sins, we would enter into deep despondency, but we do not see them, and they are revealed to us only when we receive grace. That is, healing grace always comes to help us endure the burden of seeing our sins.
How can good deeds be defined? If the deed that you are doing brings you and another person closer to God, then this is a good deed, and if you are doing a good deed, but you yourself are moving away from God (and the other person is moving away), then it turns out that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. In this sense, of course, you can also understand a good deed only through the sacrament.
In general, the New Testament and life Orthodox person- this is the unceasing communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, the acceptance of the Body and Blood of Christ. Of course, the frequency of communion may be different, but according to the Mosaic commandment, work six days - give the seventh to God. Once a week is a must. And if a person has greatly lost the image and likeness of God, then one must take communion literally every day until his restoration. When this is restored, perhaps the frequency can be reduced. That is, one should commune so often that one should always be in the image and likeness of God, that there should be a state of holiness in the human soul, a state of transparency, that it would be possible to distinguish between good and evil, that the navigator of the soul would always be directed towards the Kingdom of Heaven. And then the Lord's wind of joy fills the sails of your soul. In other words, the criterion for the correctness of our path is the joy in the Lord, we live as in Christ's bosom.
When the image and likeness of God is restored in a person, then the vision of the Garden of Eden is restored, the state of love for oneself, for one's neighbor and for God is restored. And when we fulfill God's main commandment: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself," then our course movement is restored. That is, in the spiritual life the main thing is the state of holiness. Holiness is the desire for God, it is the restoration of the image and likeness of God through church sacraments Confession and Holy Communion.
It can be said that the sacrament of Holy Communion itself also includes the sacrament of Confession, especially in current, minor sins. But when some serious sins come up that bother a person, an in-depth confession is definitely needed. However, in order to find dark places in the basement, you need to have a light source. That is, in order to really see your sins by the grace of God, you must first sanctify your soul, kindle the fire of your soul through the sacrament of Communion. If you like, first communion - then the vision of sins.
But there are such cases: “suddenly the Lord awakened the conscience of a fierce thief.” If the Lord awakened the conscience of a person and some sins haunt him, then, of course, first of all, you need to confess. That is, confession should not be formal, it should not turn into a ticket for communion. When a person does not feel any special sins, then in many churches the priest simply blesses a person for communion, and confesses in those cases when he feels such a need.
Question of a TV viewer: “This often happens to me: I don’t say these words, but they are attributed to me, the main thing is right there, in the same conversation: yes, you told me. And then again, it happens, and gossip about it goes. This is how I quarreled with my matchmaker, because I didn’t say these words, but she attributed them to me. What to do in such cases?
As a consolation, I’ll tell you that this happens to everyone, it’s just that the whole world is a kind of madhouse, where many people hear themselves, they hear not what they are told, but what they want to hear, they take what they wish for reality. Because it's an altered state of consciousness. How can we help such people? First of all, as St. Seraphim of Sarov said, one must save oneself. No need to save these people, you need to kindle the fire of your soul. "Save yourself - and thousands around you will be saved," said the monk.
When you take communion and the fire of your soul flares up brightly, this light will act on these people - and their clear consciousness will be restored. And, looking at you, they will say: “I want to be like you, I see that you live like Christ in your bosom, I also want to live like that.” And then you will be able to say: “This is happening because I regularly take communion.” Because I know that when the first Christians for the first three hundred years and then for almost three hundred more years (almost six centuries) took communion almost every day, they did it for a reason. They had a clear state of consciousness, they could distinguish between light and darkness, good and evil. And they understood that not every thought that arises in a person's head is a product of his consciousness. There are thoughts that come from the evil one.
And when we notice these thoughts, we don’t need to let them in, we need to say: “Lord, have mercy.” What is the therapeutic meaning of the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner”? Constantly reading this prayer, a person will never miss enemy thoughts. As said Saint Paisios Svyatogorets, so that enemy planes do not land on our airfields, the runways must be occupied by our planes. So that there are no bad thoughts, our consciousness, our memory should be occupied with positive, bright, bright, imaginative memories, sunsets and sunrises - all bright, joyful memories.
And, if you like, the psychological and spiritual protection of a person is the number of bright, bright, positive memories. Because when we feel bad, we can hide in these thoughts as in the grace of God, we can, like a submarine during a strong storm in the ocean, sink below the waves of the sea, and we will always have peace and grace in our souls. Our emotions will be noisy, and there will be grace in our souls. This is the very road that the Lord spoke about: “Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and its righteousness, and everything else will be added to you.”
Pride, according to the holy fathers, is one of the most terrible sinful inclinations of man. And, probably, this is the most terrible altered human consciousness. Pride leads a person to fall into certain sins. Please tell me, is such a state of altered consciousness, like pride, an obstacle to partaking of the Holy Mysteries of Christ?
Answering this question, I will say right away: if a person does not receive communion, he will have no chance at all to get rid of this condition. And regarding pride I will go a little from afar. If we remember the Garden of Eden, where God the Father was, then this was the time of faith in God. Adam loved God, loved himself, and loved the Garden of Eden. And he was a gardener in the Garden of Eden. According to God's plan, he had to work, take care of the trees, communicate with God and reach the state of deification, because he was created in the image and likeness of God. This tree of the knowledge of good and evil could not be the tree of death, it was the tree of life. But it becomes a tree of death when a person willfully tastes the fruits, and when the Lord gives the fruits, this tree turns into a tree of life.
In fact, when Adam lost that, he lost faith in God, trust in God. That is, God the Father is faith. And after that, the people remained hopeful that God would send His Son into the world and restore their vision of the Garden of Eden. Christ is the hope. And Christ said: “When I leave, I will give you the Spirit of Comfort, the Holy Spirit (Which descended on the apostles on the day of Trinity and Pentecost), and no one will take away your joy from you.” That is, love is the Holy Spirit. Faith, Hope and Love are hypostases of the Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Pride is, perhaps, high spiritual achievements that do not increase the Holy Spirit, the spirit of love, and the soul begins to be filled with a changed spirit. That is, this is a special form of an altered state of consciousness, which can be called spiritual charm. Pride, to one degree or another, is inherent in every person. If we didn’t have pride, we couldn’t study, we wouldn’t build a single house, we probably wouldn’t build beautiful temples. But this pride should be like gasoline in a car: passing along the roads of life, gasoline must burn. And it can turn out the other way around: it does not burn out, but also a trailer with an additional gas tank - a whole tank of gasoline - is recruited.
Pride is like a satellite that goes into orbit: the first knee, the second and the third burn out. Sins are talents without the spirit of love. Undoubtedly, it is impossible to part with pride without constant communion, but also without the appeal of the one who communes to Christ before communion with a request to melt this pride into purposefulness, love, precisely into that state of which the Lord said: “Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and its righteousness, and everything else will be added to you.” And a person seeks this, and love leaves, and he begins to seek more earthly glory, earthly power, as in the fairy tale about the golden fish, that old woman who wanted to become the mistress of the sea. That is, in fact, this is the spiritual state when the navigator of the soul goes astray - and there are very big problems. I think that not a single sin, including such an outstanding sin as pride, will not go anywhere.
But pride also does not grow in an empty place. After all, all sins grow from some root. For example, drunkenness leads to fornication, fornication to avarice, avarice to despondency, and despondency to pride. And we cannot overcome pride until we overcome inferior sin. We must understand that we can not always overcome this sin head-on, we must look for the root. In other words, if we cut down drunkenness, perhaps pride will be cut down. And then the love of money will become the root; gotta cut it down. Then you need to somehow overcome despondency and, perhaps, prodigal states. It's all like a root system that feeds pride. Why is pride the worst sin? Pride is the tip of a huge, scary iceberg that is becoming apparent. And the underground part of this iceberg, which is 9/10, is invisible. And without Communion, without God, it is impossible to turn these sins into talents.
Viewer's question: "Did Christ (not as God, but as a Man) know and understand that He would still rise after the crucifixion?"
The fact is that Christ was the God-man. And, undoubtedly, He was God in all the fullness of this understanding. But He was also a Human in the fullness of human understanding: He experienced hunger, pain, suffering. And He understood that before He was resurrected, He would have to die on the Cross. And, of course, He went to this Cross, taking upon Himself all the sins of the world. Can you imagine, He was so badly beaten that He had dozens of fatal wounds. Because Pontius Pilate, when he ordered Him to be tortured, gave the soldiers the task of killing Him during the torture in order to ease His martyrdom on the Cross. He wanted to help Him in this way. And He was indeed inflicted with many mortal wounds, but they could not kill Him. According to the results of the study of the Shroud of Turin, there were about 260 fatal wounds.
And He, killed many times, being physically dead, went to the Cross. Only God could do this. But all the pain of the whole world was at that moment in Him. And imagine what He experienced on the Cross as God, when as a Man he exclaimed: “My God, why did You leave Me?” He apparently saw this open hellish abyss and Satan and his army, who rejoiced and waited for Him there, hoping that they would keep Him there. But He destroyed the power of death, death could not hold Him, and all the demons were bound. And He rose from the dead.
Therefore, one should not think that since He was God, this detracts from His feat (since He knew that nothing would happen to Him anyway). No, He felt all the pain as a Human. And this tells us that the human body is capable of containing God. That is, every person is able to contain God. Maybe this will seem a little strange to people: how can this human body contain God? But it doesn't seem strange to us when a person's body contains Satan or a demon. That is, there seems to be no doubt here: yes, demons can easily enter. They say: probably, a demon lives in me. Bes is also a spirit. And, in principle, if a person can accommodate a demon (and he can accommodate a legion of demons), then he can also accommodate God. In this regard, of course, this does not diminish the feat of Christ, since He was God, but, on the contrary, emphasizes this. Because He could voluntarily refuse it, but then the hope that was all over the world (for the restoration of the immortality of man, the road to paradise) would never have been realized.
It is impossible to talk about altered states of consciousness and not touch upon the topic of certain substances that change the consciousness of a person. Many pagan religions use certain narcotic drugs, intoxicants, in order to somehow get closer to invisible world. Do you think this rapprochement is really happening? Or is it self-deception?
In general, altered states of consciousness are especially understandable for those who drive vehicles. That's when various emergencies arise, then often a person does not see obstacles on the way, does not see the person he runs into, does not see another car that goes towards him. He is in a special state of consciousness. That is, he does not see with his eyes a clear physical obstacle. And we know how important alcohol is in these altered states of transport. We know that a huge number of accidents happen due to an altered state of consciousness.
Yes, there is fatigue, there is illness, sometimes a person is distracted, dispersed, but alcoholism is 90% of an altered state of consciousness. In other words, when a person takes a certain amount of alcoholic beverages, he actually turns off the system of determining "friend or foe", he really drives away the guardian angel and voluntarily gives his will into the hands of crafty demons. And these crafty demons begin to lead him. That is, in other words, the state of alcoholic intoxication is a state of spiritual charm, at this moment a person’s self-esteem, his pride grow indefinitely, he begins to imagine himself as someone great and perform certain actions that look absurd, ridiculous to others, and he it seems that he is generally just a hero saving the world.
Therefore, undoubtedly, on some substances, on alcohol, on drugs, we see how a person voluntarily changes his consciousness and how demons infinitely guide him. Sometimes relatives say: when sober, he good man, but when he drinks, as if some kind of demon inhabits him, he himself does not know what he is doing. And a person sometimes in the morning also says: “What have I done there?” They tell him, he says: “Is it really me?” As if it wasn't him who did it, but someone who possessed him. And the person does not even understand that it was an altered state of consciousness with a complete lack of critical self-assessment of his actions and that he voluntarily opened the door to demons. In other words, any altered state of consciousness is a voluntary opening of the door of one's soul for demons. And in this sense, alcohol and drugs primarily contribute to this.
I don't mean to say that when a person drinks a small amount of alcohol, he has this altered state of consciousness; I want to say exactly about the intake of alcohol, when a person loses control over himself. That is, here, too, one cannot say that the intake of any amount of alcohol will necessarily lead to an altered state of consciousness, but, in principle, it will be a road in that direction. This does not mean that a person will immediately open up to demons, but after some trait this will happen, and this trait will be different for each person. And only people around will be able to appreciate it. And he himself, when he comes out of this state.
Question of a TV viewer from the Sverdlovsk region: “My daughter has been ill since 2011 with a mental illness. I know that I need to take communion more often so that there are improvements in my soul, but she believes that she did not deserve this, and she is afraid to approach.
Here, nevertheless, one must somehow explain this to the priest, talk with him, because communion is shown to sick people in extreme economy, an extremely gentle approach. Rule 121 VI Ecumenical Council says: show compassion to the suffering, so as not to plunge the suffering souls into the rapids of despair. That is, first of all, she needs drug treatment; secondly, such a person should be given communion without preparation. It's just that she comes first, at least at the end of the service, to the very communion. And, undoubtedly, repentance should be absolutely ruled out for her now, because demons will immediately turn on delusional interpretations - and a person will feel such sins that are not in him.
Therefore, in this case, such a mentally ill person who feels unworthy of communion should be asked to receive communion without confession in order to kindle the fire of his soul first. Because any confession in this particular case can be very damaging. And it is necessary to explain to a person that the sacrament is the healing of sinners. That's when a person feels like a sinner, then, on the contrary, it is necessary to take communion more often. It is important that the Lord knock on the heart, that is, one cannot forcibly take communion, but one must explain, persuade; perhaps ask the priest to come to the house and talk. It is very important that this contact be established, and, perhaps, at first, commune her at home, and when the fire of her soul flares up a little, then invite her to church. Therefore, it is imperative to combine drug treatment with communion.
When some Orthodox people encounter mental illness and end up in psychiatric hospitals, they are taken out of an acute state with medication and then given medication for supportive treatment at home. A person gets better, then he does not take these pills and thereby makes a big mistake, and after a while it all comes back. What's happened mental illness? This is when the insulation is broken in the wires and they spark, and medicines are electrical tape, with which the broken sections are tied. Of course, it is better without electrical tape, but sometimes you can’t do without it.
And mental illness is also a person's road to God. On the contrary, sometimes a disease keeps a person from very many evil deeds, he simply does not have sufficient strength to perform them. Therefore, God must be thanked for everything. And in this case, you need to find an approach to your daughter, after talking with the priest first. This should, of course, be done by the priest, and in such a way that he shows a gentle, warm, kind approach to her. Then her soul will open, she will begin to take communion, and against the background of communion, her mental state will improve. Then, under the supervision of the attending physician, it will be possible to reduce the dose of medications that a person takes outside the hospital.
We are now talking about negative sides such a phenomenon as an altered consciousness, but in many Eastern religions there is such a thing as an enlightened person. Please tell me, within the framework of our Orthodox tradition, can we talk about some kind of enlightenment?
Can we say that a non-Orthodox person can open his soul to God? Can God manifest in the soul of a non-Orthodox person? Undoubtedly, God can manifest where He pleases. We know many examples from the Old Testament when the Lord manifested itself among the pagans. We know, for example, how the apostle Peter was in the house of Simon the tanner and the angel told the Roman centurion to call Peter. That is, he was unbaptized, and an angel of the Lord came to him and said: “Call a man named Peter, who is in the house of Simon the tanner, and he will tell you how to be saved.” It's in the Acts of the Apostles.
And when Peter, having come to his house, began to speak to him and his relatives a word about Christ, at that moment the grace of the Holy Spirit descended on the pagans, and Peter exclaimed: “Who prevents those who have already received the grace of the Holy Spirit from being baptized? » That is, if the grace of the Holy Spirit, the spirit of love, descended, they were in an enlightened state of consciousness and after that they were baptized. Therefore, of course, here, in these practices, this is possible. But it is also possible that demons disguised as angels will descend. At least in the practice that we constantly encounter in our real world, as a rule, these are still manifestations of demonic forces.
But at the same time, I would not want the child to be thrown out with water and that we limit God in the places of manifestation. Therefore, we must not forget that God is for all peoples. This does not mean that all religions are the same, not at all, Orthodoxy is a religion when the ladder was lowered from heaven. But when people try to build a stairway to heaven, that is their business, because perhaps they don't know about that stairway, they don't understand it, they don't feel the wind of joy that fills their soul from Orthodoxy. Therefore, everything can be, and only individually it is possible to answer this question. I would not speak so unequivocally, but if people take drugs or some psychoactive substances for enlightenment, this, from my point of view, is an unambiguous demon. That is, this is an unambiguous way to contacts with invisible forces evil. As we can see, in many pagan religions, this was the basis of the exit.
And somewhere, in some Buddhist monasteries (due to spiritual contemplative prayer, when a person entered a state of clear vision), this is probably possible; I can imagine it. But to answer this question, you need to see specific people. Therefore, one cannot indiscriminately say: this is good or this is evil. This is the work of God. The sun rises on the good and the evil, and the rain also falls. Our main task is to remember that our greatest sin is judging one another and lacking the spirit of love. “In the time of turmoil and debauchery, do not condemn, brothers, brother ...”
We must constantly remember the words of Basil the Great: "Slander is the truth without love." Therefore, each of us, speaking of his brother, without having a sufficient spirit of love for him, is a slanderer, even if, from our point of view, we report the right things. That is, it can be said that whenever we lack the spirit of love, we are still in an altered state of consciousness and see a caricature picture of a person. And the Lord, who abides in a clear consciousness, always sees the true appearance of a person. And a person seems lost to us, but the Lord knows that a great future awaits this person, the Kingdom of Heaven awaits him. Therefore, no one should ever be condemned, because "Judge not, lest you be judged." And "forgive us, O Lord, our debts, as we also forgive our debtors."
Why do people sometimes receive communion and do not feel a meeting with Christ? Firstly, Ignatius (Bryanchaninov) said that they rarely take communion; I need to partake more often for this. Secondly, we come to partake in the spirit of condemnation, condemning one of our neighbors, and the priest, giving us the Body and Blood, says: "For the remission of sins and for eternal life." And sins can only go away when we forgive those who offended us. But we cannot forgive these people, and we do not ask God to give us the grace of forgiveness. It should be said: "Lord, give the grace of forgiveness to those who offended us." The Holy Fathers always rejoiced when someone offended them: “Lord, we have forgiven them, and You forgive us our sins.” Whenever there are people who wronged us unfairly, there are some of our sins that will go away if we forgive these people.
Question from a TV viewer from Yekaterinburg: “In our time it is very difficult to pray and prepare for communion because of everyday, official issues. How to set yourself up, where to draw strength, where to get them? And how can you help your family members in this regard?
This question resonates with the topic of our today's program, because I said that one should take communion as often as possible so that there are no altered states of consciousness, but clear states. But the person says that the modern communion rule and the modern requirements of fasting, the canon of repentance, the rule of prayer sometimes take a lot of time and people do not have such a physical opportunity due to their real life to fulfill all this. I want to say that all this prayer rule appeared as people took communion less and less.
When the early Christians took communion every day, they did not have any special rules. And no special posts, except for the posts regulated by the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. And there have always been two ways. Economy is the soft way. “Infants are fed liquid food,” said the apostle Paul. - And when they grow up - solid. Babies in Christ were all people who walked the path of economy, and no special rules were imposed on them, except for those rules that they could really bear.
And acrivia was applied to spiritual ascetics, to monks. And, of course, the Acrivia road is also essential. But somewhere from the 14th century, acrivia began to penetrate the life of Orthodoxy, and in the 18th century, when Tsar Peter changed the structure of the state and the Church did not obey him, but he somehow wanted to weaken the influence of the Church on the world, he adopted a decree on the inadmissibility of attitudes towards Communion as an apothecary drug. The strict rules of the strict ascetic monasteries of the 18th century were taken and transferred to the world. This is the rule that is prescribed to us today - in part this is the same rule. And people began to take communion less and less. By the beginning of the 20th century, many people began to take communion once a year, because when a person took communion once a year, he received a certificate from the priest and he was given tax incentives on income taxes due to the decree of the Synod.
In fact, here you need to ask the priest to speak with him individually, so that, when possible, to fulfill the rule. The rules are good, pious, but they were never binding. Today they are sometimes elevated to mandatory rank. In this case, it is necessary to find personal contact with the priest. Therefore, probably, in some temples there will be a hard approach (this is correct and understandable), and in some - a soft one.
For example, in our temple in Yukki, we apply an individual approach to each person according to his weakness and illness. But my temple is generally filled with sick people, including the mentally ill, so I, being a doctor, understanding their condition, have the opportunity to show extreme economy towards them. After all, when a priest gives communion to a patient in a hospital, no rules are required there, especially in intensive care, for dying people. Therefore, many priests need to think about this: after all, approach people as sick, as weak. And when a person gets stronger, then you can put more on him.
But it is very bad that sometimes these good, pious rules become an insurmountable wall that blocks a person from God. These rules should help to get closer to God, but here such a fence is being built that sometimes a person cannot get over it. And people can't take communion often. In addition, sometimes they say right in the temple: “Are you a saint in order to take communion often?” But we must remember that after all, communion is the healing of sinners, and not a reward for the righteous. With us, sometimes it began to turn into a reward for the righteous. And that's precisely the New Testament - this is the religion of the sacrament.
BUT Old Testament is the religion of the law. That is, after all, the Old Testament creeps into the New Testament all the time; some pagan roots creep into the Old Testament. And it is precisely the Old Testament approaches, when the rule becomes higher than God, that sometimes prevent a person from meeting God. So knock, ask. Nicodemus the Holy Mountaineer and Macarius of Corinth said: beg the priests, ask them not to leave without communion, and your fiery prayer will melt the most cruel heart of the priest.
- I ask you to tell us a few words for the remaining days of Peter's fast.
I beg you, remember: the main sin for all of us is condemnation. Treat each other as if we all lived in a big crazy house, in which there are a lot of good people, but they seem to be not quite all right with the psyche. Just be kind. Remember how in "Operation Y"? “To treat people softer, and to look at problems more broadly.” And treat yourself as not quite healthy person and with a sense of humor. The ability to laugh at oneself puts demons to shame. As long as you have a sense of humor for yourself, critical self-esteem, and you will feel like a narrow-minded, stupid person, an altered state of consciousness will never happen to you. Because the basic law of psychiatry says: "Fools don't go crazy." That is why Ivan the Fool is a favorite hero of Russian fairy tales. Feel like a fool and you'll never go crazy. Ivan the Fool was not a fool after all. Remember, at the end of the tale he became a king. Therefore, treat others with love, commune as often as possible, ask your priests about it, find approaches to them, find a temple where you will receive communion, and the Lord will manage everything.
Host Mikhail Kudryavtsev, deacon
Recorded by Elena Kuzoro
The subconscious is a mysterious area of the human soul, where thoughts, feelings, images, experiences, desires are born. In a person living an unspiritual life, it is the subconscious that most often forms behavior aimed mainly at satisfying his physiological needs. It also forms the motivation of behavior and its aggressiveness. In many ways, the motivation of behavior is determined by physiological processes. For example, the feeling of hunger makes you look for food. Sexual instincts lead to appropriate sexual behavior, and so on. These internal physiological needs can be both normal and pathological, caused by painful conditions or manifestations of passion. For example, a craving for smoking generates appropriate behavior aimed at satisfying this craving. The desire to drink from an alcoholic leads to behavior aimed at the obligatory satisfaction of passion. All feelings, experiences and actions of a person are aimed at obtaining alcohol by any means.
In a person who is subject to fornication, all his behavior is aimed specifically at satisfying this passion. These people live mostly carnal lives and seek carnal satisfaction, i.e. physiological needs: food, drink, sleep, fornication, entertainment, in relation to those who prevent them from fulfilling their desires, theft, deceit, etc. For these people, there are no higher spiritual principles; they do not understand such concepts as mercy, compassion, a sense of duty, a sense of beauty, etc. Their behavior is motivated by the satisfaction of their perverted soulless desires. It should be noted that such behavior does not depend on the level of literacy and education of a person. He can have two or even three higher educations, but live according to the laws of the flesh, because the motivation of his behavior is based on the satisfaction of physiological needs. In people living a spiritual life, the motivation of behavior is controlled by their spiritual principles, and the physiological motivation is subordinated to the spiritual one. Of great importance here are the volitional actions of the soul. But if the principles loosen their control, the will of a person may not protect him from certain evil deeds. This happens, for example, in a state of intoxication. Even a person with high spirituality and strong will in a drunken state can commit bad deeds or perform actions that are contrary to his spiritual principles. In this case, the will of a person is paralyzed, as it were. It is not for nothing that people say: “A drunken sea is knee-deep” and “What a sober man has on his mind, a drunkard has on his tongue”, i.e., against the background of a decrease in conscious and volitional control, subconscious actions break through. The apostle Paul said, "Do not get drunk with wine, for in wine is fornication."
In a person who lives according to the principles of Christian morality, who attaches great importance to prayer, communion with God through the Christian sacraments (confession, communion, etc.), the consciousness based on these principles, as it were, sinks into the subconscious, and forms a certain stereotype of behavior. But even in this case, active consciousness and volitional control are of paramount importance in human behavior. Only life in holiness or on the verge of holiness leads to an amazing symphony of consciousness and subconsciousness. In people, long time those who engage in the Jesus Prayer, lead an ascetic lifestyle and firmly observe the law of God, their consciousness and subconsciousness are reborn to such an extent that not only their souls, but also their bodies are transformed, as it were. In this regard, the example of the life of St. Seraphim of Sarov is very indicative for us. His whole life was in God and with God, his consciousness, as it were, merged with the subconscious, and all his actions, communication with people radiated love, joy in God, and he met everyone who came to him: "My joy." There are known cases of his transformation, the gift of clairvoyance, the healing of the sick and miracles. But what is the subconscious, and why do we attach great importance to it in discussions about the occult and extrasensory perception?
Scientists define the subconscious as a qualitatively special hidden activity of the brain, capable of exerting a profound influence on behavior and complex forms of adaptation, the perception of sensations carried out through the senses. Consciousness is inevitably based on unconscious processes occurring in the brain (and soul). The processes of perception of information and its processing in the nerve cells of the brain are precisely of an unconscious nature, and only the results of this work are available to consciousness. A person receives a huge amount of information through his senses, however, for the most part it remains meaningless, but takes an active part in the formation of our feelings and desires. Sometimes unconscious impressions break through into the area of consciousness in the form of incomprehensible images, melodies, dreams.
At first glance, the subconscious does not lend itself to our conscious influence. But it's not. We can force ourselves to wake up at a given time, or we can force ourselves to remember that we need to do this or that thing in certain place and at certain times and under certain circumstances. That is, consciously and with the help of our will, we can encode our subconscious to turn on its impact on our consciousness at a certain time or under certain circumstances. We introduce certain information into our consciousness, which should work under certain conditions. But the internal mechanisms of this work are unknown to us, we are dealing only with the result of this internal, hidden from consciousness, work of the soul and brain. It is through the subconscious mind that evil spirits most easily influence us. By their influence, they can generate various sinful thoughts, desires, images, aspirations in our subconscious and influence our behavior. For a non-spiritual and non-religious person, consciousness and subconsciousness are open to the direct influence of evil spirits. An illustrative example of such an influence is the behavior of a person as a result of hypnotic suggestion. During hypnosis, through the area of the subconscious, a person perceives information of an imperative (imperious) nature, which is a guide to action. Here the spirit of one person influences the spirit of another person on a subconscious level.
Another example of spiritual influence on a subconscious level is telepathy. We can convey some of our thoughts, desires, images to loved ones over great distances.
Evil spirits affect us in the same way. It turns out that our spirit is subject to demonic influences and appears, as it were, defenseless before them. It is here - at the level of consciousness-subconsciousness - that invisible battle takes place, about which the holy fathers of the Church speak. They developed in their ascetic deeds a system of spiritual sobriety that protects us from the will of demons, acting telepathically in the form of thoughts, desires or images. Our task is to pay attention to every thought, image, desire, in order to determine whether they are from a demon, and by an effort of will to reject any impure aspirations. We must be very attentive to our inner spiritual experiences, and our will must constantly work in accordance with our spiritual attention.
And in order to take possession of the soul of a person, demons through hypnotists, healers-coders, magicians, psychics try to suppress the will and introduce their programs into the depths of the soul, into the subconscious. In the system of spiritual sobriety, frequent confession and the opening of thoughts to the confessor are of great importance. We know from patristic literature that demons are afraid of this, like fire.
The will of a person is invariably connected with his active consciousness. Consciousness, which is not in the religious and philosophical, but in the medical aspect, can be considered as a state of wakefulness, in contrast to sleep, includes attention, and thinking, and the representation of images, and desire, and will. By volitional action, we can focus our attention on certain phenomena of the external environment, internal experiences, force ourselves to think about something or, on the contrary, not to think, etc. But on our experiences, thoughts, desires, spiritual comfort or discomfort our subconscious activity of the soul and brain has a huge influence. The subconscious, not controlled by the active consciousness, is the entrance gate to our soul of demons. Indeed, if demons inspire us at the level of consciousness to “kill”, “obviate”, “deceive”, “steal”, we simply will not accept these thoughts. But the thoughts and desires or images that come to us from within, from our subconscious, are, as it were, ours, natural to us, like the desire to eat or drink, etc. These thoughts and desires can be inspired by demons or their intermediaries (sorcerers, soothsayers, magicians, witches) telepathically or through magical actions.
If we accept these thoughts and desires and consciously develop them, this is already the path to sin. The devil “through any sin (any), entering invisibly into the soul of a person, making some movements in it towards sin (even a small one), pushes the“ gates ”, increases its foothold and already leads a person to commit another sin. And so, gradually, if a person does not lead an active struggle, does not apply the efforts of his will to eradicate sinful thoughts and sinful inclinations, he becomes the executor of someone else's - demonic - will. But it is precisely on the suppression of the will that the occult influences on it are based. And it doesn't matter that these influences seem beneficial to us, saving for a person, as white magicians, psychics, "healers", psychotherapists-coders, hypnotists tell us. It is important that the personality of a person, his soul, the image of God in a person is damaged - the Image of God is diminished: the will is suppressed, someone else's information is introduced, the human soul is encoded to fulfill someone else's will. And this will is ultimately directed towards the fulfillment of sin, towards distance from God, towards spiritual death.
From the ethical and Christian points of view, we already know what, what consequences a violent impact on the subconscious of people can lead to. In Christianity, the goal of life is not the development or acquisition of supernatural abilities, but the acquisition, that is, the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, according to the words of St. Seraphim of Sarov. Christianity is the path to the creation of a “new creature in Christ” (Ap. Paul). This does not happen in the occult. Therefore, occultists do not act by the Grace of God, but act through the world of negative spiritual forces - the world of demons. And this leads to serious, sometimes tragic consequences.
Difficulties in our health care, which at one time was considered the best in the world, the impossibility of obtaining free of charge highly qualified medical care, which has become a subject of trade, and very expensive, the high cost of medicines, the disappearance of many necessary medicines from the pharmacy network, a large number psychics, shamans, healers, offering relatively inexpensive help almost at every step, the religious illiteracy of the population led to a sharp surge in occult healing and the craving for it of many unbelievers or people of little faith.
Wouldn't it be better to call for spiritually oriented treatment based on Christian sacraments and love?
Literature:
- The number of the beast. On the threshold of the third millennium. "New book", 1996
- Newspaper "Tatyanin's Day", Moscow State University, No. 3, 1995
- "Orthodox sorcerers" - who are they? "New book", 1998
- Orthodox Moscow, No. 18(42), June 1995
- Brain. / Ed. P. V. Simonova. M.: Mir, 1985. 287 p.
- Human physiology. / Ed. G. I. Kositsky. M.: Medicine, 1985
- Pavlov N. P. Lectures on the work of the cerebral hemispheres. / Full coll. cit.: In 5 vols. M.; L., 1951. T.4. pp.17-34, 67-122.