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 may have two or even three. higher education 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, 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 a certain place and at a certain time 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 to us beneficial, 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 an ethical and Christian point 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.
BODY AND SPIRITUAL COMPOSITION OF A HUMAN
The Teachings of the Holy Fathers Orthodox Church talking about human nature as about the tripartite composition of the spirit, soul and body - the so-called trichotomism. However, there is another view of human nature: as a combination of soul and body (dichotomism). The Orthodox Church accepts both of these teachings. The Catholic West has always recognized only dichotomism. In Orthodoxy, there were dichotomists among the Fathers and Doctors of the Church: St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Basil the Great, Blessed. Theodoret, blessed Augustine, Rev. John of Damascus. But there were also trichotomists: Tertullian, St. Justin the Philosopher, St. Efrem Sirin. In the 20th century, most Russian Orthodox authors tended towards trichotomism.
Dichotomists see in the "spirit" the highest ability of the rational soul, the ability through which a person enters into communion with God. “The human soul,” says St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, “as a spirit created by God, cannot find pleasure, rest, peace, consolation and joy in anything else, as soon as in God, from whom it was created in His image and likeness; and when she is separated from Him, she is forced to seek pleasure for herself in creatures, and to feed herself with various passions, like horns, but she does not find proper rest and consolation, and so she should die from hunger, for the spirit needs to eat spiritual food. That is, the spirit must find its food in God, live by God; the soul must be nourished by the spirit; the body must live by the soul—such was the original arrangement of the immortal nature of man. The stricken spirit, departed from God, instead of giving food to the soul, begins to live at the expense of the soul, to feed on what we usually call “spiritual values” in a worldly way ( fiction, music, spectacles); the soul, in turn, begins to live the life of the body. When the spiritual predominates over the higher (spiritual), a person begins to fall, but when the spiritual predominates, it enriches and directs the entire human composition to God. According to the teaching of the Orthodox Church, man "consists of an immaterial and rational soul and a material body" (Orthodox Catechism).
The idea of the human soul as an essence, special and incomparably superior in its significance to everything sensible, penetrates all the frank teaching about man of the Old and New Testaments.
Speaking in the Book of Genesis (ch. 2) about the creation of man, the God-seer Moses gives details that largely explain the mysterious duality of the human being: And God created man, dust from the face of the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul.(Gen. 2:7). God created the human body from the earth - this is the material world in man, breathed into him the spirit of life - this is the spiritual world in him. The creation of man is the creation of a living being, by which the visible and invisible are brought into unity.
The bodily-spiritual composition of a person is confirmed by other places of Holy Scripture. Job, addressing his comforting friends, says: Be silent, let me speak, and rest from anger, earthing my flesh with my teeth, but I will put my soul in my hand(Job 13:13-14). The psalmist David cries out before God: Moreover, my flesh will also dwell in hope, as if you would not leave my soul in hell, below give your reverend to see destruction(Ps. 15:9-10). Ecclesiastes on the death of man: And the dust will return to the earth, as if, and the spirit will return to God, Who gave him(Eccl. 12:7).
In the New Testament we read the words of Christ the Savior Himself: Fear not those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul; Fear more than the Mighty and destroy both soul and body in Gehenna(Matt. 10:28) - from which it is clear that a person consists of a body and a soul. The Apostle James writes: Just as the body without the spirit is dead, so is faith without deeds dead.(James 2:26). The apostle Paul also teaches: May the God of peace Himself sanctify you who are all perfect (in everything): and your spirit and soul and body are all perfect at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, may(1 Thess. 5:23). Glorify God in your bodies and in your souls, which are God's(1 Cor. 6:20).
Everything that is best and most perfect in the composition of the visible world is concentrated in the human body, so that it truly is a small world in the great world of God. But the body with its organs constitutes only the external, visible side of the human composition, while the invisible and spiritual side is the soul - a being completely different from the body, towering above it and above all visible nature with its perfections and advantages. It is the breath of God and has not an earthly nature, but an extramundane, heavenly one. It is the highest and most excellent part of man.
SOUL
Godlike soul- a simple, incorporeal, rational, free, life-giving being. As a simple being, it is indivisible; as an incorporeal being, it is invisible; as a life-giving being, it is immortal.
The Monk John of Damascus gives the following definition of the soul: “The soul is a living, simple, incorporeal essence, by its nature invisible to bodily eyes, immortal, thinking and rational, not having a definite form - uses the organic body and gives it life, and growth, and feeling , and the force of birth. The soul is free, has the ability to desire and activity; it is changeable in regard to the will. All this the soul received from the grace of the Creator (Creator), from whose grace it received both being and a special kind of nature.
St. Gregory the Theologian teaches thus: “The soul is an intellectually contemplative being, eternally abiding, the image and breath of Almighty God, a particle of the Divine (of course, not in own meaning this word), a jet of invisible Deity and infinite light. Divine and inextinguishable light, enclosed in a cave (in the body), but Divine and inextinguishable.
"Animal beings are four different kind: some of them are immortal and inspired - what are the Angels, others have a mind, spirit, soul, body and breath - what are people, others have breath and soul - what are animals, and others only life - what are plants in which life is without a soul, without breath, without mind and immortality” (St. Anthony the Great).
“The nature of the human soul, in contrast to the nature of the angels, has a life-giving spirit and, through its activity, animates the earthly body connected with it” (St. Gregory the Theologian).
“People have a rational soul, but animals have a feeling soul” (St. John Chrysostom).
St. Ephraim the Syrian says that our soul is the most beautiful and superior to all creatures, the creation most beloved by God, sealed with the mystery of His grace and wisdom.
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The soul is a being immaterial, simple. This is what the Word of God teaches when it calls the soul a spirit: The Spirit itself will obey our spirit, as we are a child of God(Rom. 8:16); Who is the message from a person, even in a person, is like the spirit of a person living in him: so also no one knows God, like the Spirit of God(1 Cor. 2:11).
The soul cannot be seen with bodily eyes, cannot be touched, felt by any bodily senses: the soul is a spiritual nature, an incorporeal force.
St. Maximus the Confessor refutes the opinion about the corporality of the soul as a spirit - the image of God, as follows: “If the soul is a living body, then something must move it from within. Then we have to assume that there is a soul in the soul. If, however, they say that God moves us, then they will have to recognize the Divinity as the cause of those inappropriate and shameful movements, of which, as we know, there are a lot. If any addition and decomposition is appropriate only in bodies, then the soul is not a body, since it does not participate in anything of the kind. As an image of the mental, we call it mental, but as an image of the immortal, and incorruptible, and invisible, we recognize these qualities in it too. As an image of the incorporeal - and incorruptible, that is, alien to any materiality.
So, the soul, like the angels, is a certain substance, but incorporeal and immaterial.
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Soul is a being free. The idea of the freedom of the human soul is expressed in countless places in Holy Scripture. First, in all those places where commandments are given to man and obedience to the law of God is required of him; secondly, where various rewards are offered to a person for the fulfillment of the commandments, and especially eternal bliss; finally, where for the violation of the commandments, various punishments, temporal and eternal, are predicted to the guilty.
For example: Life and death are given before your face, a blessing and an oath: choose the life, may you and your seed live(Deut. 30, 19); If you do not want to serve the Lord, choose for yourself today whom you will serve(Josh. 24:15); Thyself from the beginning create man, and leave him in the hand of will: if thou wilt, keep the commandments, and do good faith(Sir. 15, 14-15); If you want to go into the stomach, keep the commandments(Matthew 19:17).
The Holy Fathers and teachers of the Church proved the freedom of the human soul by the fact that we have consciousness of our freedom, that freedom is an inalienable property of a rational being and distinguishes man from lower animals, that only by free obedience and service can we please God, and without freedom there is no religion. , no morality, no merit.
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Like the spirit of the soul of man immortal. The soul has its own rational, spiritual life, which can be clearly distinguished from the life of the body. Therefore, the soul, as a spirit, does not disintegrate with the body during the disintegration of the body, but remains immortal.
SOUL AND BODY
According to St. Gregory Palamas, the soul, created together with the body, is everywhere in the body, and not only in one specific place of the body, as containing and surpassing the body. St. John of Damascus has a similar idea: “The soul unites with the whole body with everything, and not part with part, and is not contained by it, but contains it, like fire with iron, and, staying in it, produces its own actions.”
“The body is not stronger than the soul,” says St. Irenaeus, “since the soul inspires and animates, and regenerates, and builds the body; the soul possesses the body and rules over it. The body is like an instrument, and the soul takes the place of artists… Giving life to the body, the soul itself does not cease to live.”
“Despite its invisibility,” writes St. Gregory of Nyssa, “the soul is a being completely different from the body, acting in and through it and observing and knowing through its organs. This mental process, which takes place internally, testifies to the existence of a higher, spiritual power in the body.
So, the body often lies on the ground, and the person imagines and contemplates what is in heaven. The body often rests, is silent, and the person is inwardly in motion and contemplates what is outside of him, moving and moving from country to country, meeting with acquaintances. The body is by nature mortal, but man contemplates immortality; the body is temporary, but man imagines the eternal. The body itself will think nothing of the kind, because it is mortal and temporary. There must be something else that would think of an opposite and unnatural body. And this is a rational and immortal soul - mind - spirit.
“It is natural for the eye to look and the ear to listen; why do they turn away one and choose another? Who turns the eye away from sight? Or who closes the hearing for hearing? Or who keeps from the natural inclination the taste, which is by nature meant to be eaten? Who forbids anything else to be touched by a hand that is by nature active? Who does this contrary to what is natural to the body? Or why the body, turning away from what is required by nature, leans on the advice of another (that is, the mind) and is curbed by its wave? All this proves nothing else than a rational soul dominating the body.
The body does not move itself, but is set in motion by another, just as a horse does not harness itself, but is forced by the one who owns it. Therefore, laws are given to people - to do good and turn away from vice; for the dumb, deprived of reason and thinking, the bad remains indistinct, and the good remains indifferent” (St. Athanasius the Great).
“Man is a being formed by the unity of body and soul (spirit), and without a body he would not be a man, but an Angel, just as with one body without the Divine Spirit he would be an animal, not a man. The body is an instrument of the soul, a kind of garment and covering for the soul” (Saint Cyril of Alexandria).
St. Gregory the Theologian explains that the soul and body during the life of a person are most closely related to each other by the manifestation of the wisdom of God, providentially establishing this union. According to the saint, the soul is connected with the body so that in the struggle and battle with the body we constantly turn our eyes to God ... so that we know that we are at the same time great and insignificant, earthy and heavenly, mortal and immortal. The soul is united with the body so that if we decide to be proud of the image of God in us, our earthly nature would humble us. The body is perishable and short-lived, but the soul is Divine and immortal and, being the breath of God, is united with the body for testing and ascent to the likeness of God.
SPIRIT AND SOUL
The Apostle Paul, wishing to designate the spiritual nature of man as opposed to the bodily, calls it either the soul or the spirit (1 Cor. 6:20; 5:3-5). But he also has places in the Epistles where he distinguishes the soul and spirit as two sides of the same spiritual nature of man, or specifically designates the spirit in the soul as its highest ability: For the word of God is alive, and active, and sharper than any sword, sharper than any sword, sharper than any sword, and passing even to the division of the soul and the spirit, the members and the marrow, and judging by the thought and thought of the heart(Heb. 4:12); And your spirit and soul and body are perfect at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, may(1 Thess. 5:23). Here, by spirit is meant a separate and independent of the soul substance, the inner, innermost side of the soul. The relation of the soul and spirit is put in parallel with the relation of the compounds (members) and the brain to the body; but just as the latter constitutes the inner part of the same bodily being, or the content in relation to the containing one, so, obviously, the spirit is conceived by the apostle as the innermost part of the spiritual being of man. For the apostle, the spirit means that special high structure of the innermost part of the soul, which is created under the influence of the grace of the Holy Spirit. St. Gregory of Nyssa also admitted in a person, besides the body, a feeling soul, similar to the soul of animals, and a soul that animals do not have - a spirit.
The spirit is given by God as a life-giving principle in order to control the soul and body. In other words, the spirit is the life force of man as an immortal being; scientists call it that: vitalistic (life) force.
In animals, the soul, together with the body, was produced by the earth: And speech God: let the waters bring forth the reptiles of the living souls ... And the speech God: let the earth bring forth the living soul according to its kind, the four-footed and creeping things, and the beasts of the earth according to their kind. And be a taco(Gen. 1:20-24).
And only about man it is said that after the creation of his body from the dust of the earth, the Lord God I will blow into his face the breath of life, and be a man I live in my soul(Gen. 2:7).
The Monk Seraphim of Sarov taught that words I will blow into his face the breath of life mean that "God did not create only flesh for Adam from the earth, but together with it he gave the soul and the spirit to man." “The body and soul of man were created at the same time, together, and at that very moment they breathed in (how they breathed in - this is inexplicable) a god-like spirit, so that man immediately appeared in all his greatness and was perfect in soul and body” (St. John of Damascus).
SPIRIT
All parts of human nature were created from the dust of the earth, and Adam was created as an active animal being, like other animated God's creatures living on earth. “But this is the strength, that if the Lord God had not then breathed into his face this breath of life, that is, the grace of the Holy Spirit, elevating him to god-like dignity, then he would be like all other creatures, although they have flesh and soul, belonging to their kind, but not having the Holy Spirit within themselves. When the Lord God breathed into Adam's face the breath of life, then, according to Moses' expression, and be Adam in my soul I live, that is, completely like God in everything and like Him, immortal forever and ever” (St. Seraphim of Sarov).
it breath of life and there is a higher principle in man, that is, his spirit, by which he immeasurably rises above all other living beings. Therefore, although the human soul is in many ways similar to the soul of animals, in its highest part it incomparably surpasses the soul of animals, precisely because of its combination with the spirit that is from God. The human spirit is like a link between the body and the soul.
This means that the body and soul are not yet the whole person, or rather, they are not the complete person. Something higher stands above the body and soul, namely the spirit, which often acts as a judge of both the soul and the body and evaluates everything from a special, higher point of view.
The spirit from God, combined with the soul of animals, raised it to the level of the human soul, and man became twofold.
“The animal soul, where are feelings, where irritation and lust, makes us small chim higher than animals, but the spirit reveals us small chim belittled and from the angels. Man has a spirit whose true life is life in God. The Spirit, - says St. Theophan the Recluse, - as a power emanating from God, knows God, seeks God and finds rest in Him alone. Ascertaining his origin from God by some spiritual, innermost instinct, he feels his complete dependence on Him and recognizes himself obliged to please Him in every possible way and live only for Him and Them, and sanctify the animal part of the soul and the body itself to the point of dispassion.
The human spirit, according to St. Theophan, is “an organ of communion with God, a God-conscious, God-seeking and God-living power. Its essential features are consciousness and freedom, the principles that move it are faith in God, a feeling of comprehensive dependence on Him and confidence in Him. The manifestations of his life are the fear of God, the actions of conscience and the thirst for communion with God, expressed (from the outside) by dissatisfaction with anything created. This is the breath of god-like life that God breathed in at the creation of the primordial, and which returns to God after death, according to Ecclesiastes.
St. Luke Voyno-Yasenetsky writes: “A person’s soul is much higher in essence, for the spirit participating in its activity is incomparable with the spirit of animals. He can possess the highest gifts of the Holy Spirit, which the holy prophet Isaiah (11:1-3) calls the spirit of the fear of God, the spirit of knowledge, the spirit of strength and strength, the spirit of light, the spirit of understanding, the spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of the Lord, or the gift of piety and inspiration in the highest degree.
The spirit and soul of a person are inseparably united during life into a single essence; but one can also see different degrees of spirituality in people. There are "spiritual" people, according to the Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 2:14).
There are ... people - cattle, people - grass, there are people - angels. The former are not much different from cattle, for their spirituality is very low, while the latter approach incorporeal spirits, which have neither body nor soul.
So, the soul can be understood as a set of organic and sensual perceptions, traces of memories, thoughts, feelings and volitional acts, but without the obligatory participation in this complex of higher manifestations of the spirit, which are not characteristic of animals and some people. App. speaks about them. Judas: These are soulful people who have no spirit(Jude 19).
In self-consciousness during life, the life of the spirit is closely intertwined with those mental acts that are common to man and animals, that is, with organic sensations and sensory perceptions: these latter, in turn, are inextricably linked with the life of the body, especially the brain, and disappear with the death of the body. Therefore, the primitive soul of animals is mortal, just as those elements of human self-consciousness that come from the dead body (organic and sensory perceptions) are also mortal.
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There is in the soul fear of God- this is a reverent awe before the greatness of God, inextricably linked with the unchanging faith in the truth of the existence of God, in the reality of the existence of God as our Creator, Provider, Savior and Giver.
Just as an unbridled horse, throwing off the bridle from its mouth and overthrowing the rider from its back, rushes faster than any wind and is impregnable for those who meet it, so the soul, rejecting the fear of God that restrains it and casting aside the reason that controls it, runs through the camps of wickedness until rushing into the abyss of death, he will overthrow his own salvation into the abyss.
The spirit contains the feeling of the Divine - conscience and dissatisfaction with anything.
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Conscience- this is an inner feeling that determines the value, spirituality, legality, duty, morality, ethics of both individuals and all of humanity. This is an assessment of actions in terms of good and evil, necessary and universal.
Conscience is a marvelous reflection of the Divine in man. God has inscribed in the soul of man the requirements of His holiness, truth and goodness, instructing him to observe their fulfillment himself and to judge himself for serviceability or defect. In Holy Scripture, conscience is called a “rival”, since it always resists our evil will.
Conscience is a natural law that enlightens the mind and shows it what is good and what is evil. God, creating the human soul, planted in it the seeds of all virtues. For their proper growth, the influence of God is necessary. But in the presence of free will, a person can decide for himself whether or not to accept these beneficial influences. This is where our conscience comes into play.
Conscience tells a person what is right and what is wrong, what is pleasing to God and what is not pleasing, what should and what should not be done. But not only indicates, but also compels a person to fulfill what is indicated, and rewards consolation for fulfillment, and punishes remorse for non-fulfillment. Conscience is our inner judge - the guardian of the Law of God. No wonder conscience is called the "voice of God" in the human soul.
“Conscience has a natural desire for God and is a book of God's commands. If we do not obey our conscience, then our lamp, shining behind the veil (the will of sin), shows things already darker and darker, and how in the water clouded from much silt we do not recognize our face ”(St. John of the Ladder).
Abba Dorotheos argues that one should always keep one's conscience towards God and not neglect His commandments even in the depths of one's soul, in secret. It is also necessary to keep a conscience towards your neighbors, that is, not to do what offends or tempts them with deed, word, appearance, look. Even with things, a good conscience teaches you to handle with care, to keep them and not to spoil them.
Conscious of being obliged to please God, the spirit would not know how to satisfy this duty if it were not for the guidance of conscience.
The Holy Fathers say: use conscience in all your deeds instead of a lamp, because it perfectly shows all your deeds in life, both bad and good.
“Conscience is a true teacher: he who hears it is not subject to stumbling” (Abba Thalassius).
* * *
Thirst for God- the third manifestation of the spirit in man. Our spirit cannot be satisfied with anything created and earthly until it finds complete satisfaction in God, for living communion with Whom the human spirit always consciously or unconsciously strives.
Such are the manifestations of the spirit in a person, which should be the guiding principle in the life of every person, that is, to live in communion with God, in the will of God and abide in God's love, which means fulfilling one's purpose on earth and inheriting eternal life.
* * *
Saint Macarius of Egypt says: "A body without a soul is dead, and without a spirit the soul is dead for the Kingdom of God."
The body, soul and spirit of a person are in a certain relationship, and the nature of this relationship is determined by the moral state of a person.
The combination of the spirit with the soul of the animal in man resulted in the elevation of the soul, its transformation into the human soul. This is the reason for the versatility of life states in a person (a set of feelings, views, rules), as “corporality”, “soulfulness”, “spirituality” and intermediate between them. The same explains the duality of a person's motives in the conditions of earthly existence: "one pulls his grief, the other - to the lu."
FOREWORD
to the 1995 edition
The author of this work is Bishop Ignatius (Bryanchaninov) (1807-1867), a well-known Russian ascetic and spiritual writer of the 19th century. His works, published during the life of the Saint and republished in 5 volumes in 1886, attract attention with a deep knowledge of the Holy Scriptures and the works of the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church, creatively revised and meaningful in relation to the spiritual needs of our time. Written, moreover, with outstanding literary skill, the works of the Saint are a valuable guide for all who wish to go through the narrow and thorny path of experimental knowledge of God. This work - "The Word about a Man" - was not included in the 5-volume edition and, in general, has remained unknown until now. It belongs to the few works of the Saint, which have a philosophical and dogmatic character and set forth doctrinal truths in a systematic manner. This work of Bishop Ignatius can be called an essay on Christian anthropology.
Bishop Ignatius expounds the doctrine of man on the basis of the Tradition of the Orthodox Church - Holy Scripture and the works of the Holy Fathers. All non-Orthodox and even more so non-religious conceptions of man are simply not considered by him - they are referred to him as "inventions of the fallen human mind." However, being in line with the patristic tradition, his anthropology has its own characteristics. The saint is primarily interested in the ways of healing the human soul from sin, questions of pastoral practice and asceticism. That is why of the Holy Fathers on this topic, St. John Chrysostom, St. Macarius the Great and Isaac the Syrian are closest to him. Bishop Ignatius took the fundamental idea of the doctrine of man from the holy Apostle Paul. Man is a temple. Its purpose is sanctification, the filling of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, this "verbal" temple becomes the home of the forces of evil - demons. There is no third. Just as sharply, the Saint distinguishes between two lines of development of world history. The first is determined by those who aspire to Heaven and consider earthly life a time of repentance, and the earth itself is only a temporary refuge, a country of expulsion from paradise. The second line consists of those who, having forgotten about repentance and returning to Heaven, are aimed at the dispensation of earthly life, at the strengthening of the state of the fall, leading in the end to complete submission to the "prince of this world" - the devil.
The content of the "Word about a Man" is built according to the usual plan. First - an introduction, then - about the creation of the world and man, about being in paradise, the fall into sin and the subsequent earthly life of mankind. Then the 2nd part begins - about the coming into the world of Christ, and here the manuscript breaks off. From this we can assume that the Saint wrote his work shortly before his death (April 30, 1867).
Many ideas of the "Sermon about Man" - about hell and paradise, about the knowledge of good and evil, about the relative incorporeality of the human soul - are also found in other works of Bishop Ignatius, such as the "Sermon about the various states of human nature in relation to good and evil ", "On the image and likeness of God in man" (Ascetic experiments, vol. 2), "Word about death" (Ascetic experiments, vol. 3). Moreover, in the "Word of Man" itself, the author refers to these works of his own, which also allows us to attribute it to the last years of the life of the Saint.
It is a pity that the work of Bishop Ignatius remained unfinished and, in particular, the questions of the doctrine of man, connected with Christology and soteriology, were not considered. Nevertheless, even in this form, the "Word about Man" is of undoubted interest and may well serve for the edification and spiritual benefit of all who strive "to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4).
The text of this creation has been preserved in the Florensky family archive. It was probably supposed to be published in the Theological Bulletin, which was edited by priest Pavel Florensky in 1912-1917. The text was provided by Abbot Andronik (Trubachev); prepared for publication by Archimandrite Isaiah (Belov).
Archimandrite Isaiah,
Trinity Sergius Lavra
Even if they talked to themselves,
were not condemned
(1 Cor. 11 ,
31)
P Rev. Macarius the Great very often, in his deep conversations with perfect Christians, turns to explaining the destination given to man by the Creator. It is constantly expressed about a person as about a monastery, a temple, a vessel, the Throne of the Divine. "The Heavenly Father deigned to dwell in everyone who believes in Him and asks Him (John 14, 21, 23). So the boundless mercy of the Father desired! So pleases the incomprehensible love of Christ! Such is the good pleasure of God's inexpressible goodness. having its own image and appearance: the inner man is the likeness of the outer man. This is the most excellent and most precious vessel, because God favored him more than all creatures. The throne of the Godhead is our mind, and, conversely, the throne of the mind is the Godhead and the Spirit. Likewise, after transgression of the commandment by Adam, Satan sat down on his heart, mind and body, as on his throne, the principles and powers of darkness.To destroy their kingdom, the Lord came, taking flesh from the Virgin, and cast down the spirits of evil sitting in the body, from their thrones: from the mind and thoughts in which they dwelt. The Lord cleansed the conscience, made the mind, thought and body His throne. Our nature can be in communion with demons and evil spirits, as well as in communication with angels and the Holy Spirit, is the temple of Satan and the temple of the Holy Spirit. Consider therefore, brethren, your conscience: with whom are you in communion, with angels or with demons? Whose temple and dwelling are you, is it God's or the devil's? What treasure is your heart filled with, gracious or satanic? Just as a house defiled by stench and uncleanness must, first, be completely cleansed, then beautified and filled with all kinds of incense and treasures: so we must also cleanse our hearts, so that the Holy Spirit comes instead of Satan and rests in the souls of Christians. Souls that seek by their nature the Wanderer, that is, the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, cleave with all their love to the Lord, live in Him, pray in Him, direct all their thoughts to Him, despising all other blessings of the world. For this they are worthy to receive the oil of God's grace. After that, they can spend their lives without stumbling, completely pleasing the spiritual Bridegroom in everything. But the souls that dwell in their own nature alone, crawling with their thoughts along the earth, occupied with cares only about earthly things, their mind lives in the land below. On top of that - what's worse - seduced by self-conceit and stubborn in it, they recognize themselves, being adorned with carnal truths, the true brides of the Heavenly Bridegroom. By the very thing, it is impossible to recognize them as born from Above, as those who did not receive the oil of joy. The house in which his master does not live is in darkness, impurity and desolation, filled with rubbish and stench: so the soul in which the Lord does not dwell with angels is filled with sinful darkness, vile and humiliating passions. Woe to the path on which no one walks, on which no human voice is heard! Such a path becomes a den of animals. Woe to the soul in which the Lord does not walk and does not drive out of it with His voice the beasts - the spirits of malice! Woe to the house when its owner does not dwell in it! Woe to the earth when there is no farmer to cultivate it! Woe to a ship without a helmsman! He will be crushed and perish by the waves of the sea and the storm! Woe to the soul that does not have in itself the true helmsman of Christ! Being in a sad and gloomy sea, overwhelmed by waves of passions and spirits of malice, distressed, as it were, from severe bad weather, finally, she is subjected to death! Woe to the soul if it does not have in itself Christ diligently cultivating it, so that it can bear the good fruits of the Spirit! When left, it will grow into thorns and thistles, and finally it will be consumed by fire. Woe to the soul if it does not have its Lord Christ dwelling in it! Being left, it is filled with the stench of passions and becomes a dwelling of vices.
P The repetition of the breath by the incarnated God at the re-creation of man explains the breath of God at the creation of the human soul. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, having completed our redemption and prepared mankind for the reception of the Holy Spirit, stood in the midst of His disciples after His resurrection, blew and said to them: Receive the Holy Spirit(John 20, 22), which soon descended on them with a noise from heaven, as if from a rushing strong breath of the wind (Acts 2, 2). This second breath explains and indicates that at the first breath there was a descent of the Holy Spirit. Divine Grace poured out abundantly on the soul of the primordial at its very creation; the soul of the primordial was predominantly alive, as moved, enlightened and controlled by the Holy Spirit. This is convincingly proved by the very events that followed the creation of the first man. Saint Macarius the Great says: “As the Spirit acted in the Prophets and taught them and was inside them, and appeared outside of them: so in Adam’s reasoning, he was always with him and taught him ... All of him was the Word, and as long as he remained keep the commandment, you were a friend to God."
D In order to create a wife, God brought a frenzy on Adam. He fell asleep. During this extraordinary dream, the Lord took one of his ribs, and, having created a wife from the rib, brought her to Adam. Despite the fact that the taking of the rib took place during a strange dream and frenzy, Adam immediately recognized, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him, the origin of his wife. Se now - he said, - bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: this woman shall be called, for this woman was taken from her husband. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and they will become two in one flesh.(Gen. 2:21-24). In these words of Adam, the law is uttered from the presence of God for the married life of people, as the God-Man Himself testified. In the taking of a wife from her husband, we see an example of the passionless reproduction of the human race before its fall. A wife was taken from Adam's rib: at this time, Adam was not subjected to any sensation that violated his integrity; on the contrary, he was in a frenzy, which was brought upon him by God. Only blessed people come to such a state. We do not see a model by which we could explain the reproduction of the human race before its fall from husband and wife, the reproduction appointed before the fall; but we probably affirm that this reproduction should have been carried out in the fullness of purity and dispassion. Instead of carnal, bestial pleasure, there should have been holy, spiritual pleasure. We do not test the image itself, as undiscovered by God, believing that it was easy for God to allow a known method, so it was easy to establish another method. Here the word is used about the real method of reproduction: let go. Yes! This method is God's permission, it is a sorrowful consequence of our fall, it is a sign of God's aversion from us. We are already born slain by sin: in iniquity I was conceived and in sins give birth to me, my mother(Ps. 50, 7). Conception in iniquity and birth in sins cannot be established by God.
G the Lord brought before Adam all the beasts and cattle of the earth, all the birds of the air: a man, penetrating the properties of each animal through the action of the Holy Spirit, gave them names (Gen. 2, 19). Saint Macarius the Great says: “As long as the Word of God was with him (Adam) and (he) kept the commandment, he had everything. For the Word itself was his inheritance, it was clothing and glory that covered him, and was his instruction. name them all: this he called the sky, the other the sun, this the moon, the other the earth, this the bird, the other the beast, and the other the tree. , taco name ". It is difficult in our state of fall to get a clear idea of the state of perfection in which our forefathers were created, in soul and body. It is impossible for us to conclude about their holy body and holy soul by our soul and body, stricken and killed by sinful death. They began to exist blameless and holy; we begin to exist defiled and sinful. They were immortal in soul and body; we are born mortified in soul, with the seed of death in the body, which must sooner or later, but without fail bear fruit - the death of the body that we see. They were in unceasing peace with themselves, with everything that surrounded them, in unceasing spiritual pleasure, in contemplation of the graces of the universe, in theology, in the vision of God; we are agitated and torn apart by various sinful passions, shaking and tormenting both soul and body, we constantly struggle with ourselves and with everything that surrounds us, we suffer and suffer or find pleasure in the pleasures of cattle and animals; everything around us is in the most terrible confusion, in unceasing and mostly in vain labor, in plinth-making and Pharaoh's slavery. In a word, we are fallen and perished from our very birth, they were holy and blessed from their very creation. All the conditions of our existence and the original existence of our forefathers - far, far different.
AT the foundation of our exposition of the soul of man, we put the definition that makes it the above Teacher of the Church. “The soul,” he says, “is a living, simple, incorporeal being, by bodily eyes by its nature invisible, immortal, gifted with reason and mind, formless, acting through an organic body and giving it life, growth, feeling and the power of birth, having a mind , not as something different from it, but as the purest part of itself. The soul is a free being, endowed with the ability to will and act, changeable, and precisely changeable in the will, like a created being ". To complete this definition or description, it must be said, following the indication of another Holy Father, that the soul is a being by nature good. Although in it, after the fall, good was mixed with evil, therefore, it became corrupted; but the same can and must be said about her reason and her freedom: damage to something is no longer its destruction. It is obvious that St. John of Damascus gave such a definition to the soul relatively: in relation to our state and degree of ability to know. He further explains this. “The incorporeal,” he says, “one is such in nature itself, and the other in comparison with gross matter. By nature, only God is incorporeal; Angels, demons and souls are incorporeal by grace, and in comparison with gross matter.” Even further, St. John calls "a body that has three extensions, i.e. in length, width and depth." From such a definition of the body, a definition that has hitherto been recognized as completely correct and maintained by science, it follows, as a most necessary and precise consequence, that every limited being is inevitably a body. Every finite being is contained in a greater or lesser space; outside of all changes, outside of all space, as God who exceeds all space and any measure. God is completely incorporeal, that is, the Essence of God is completely different from the beings of creatures, no matter how subtle these creatures may be, and differs from the essence of creatures by an immeasurable difference. To place the spiritual beings of God and the created spirits in the same category is the most audacious blasphemy. Both the Holy Scriptures and all the Holy Fathers of the Eastern Church, although they call Angels, demons and human souls spirits, but precisely in the same sense, as St. John of Damascus explains. Macarius the Great constantly calls them spirits in all his writings; but in these writings of his we have his judgment of the created spirits, even more definitive than that of Damascene. The Pleaser of God borrowed it from his most excellent perfection. “Some lofty,” he says, “and a deep word, according to the strength of my mind, I suggest to the desire. The unsearchable and incorporeal Lord, for His immeasurable goodness, accepts the flesh on Himself, and the great Being and the prenatural is diminished, so that He can be numbered with His intelligent creatures, souls, I say, saints and angels, as if even those immortal Deities of His life will be partakers. For each of these, by nature, there is a body, more like an angel, more like a soul, more like a demon. Although the most subtle are, however, in hypostasis, character (mark ) and in the image, according to the subtlety of its nature, the body is, as if in its hypostasis this our body is debelo. In this way, the soul is the thinnest body, surrounded and clothed by the members of this body. Puts on the eye, and looks; puts on the ear, and hears; , nostrils, and just say all the members of the body accepts and dissolves with all the soul, through which everything that is necessary for human life is corrected. To the question: Does the soul have any form? - Reverend Macarius answered: "It has an image and appearance like an Angel. As Angels have an image and appearance, and as an external man has an appearance: so the internal man has an image similar to an Angel, and the appearance of an external man." The Monk Cassian the Roman, who talked with the greatest Saints of God of ancient Christian Egypt, the disciples of the great Anthony, Macarius, Pachomius, conveys their teaching on this subject in this way: “Although we call some beings spiritual, such as angels, archangels and other powers, our soul , or, of course, this subtle air, but we must not recognize them as incorporeal, for they have a body proper to themselves, in which they are contained (remain), although much finer than we are. They are bodies, according to the saying of the Apostle, who says this: Both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies(1 Cor. 15:40); and again: A spiritual body is sown, a spiritual body is raised(1 Cor. 15:44). From these (the words of the Apostle) follows a clear conclusion that there is nothing incorporeal, except for the one God, and that, consequently, only He can penetrate into all spiritual and rational beings, because He alone is all everywhere and is in all, so that He sees and foresees the thoughts and internal movements of people, all the secrets of the spirit (mind). Of Him alone the Apostle proclaimed: For the word of God is alive and active, and sharper than any sword, sharper than any sword, and passing even to the division of the soul and spirit, limbs and brains, and judgmental thought and thought of the heart. And no creature is unseen before Him, but all naked and declared before His eyes (Heb. 4, 12, 13). Guided by these testimonies of the Holy Fathers and numerous others, which we leave in order to avoid burdensome verbosity, we affirm the following about the soul. She is a spirit - like angels, has a mind, spiritual feeling, free will, but, as a creature, is limited both in her essence and in her properties; because of this limitation, it also has its own degree of subtlety; having a certain degree of subtlety, can be contained, and is contained, in our gross body; if allowed, to change places, can be placed in paradise, can taste the sweetness and peace of paradise, as places of sweetness and peace; it is capable of the highest pleasure, inner pleasure, which appears in the heart and spreads throughout the whole person, communicating even with his body, being in communion with God, when God makes a worthy soul, according to its purpose, His abode; finally, it has its own appearance, which is similar to the appearance of a person in his body, i.e., the soul has both a head and a chest, and arms, and legs, and eyes, and ears, in a word, all the members, like the body; the soul is clothed in a body as in a garment, and its members are clothed in the corresponding members of the body. After leaving the body, the souls of the righteous are clothed in bright clothes, as St. John the Theologian narrates in his Apocalypse (ch. 6, 11; 7, 9), as St. Macarius the Great testifies: "(The souls of the righteous)," he says, " when departing from this world, having the Lord with them, they go with great joy to the heavenly inhabitants; those who dwell with the Lord receive and take them to the cloisters and gardens prepared by him in advance and lay on them precious and famous garments. This is confirmed by many places in the Holy Scriptures; this is evident from the writings of the Holy Fathers and their Lives. With the opposite opinion, that is, that the soul is a spirit as subtle as the spirit of God, the following conclusions will certainly be required: it will be necessary to recognize that the soul cannot be contained and retained by any place, by any substance, neither by our body, nor by heaven, nor hell, cannot feel the torments of hell, must be above the pleasures of heaven. We shy away from such an opinion, as if it were sheer absurdity, from blasphemy that is detrimental to our salvation, and we follow with humility and conviction the above teaching of the Holy Orthodox Church. Calling and recognizing the soul, together with the Holy Fathers, as a spirit in relation to the gross matter of the visible world, we, together with the Fathers, recognize it, in relation to God and exact truth, as a body, which have no flesh and bones(Lk. 24:39), but it has its own substance, in relation to us subtle, invisible, like air, as St. Cassian puts it, and other gases.
And Having depicted the creation of the world we see, the God-inspired Writer of Genesis says: And plant the Lord God paradise(paradeison - heliport, garden) in Eden to the east, and bring in the man whom he had created(Gen. 2:8). According to this narrative of the Writer, the Lord Himself announced that the Kingdom, or the land of eternal bliss, destined for people from the creation of the world(Matthew 25:34). Paradise is in the east; such is its position in relation to the earth. This indication seems to be rather vague and insufficient; but it is only insufficient for those who wish to measure and explain everything solely in relation to themselves, to the circle of action of their senses and to the visible world. In the vast universe, not only we, but also the earth inhabited by us are quantities that are very insignificant. The spaces that are accessible to our measurement and that seem huge to us do not determine the dimensions of the world for us, they only explain their immeasurability: behind these known spaces, there are other spaces - of course - larger than the first ones, and behind those spaces - new, even larger spaces. Measuring and investigating them is impossible for us, just as measuring and investigating the incomprehensible and inexpressibly great, connected with the idea of the infinite. The Scripture's indication of a place for paradise in the east is sufficient for our narrow-mindedness. Let's stop relying on our weak mind - this fragile rod; Let us proceed with faith to the teaching of Divine Revelation: Faith assimilates to a person knowledges that completely exceed his powers of comprehension.
R ai is located in the east, both according to the Holy Scriptures and according to the Holy Church Tradition. Saint John of Damascus says: Kingdoms of the earth, sing to God, sing to the Lord, who has ascended into heaven heaven in the east(Ps. 67, 33, 34); Also, Scripture says: God plant Paradise in Eden in the east, and enter there a person, his own created(Gen. 2, 8), and when a person transgressed the commandment, exiled him, and instilled sweetness directly in Paradise (Gen. 3, 23, 24), that is, in the west. Therefore, wanting to return to our former fatherland and fixing our eyes on it, we worship God to the east... Ascending into heaven, the Lord ascended to the east, and to the east the Apostles bowed to Him; and He will come from the east just as they saw Him ascending into heaven (Acts 1:11), about which the Lord Himself said: As lightning comes from the east and comes to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man(Matthew 24:27). So, in anticipation of His coming, we bow to the east. This is the unwritten tradition of the Apostles: for "they gave us much without writing." St. John of Damascus says that for the same reason, i.e. because Paradise is in the east, the tabernacle of Moses had a veil and a purgatory to the east, because the tribe of Judah, from whose midst our Lord was to come in the flesh and which therefore had preference over other tribes, encamped to the east during the journey of the Israelites in the wilderness in the promised land; in the famous temple of Solomon, the gates of the Lord were in the east; the crucified Lord looked west from the east, and we, fixing our eyes on Him, bow to the east. New Testament Orthodox churches are built with the altar to the east; when performing prayers outside churches, we always turn to the east; we bury our dead, turning their faces to the east - right Paradise sweets, in the hope of resurrection, in the hope of returning to Paradise. Reverend Simeon Divnogorets and some other Saints of God, who were honored with admiration for Paradise, found it in the east.
FROM The Holy Writer depicts Paradise as a vast garden, full of all kinds of fruitful and beautiful trees, taken from the earth, among which, as especially noteworthy, the tree of life in the midst of Paradise and the tree of distinguishing good from evil are named. A river comes out of Eden, melting Paradise, and from there it divides into four beginnings. Such a description of Paradise, the names of the channels of the Paradise river, the enumeration of the countries through which these channels run, gave some reason to conclude that Paradise is on earth. But the channels of the Paradise River, bearing the name of well-known earthly rivers, have one common beginning, first they form one river, then they are divided into four channels; these conditions are not fulfilled by the terrestrial rivers identical to them, separated from one another by their sources very far. Paradise is not on earth, although it has a close relationship and similarity with earth. The very arrangement of Paradise is called not a creation, but a planting borrowed from the earth (Gen. 2, 8, 9), since the inhabitants were also taken from the earth for it. The reason for the idea that Paradise is on earth was, without a doubt, the formerly dominant concept of matter, when only gross, tactile matter was called matter, and when it was not yet possible to guess that matter could have a degree of subtlety that exceeded human comprehension; Formerly, refined matter was mixed with spirits and called it spirit, or in everything invisible, unaffected and very little subject to our senses, they were already looking for infinite subtlety, which is equally erroneous. Not on earth Paradise : Heaven in heaven. Apostle Paul, caught up into heaven, ascending to the third heaven told about himself that he was raptured in Paradise, and hearing there inexpressible verbs(2 Cor. 12:2, 4). Amen I say to you. - said the crucified Savior to the Thief crucified with Him, who confessed Him to be Lord, today you will be with me in Paradise(Luke 23:43). It is obvious that the Rogue is placed in Paradise by his soul; his body, after breaking the legs, was taken down from the cross and committed to the earth. Placement of the soul of the Robber in Paradise explains both the property of the soul (that it is a subtle body) and the property of the heavenly nature, consisting of a subtle substance corresponding to its inhabitants - the created spirits. Moreover, this explains the state of Adam's body before his fall: in his holy body, Adam was able to dwell in the same dwelling with the created spirits, just as holy men will dwell with them in heaven in their bodies after the resurrection. "Heaven," says St. John of Damascus, "is the volume of visible and invisible creatures. The intelligent powers of the Angels and everything sensual are enclosed in it and limited to it. The Deity alone is infinite." Saint Andrew was caught up like the holy Apostle Paul to the third heaven; in the first heaven from earth, according to the vision of this saint, Paradise is placed. In accordance with this, other saints will tell, borrowing their story from Divine revelations and the visions they were granted.
H taught by the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Fathers, we recognize Paradise - this is the place of immaculate enjoyment in which Adam was placed, in which many souls of righteous people are now placed, in which many Pleasers of God will be placed with their bodies after the resurrection - corresponding and conformable in nature its to its inhabitants. Paradise is material, but its substance is subtle, like the subtleties of the soul, as the body of Adam was subtle before it was clothed in leather vestments, as the resurrected bodies of the righteous will be subtle in the image of the glorified body of our Lord Jesus Christ. "Paradise," says Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria, "is a village of spiritual rest." Paradise, according to this Doctor of the Church, was sensual; Adam saw him, he ate the fruits of the trees of paradise; rejoiced there spiritually. In this Paradise, the ancient heritage and fatherland of man, the Thief, who confessed the Lord on the cross, was erected. St. Macarius the Great says: "Jerusalem of peace and heaven, where is Paradise" (Conversation XXV, ch. 7).
W The earth serves as a kind of Paradise. Holy Bible compared the most fertile valley of Sodom, before its desolation, watered by the waters of the Jordan, with God's Paradise (Gen. 13, 10). If, before the time of its curse, the earth was completely different from what we now see it in its state of disorder and doom to burning, then how excellent must be Paradise, far surpassing the earth in the abundance of its beauties and the abundance of its grace. This is how Saint Andrew saw Paradise! He told about the river of paradise, about the fruits and flowers of paradise, about the birds of paradise and their wonderful singing, about the vineyards and trees of paradise; about these latter he added that they cannot be compared with any earthly tree, because, he said, God's hand, and not man's, planted them. This must also be understood of all the objects that make up the refined and graceful nature of Paradise. The saint of God reported about himself that he walked around Paradise, contemplating its beauty with amazement, and from contemplating its beauties, from the abundant influence of grace with which Paradise is full, he came into indescribable delight, into the sweetest frenzy. Very understandable condition! The beauties of the earth delight the contemplator, when with a pure eye of the mind he begins to see in them the immense power and wisdom of the Creator - all the more wonderful beauties of Paradise should attract a person wholly to contemplation, to the vision of God in His deeds, and from such a vision fill the seer with spiritual incorruptibility. enjoyment.
AT All the stories of the saints about Paradise agree with each other. Saint Gregory of Sinai says that Paradise is the lower heaven, that it consists of gardens planted by God, that the trees of these gardens are constantly covered with flowers and fruits, that in the middle of Paradise a river flows, watering it and dividing into four beginnings. The Monk Joasaph, a king, then an apostle, and finally a monk of India, was honored to see Paradise. One day, after a long prayer, accompanied by many tears, he fell into a light sleep. At this, he saw that some formidable men delighted him and, having led him through countries that he had never seen, they led him to a vast field dotted with the most beautiful flowers and extremely pleasant. There were all kinds of growth, abounding in some unusual and amazing fruits, and especially beautiful to look at, and especially pleasant to taste. The leaves of the trees, moved by the most gentle wind, made a noise, and, oscillating, emitted an inexplicable fragrance. There were seats made of gold and precious stones, shining with abundant light. There were bright beds, decorated with wonderful veils and splendor beyond any word. The purest waters flowed there, amused the very eye. After this, the Monk Joasaph was led into the heavenly city, Jerusalem on high, and saw its beauty and glory. Intoxicated with heavenly consolation, the Monk did not want to return to earth; but the men who led him said that staying in these bright places is delivered by many labors and sweats. They took him out and showed him the terrible places of eternal torment; after this he immediately came to his senses.
O two stories, about the monk Paul and the monk Euphrosynus, which have been preserved for us by Church Tradition, are worthy of special note. These monks were seen in Paradise, the first by many of the most reverent brethren of his monastery, and the second by his abbot Vlassy, having come into a sacred frenzy or a thin sleep, or rather, into self-forgetfulness - a state in which seeing visions are usually found, which is also clear from the Acts of the Apostles ( chapter 12, verses 7-11). In both cases, Paradise is described as a vast garden full of unspeakable beauty and fragrance. The Monk Paul endowed his brethren, according to the desire of each, with flowers and other growths of Holy Paradise; At the end of the vision, the brethren, having come to their senses, each had in their hands what they had taken from Paradise. The Monk Euphrosynus gave Abbot Vlasiy three fragrant apples. The abbot divided the apples of the brethren: those who tasted them were filled with spiritual joy, and the sick who tasted them were healed of their ailments.
H That is, in one of the two events mentioned above, the subtle substance of Paradise, at the behest of God, thickened and became tangible for our bodily senses. When the holy martyress Dorothea was taken from the praetor to the place of execution, so that, at the command of the tormentor hegemon, to cut off her head for confessing our Lord Jesus Christ, a certain scholar, named Theophilus, adviser to the hegemon, exclaimed to her in mockery: “Listen, bride of Christ! Send me apples and roses from Paradise, from your Bridegroom." Saint Dorothea said: "Truly I will do it." Arriving at the place of execution, she begged the executioner to allow her to pray a little to her God. When she finished her prayer, the Angel of the Lord appeared to her in the form of a youth of extraordinary beauty; he brought her three beautiful apples and three red roses in a clean handkerchief. The saint said to the Angel: "I ask you: take them to Theophilus and tell him: here is what you asked for." Having said this, she bowed her head under the sword and was beheaded. Meanwhile, Theophilus, mocking the Saint's promise, told his friends and peers about it. “Now,” he said, “when they led Dorotheus to execution, calling herself the bride of Christ and boasting that she would ascend to His Paradise, I asked her to send me apples and roses from there. And she promised me to fulfill this without fail!” Passing this on to his friends, Theophilus laughed immensely, when suddenly an angel appeared to him with three apples and three flowers, saying to him: “The holy virgin Dorotheus sends you, as she promised, her Bridegroom from Paradise.” Theophilus, seeing apples and flowers and taking them in his hands, exclaimed in a loud voice: "The true God is Christ, and there is no unrighteousness in Him." His friends told him: "Theophilus! You are either crazy or you are laughing." Theophilus answered them: "I have not lost my mind and am not laughing, but sound reason requires me to believe that Jesus Christ is the true God." They asked him, "Why did you change so suddenly?" Theophilus answered: "Tell me, what month is it now?" They said "February". Theophilus: "Now it's winter. All Cappadocia is covered with snow and ice, and there is not a single tree or plant that would be adorned with its leaves; where do you think these flowers and apples come from with their knots and leaves?" Saying this, he showed them apples and roses. Seeing them, touching them, marveling at their special incense, they said in surprise: "We have not seen such fruits and flowers in their ordinary time." Theophilus turned from a persecutor into a preacher of the Christian faith. The hegemon was immediately given to know about him, who subjected Theophilus first to seductions and exhortations, and then to torment, and Theophilus sealed his confession of Christ with his blood.
O a sample of the condensation of the heavenly substance was completed at the Assumption of the Mother of God. A few days before this holy Assumption, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to the Most Holy Virgin with a radiant date branch from Paradise and announced to Her a blessed relocation to the heavenly abode. At the burial of the Virgin, the branch of paradise was carried by the holy Apostle John before the tomb of the Mother of God. Such are the concepts, such, so to speak, are the hints delivered by the Divine Revelation to mankind, wandering and suffering on earth, about the land of repose and eternal bliss, prepared for him from the foundation of the world. Because of our sinfulness, because of our darkening, because of our fall, we know and contemplate only the smallest particle of the miracles of God: with the most fervent prayers from a contrite and humble heart and a life according to the gospel commandments, we implore our Lord to show us His glory, which they will see and His elect will always see, which no minister of sin will ever see.
AT riding naturally to God. He was also present in Paradise during the sin of the forefathers; but he discovered this presence by walking in paradise in the afternoon, when the forefathers had already committed a crime. Probably, around noon they ate the forbidden fruit: because at that hour the God-man spread His hands on the tree of the Cross, redeeming by nailing his hands to the tree for the daring stretching of hands by the forefathers to the fruit of the forbidden tree. The forefathers were honored by freedom; with freedom as a leader, they were given the Spirit of Divine wisdom: justice demanded that freedom be allowed to express itself according to its arbitrariness. She expressed herself as a suicide. As soon as the forefathers inflicted an ulcer on themselves, the merciful Lord appears to them to heal the ulcer: Adam and Eve heard the voice of the Lord God, walking in paradise at noon(Gen. 3:8). Hiding from each other with fig leaves, the forefathers tried to hide from God in the thicket of the trees of paradise: so suddenly they were darkened! The Lord called Adam with the words: Adam, where are you?(Gen. 3, 9) According to the explanation of the Holy Fathers, these words are the words of the greatest mercy and condolences. They mean: “What a disaster you have fallen into! What a deep and unfortunate fall has befallen you; Adam, where are you? - The darkened sinner does not understand the voice calling him to the consciousness of sin and to repentance of it. He tries to justify himself, and by justification stipulates: I hear the voice - he says, You are walking in paradise, and I am afraid, like I am naked and hidden(Gen. 3:10). Convicted, he again does not confess, does not repent, and boldly says to God: Wife, thou hast given with me, there I have given from the tree, and poison(Gen. 3:12). These words, according to the remark of a certain Holy Father, have the following meaning: "The misfortune that has befallen me has been brought to me by Thee: wife, Thou hast given me with me!" From the bitter Adam, the Lord passes to the wife, with mercy says to her: What did you do?(Gen. 3, 13) But the wife does not repent, does not ask for mercy, tries to justify herself by blaming the serpent. Deeply damaged by the knowledge of evil, which penetrated the mind, heart, soul, body by lightning, not confessing their sin, proudly and boldly justifying themselves, the forefathers were subjected to the judgment and punishment of God. The judgment of God fell, firstly, on the serpent, as on the instigator and head of the crime; then he punishes the wife as the first transgressor of the commandment and the culprit of the death of her husband; finally, he strikes the husband as having rejected obedience to God in order to obey his wife. The serpent-devil is finally rejected: he is completely left to his malice; the grace of God renounced touching him with any good thought worthy of heaven. On thy breasts and on thy womb thou shalt go, God told him, and tear down the earth all the days of your belly(Genesis 3:14). Enmity has been established between the devil and the woman, between the seed of the devil and the seed of the woman, i.e., on the one hand, between the devil and his seed - angels drawn by him into perdition, between the devil and his seed - sin; on the other hand, between the woman and the woman's seed, i.e. The God-man, Who by humanity is exclusively the Seed of the woman, and the people who believe in Him, clothed in the whole armor of God. With the establishment of this enmity and warfare, it was announced that the Seed of the woman - the God-man - will erase the head of the serpent; when this enmity and warfare is established, the followers of the God-man are commanded to observe the head of the serpent, that is, to recognize and reject all the undertakings of the devil in their very original thought; the devil is allowed, as having acquired the right by voluntary subjugation of people to him, to slander the seed of a wife during his earthly wandering, to watch over his heel. And the devil watches over this heel of every righteous man in Christ, from the righteous Abel to the righteous of the most recent times; he did not stop, darkened by unbridled malice and impudence, to slander the God-man. Many diseases are laid on the wife, and mainly the diseases of childbearing; she is enslaved to her husband; labors are entrusted to Adam in obtaining food - the earth is cursed for his sake. The field for these sufferings is the whole earthly life and their end is bodily death. Upon the utterance of the verdict, Adam and Eve were expelled and cast down from paradise to earth (Gen. 3, 22, 23).
AT What was the essence of the sin of the original? In outward appearance he was eating from the forbidden tree. It acquires both greater severity and greater significance when we define it as a violation of the commandment of the Creator to creation, opposition of the creature to the will of the Creator. It acquires even greater significance when we recognize in it man's attempt to become equal with God. And it is precisely this attempt that God points to with words filled with indescribable compassion, uttered by Him during the expulsion of the forefathers from paradise: Behold, Adam was as one from Us, if you understand good and evil(Gen. 3:22). “Adam lied (deceived) of old,” proclaims the Holy Church, “and God, desiring to be, was not " . The devil communicated his sin to the deceived man. But the devil's sin was his own creation; he conceived in himself to become equal with God (Is. 14, 14), processed this thought, strove to bring it to fruition, communicated it to a large host of other spirits, bowed them into unanimity with himself, and finally, clearly rebelled against God; man's sin was an inadvertent infatuation that befell him. The sin of man was prepared not by a plan, but by wrong and insufficient doing and keeping paradise. No less than that, through his sin, man became an accomplice of the devil and his captive. As a fallen by passion, man, along with the saying of punishment, is promised redemption and a Redeemer.
To few people can apply these words of the Apostle; few of them spent their earthly life according to the purpose given to it by God. The fall of man so deeply damaged him that, rejecting the life of mourning on earth, he chose on it a life of enjoyment and material prosperity, as if triumphant and celebrating his very fall. To this life of carnal pleasure and prosperity, which kills life for God, some of the children of Adam have already begun to incline, paying little attention to the story of paradise and the spiritual state of man, finding in the country of exile full food and satisfaction in their bestial and bestial passions. The grandchildren of Adam strove even more towards the development of material life on earth, forgetting about eternity. Here, finally, all his offspring rushed, with the exception of a few chosen men, considering the legend of paradise a fable, an invention of superstitious imagination. In vain death reaped people from the face of the earth: they continued to live and act as if eternal on it. Maintaining bodily strength by eating the required amount of simple food turned into delicacy and satiety with delicious dishes. The quenching of thirst turned to the enjoyment of various drinks and to drunkenness. Covering nakedness with leather robes was transformed into adornment with rich clothes and utensils. Modest dwellings for shelter and protection from the elements and animals that rebelled against man began to be replaced by huge and magnificent chambers. Luxury appeared with its countless demands, which turned into an inexorable law among the society of fallen people. The legal intercourse of the sexes for the reproduction of the human race has changed into an insatiable fornication that opposes the reproduction of people. This is not enough: people, inflamed by unbridled desire, completely deprived of the right striving, invented unnatural sins. The power of spiritual energy began to overcome the insatiable desires and demands of a sin-loving person: quarrels, insults, murders, robbery, robbery, war, conquest appeared. The verbal power of a person is wholly used to provide him with earthly benefits and advantages, used to promote sin: lies, deceptions, craftiness, hypocrisy appeared. Thus, immediately after the fall of man, a world, hostile to God, began to form on earth over time, and in the course of time to receive greater and greater development.
M iр is the life of people on earth solely for the earth, solely for the purpose of satisfying their sinful desires, for the purpose of carnal pleasure, for the purpose of material prosperity, for a purpose that is completely opposite to that lofty and all-good purpose with which man is placed by God on earth. "The world is the general name of all passions. The world is carnal life and carnal wisdom. Where the movement and action of the passions ceased, the world died there." This is how the great mentor of monasticism Saint Isaac of Syria . Hatred of this world, renunciation of this world is commanded by the Holy Spirit to His disciples when He says: Do not love the world, nor anything else in the world. If one loves the world, there is no Father's love in it. As if everything in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye and the pride of life, is not from the Father, but it is from this world. And the world passes away, and its lust: but do the will of God abides forever(1 John 2:15-17). The whole world lies in evil(1 John 5:19). The love of this world is enmity to God: if a friend desires to be in the world, there is an enemy of God(James 4:4). When the Scripture says that so love God the world, as if he gave his only begotten Son to eat, but everyone who believes stinks will not perish, but have eternal life(John 3:16): then one must understand by the word world all people, not excluding sinners, as the Apostle John the Theologian says: About this, the love of God has appeared in us, as the Son of His Only Begotten Ambassador God to the world, may we live by Him(1 John 4:9).
O five: and the whole of human society, in conjunction with their sinful life, in conjunction with their carnal pleasures, with their material prosperity, with their pandemonium, is called "the world." This world is hostile to God and His servants. If the world hates you, - the God-man said to his disciples, tell me that you hate me first. If you were from the world faster: the world would have loved its own: as if you were from the world, but I chose you from the world, for this sake the world hates you(John 15, 18, 19). This world has been and remains alien to both God the Creator and God the Redeemer; he recognizes the persecution and murder of the servants of God as serving the truth (John 16:2).
G lava and the head of this world, hostile to God, is a fallen angel; other fallen angels and people carried away by him assist him and serve in this insane and impudent battle. The earth itself and its creatures, formerly subject to Adam, after the fall of Adam, together with him submitted to Satan. Satan himself testified to his power over the world in this way: daring to approach the Son of God for temptation, he led Him to a high mountain and, showing all the kingdoms of the universe and their glory, said: I will give you all this power and their glory: as if I have been betrayed, and if I want it, I will give it to you.(Luke 4:6). Satan calls the power over the world not his own, but devoted to himself. Exactly: she is devoted to him. “The enemy who deceived Adam,” says St. Macarius the Great, “and thus assumed dominion over him, deprived him of all power and declared the prince of this world. enemy flattery, then together with this he betrayed his superiors to the seducer. Sowing for the sake of guilt, the sorcerers and sorcerers, by the action of an opposing force, by the permission of God, some wonderful things are created, possessing poisonous beasts, and entering into fire and water without harm entering ". Sacred Scripture for this reason calls the fallen angel the ruler of the world, the prince of this world (John 12:31; Eph. 2:2; 6:11, 12).
IDOLATRY
FROM Atana was not satisfied with the fact that he subdued man with the earth under his power, that he kept him captive, arousing various passions in him and shackling him with them, that by serving sin he brought him into service to himself. The thought that enveloped the angel in heaven did not leave him in the heavenly places, where, as on the eve of hell, he was cast out of heaven: the thought of becoming equal to God. He brought it to fruition by introducing idolatry into the earth. The human race, gradually multiplying on earth, at the same time more and more passed from satisfying needs to satisfying whims and sinful desires. True knowledge of God and self-knowledge are incompatible with such a life! People, drowning in earthly cares and pleasures, having become exclusively flesh, have lost the very concept of the true God. But the feeling of worshiping God is a feeling inalienable from the human heart, as innate and natural to him: it is not destroyed by the fall - it is deprived of correctness. Driven by this unconscious feeling, people paid divine worship to the inventor and parent of sin - fallen angel and host of his demons. Man deified the sin that killed him in all its forms, deified the representatives of sin - the demons. He recognized the satisfaction of all passions as divine pleasures. And fornication, and drunkenness, and theft, and murder are honored. Each passion was portrayed by its idol or idol. The idol was a symbol of a demon, completely alien to life, completely dead to spiritual sensations. Before such idols, both public and private or domestic worship was performed; before idols they were slaughtered and sacrifices were made from animals, and often from people. But outward service to idols was in essence service to demons, as the Divine Apostle Paul teaches us (1 Cor. 10:20). Idol temples and idols themselves were the favorite dwellings of demons. From these dwellings they issued voices and prophecies to deceive ill-fated mankind. And man himself, having ceased to be the temple of the Living God, became a temple and dwelling place of Satan (Luke 11:24-26).
And idolatry embraced all men and the whole earth. A few chosen people have preserved the true knowledge of God and worship. Subsequently, God chose and separated the people of Israel for His service, giving them a written law. But the disease of idolatry acted so strongly in fallen humanity that even the chosen people, often leaving the worship of the One true God, strove for the worship of idols.
H man, having lost by his fall the Divine Light - the Holy Spirit, had to be content with his own meager light - the mind. But this natural light led very few people to the knowledge of the true God: he strove most to provide all kinds of conveniences for earthly life, he invented various sciences and arts that definitely contributed and continue to contribute to the multiplication and development of these material conveniences, but together they also contribute to the strongest development sinful life, to the sealing and affirmation of the fall by decorating the fall with various phantoms of prosperity and triumph. Human sciences, being the fruit of the fall, satisfying man, presenting to him the grace of God and God Himself as unnecessary, blaspheming, rejecting, humiliating the Holy Spirit, have become the strongest tool and means of sin and the devil to maintain and strengthen the fall. The light of men united with the light of demons and formed human learning (wisdom), hostile to God, corrupting man with devil-like pride (1 Cor. 3, 17, 18). Embraced by the disease of learning, the sage of this world subordinates everything to his mind and serves as an idol for himself, fulfilling the suggestion of Satan: you will be like a bozi, leading the good and the evil. Scholarship left to itself is self-delusion, it is demonic deceit, it is knowledge full of lies and placing the scientist in a false attitude both to himself and to everything. Learning is an abomination and foolishness before God; she is a rage. She proclaims her blindness as the most satisfactory knowledge and vision, and thus makes the blindness incurable, and the fall that it preserves is an inalienable property of the unfortunate scribe and Pharisee (John 9, 41). Wisdom carnal - enmity on God: the law of God does not obey, lower than he can. Wisdom carnal - death(Rom. 8, 7, 6). The Holy Spirit commands the rejection of earthly wisdom for those who want to draw near to God and become partakers of spiritual wisdom (1 Cor. 3:18). The Apostle Paul notes that few of the scientists accepted the Christian faith (1 Cor. 1:26); on the contrary, for these imaginary and pompous sages, spiritual wisdom, which is abundantly and completely contained in Christ, seemed foolish (1 Cor. 1, 23). Philosophers and artists were the greatest champions of idolatry and enemies of true knowledge of God. After the establishment of the Christian faith in the world, learning gave birth to innumerable heresies and by them tried to overthrow the Holy Faith. The greatest atrocity - the murder of the God-man - was committed by scientists in the name of their wisdom and in the name of their law (John 11:49, 50). In our time, learning returns the pagans who have accepted Christianity to paganism and, rejecting Christianity, introduces idolatry and the service of Satan again, changing the forms for the most convenient deception of mankind. A rare, very rare scribe learns the Kingdom of Heaven and wears out the new teaching of the Spirit before the society of his brethren, clothing this teaching in the old rags of human learning so that it can be more conveniently accepted by those who love the old rather than the new (Matt. 13:52; Lk. 5). , 39).
"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) spoke: “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 cannot she desire to love the Lord as much as she desires to believe, nor as much as she desires to pray, because from the time of the crime of the first man, opposition both openly and secretly took 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 in the presence of 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 attire, all the attention in the world is paid to perishable clothes, to fashionable dresses and various exquisite ornaments, reeking of 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 sound 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 overcrowding, poverty and various other deprivations, 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 by 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 naivete of the Gospel, they simply shrug their shoulders, not daring to say their own main idea: "This is outdated for our time," or they belittle the church's 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 suffered from an illness for 18 years, and when the scribes asked Christ a tempting question why He healed on Saturday, the Lord answered: “Will you untie the donkey on Saturday to give it water? 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 illustrative 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 addition to 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. This is the case! 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 kinds of cunning and deceit and reflect everything with 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 same 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 students 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 and how the thoughts they themselves inspire are accepted, they learn not from the soul itself, and not from the inner movements that are secretly occurring in it as a result, 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 the air forces recognize this and similar things in such a way when we see that smart people also manage to recognize the state of affairs by their eyes, face and other external signs. inner man. 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. He finds here 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, churchness, 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 unbelief, 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, through 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 wound the soul with one instantaneous movement evil thought, doubt, blasphemy, impatience, irritation, malice, by an instantaneous movement of the heart's passion for something earthly, by the movement of contemplating fornication and other passions, can fan the spark of sin, with its 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. O! 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 them 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 defeated 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 Orthodox faith, become churched externally and internally, join the daily prayer life.
Matrona is known by tens of thousands 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) spoke: " 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). That is 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 this distinctive features 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 corruption brought upon 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, just protect yourself 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 great is the battle of the devil: he has strong bows, fiery arrows, many different nets, innumerable tricks and weapons, through which he seeks in every possible way to harm the human soul, 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 extinguish 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 ascend 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 whoever lives contrary to the word of God, and does the devil's will, and sins from the will, is at one 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 are sinning grievously before God, and more so than 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.
- From here, 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
