Conversation with Nikolai Motovilov. Motovilov N. A. Conversation with Seraphim of Sarov about the purpose of Christian life. "Reverend Father Seraphim, pray to God for us!"

Sergey Nilus

About the purpose of Christian life - a conversation between St. Seraphim of Sarov and Motovilov

(full version)

It was on Thursday. The day was cloudy. There was a quarter of the snow on the ground, and rather thick snow pellets were falling on top when Father Fr. Seraphim began a conversation with me on his nearest pazhinka, near the same nearby hermitage opposite the Sarovka River, near a mountain that comes close to its banks.

He placed me on the stump of a tree he had just cut down, and he squatted opposite me.

“The Lord revealed to me,” said the great elder, “that in your childhood you earnestly wanted to know what the purpose of our Christian life was, and you repeatedly asked many great spiritual persons about this...

I must say here that from the age of 12 this thought constantly bothered me, and I actually approached many of the clergy with this question, but their answers did not satisfy me. The elder did not know this.

“But no one,” Father Seraphim continued, “told you definitively about this.” They told you: go to church, pray to God, do God’s commandments, do good - that’s the goal of Christian life. And some were even indignant at you because you were busy with non-godly curiosity, and they told you: do not seek higher things for yourself. But they did not speak as they should have. So I, poor Seraphim, will now explain to you what this goal really is.

Prayer, fasting, vigil and all other Christian deeds, no matter how good they are in themselves, however, the goal of our Christian life is not in doing them alone, although they serve as necessary means for achieving it. The true goal of our Christian life is to acquire the Holy Spirit of God. Fasting and vigil, and prayer, and almsgiving, and every good deed done for the sake of Christ are means for acquiring the Holy Spirit of God. Please note, father, that only for the sake of Christ does a good deed bring us the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Still, what we do not for the sake of Christ, even though it is good, does not represent a reward for us in the life of the next century, and it does not give us the grace of God in this life either. That's why the Lord Jesus Christ said: " everyone who does not gather with Me scatters". A good deed cannot be called otherwise than gathering, for although it is not done for the sake of Christ, it is nevertheless good. Scripture says: " Fear God in every language and do what is right; He is pleasing."And, as we see from the sacred narrative, this " do the truth“So pleasing to God that an angel of the Lord appeared to Cornelius the centurion, who feared God and did righteousness while he was praying and said: “ went to Joppa to Simon Usmar, there you found Peter and he spoke the words of eternal life, in them you and your whole house will be saved"So, the Lord uses all His Divine means to give such a person the opportunity for his good deeds not to lose his reward in the life of rebirth. But for this we must begin here with right faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who came into the world to save sinners, and by acquiring for ourselves the grace of the Holy Spirit, introducing the kingdom of God into our hearts and paving the way for us to acquire the bliss of life in the next century. But this is the limit of this pleasure to God of good deeds, not done for the sake of Christ: our Creator provides the means for their implementation. Remains with man either implement them or not. That is why the Lord said to the Jews: " If we had not seen it, we would not have sinned. Now you say, we see, and your sin remains on you"If a person, like Cornelius, takes advantage of the pleasure of God in his deed, not done for the sake of Christ, and believes in His Son, then this kind of deed will be imputed to him, as if done for the sake of Christ and only for faith in Him. Otherwise, the person has no right complain that his good did not go into action. This never happens only when doing any good for the sake of Christ, for good done for His sake not only in the life of the next century the crown of righteousness intercedes, but also in this life fills a person with the grace of the Spirit Holy and, moreover, as it is said: " For God gives the Holy Spirit beyond measure, for the Father loves the Son and gives everything in His hand".

That's right, your love for God! So the acquisition of this Spirit of God is the true goal of our Christian life, and prayer, vigil, fasting, almsgiving and other virtues done for the sake of Christ are only means to the acquisition of the Spirit of God.

- What about acquisition? – I asked Father Seraphim. – I don’t understand this.

He placed me on the stump of a tree he had just cut down, and he squatted opposite me.

Prayer, fasting, vigil and all other Christian deeds, no matter how good they are in themselves, however, the goal of our Christian life is not in doing them alone, although they serve as necessary means for achieving it. The true goal of our Christian life is to acquire the Holy Spirit of God. Fasting and vigil, and prayer, and almsgiving, and every good deed done for the sake of Christ are means for acquiring the Holy Spirit of God. Please note, father, that only for the sake of Christ does a good deed bring us the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Still, what we do not for the sake of Christ, even though it is good, does not represent a reward for us in the life of the next century, and it does not give us the grace of God in this life either. This is why the Lord Jesus Christ said: “ everyone who does not gather with Me scatters“. A good deed cannot be called otherwise than gathering, for although it is not done for the sake of Christ, it is nevertheless good. Scripture says: “ Fear God in every language and do what is right; He is pleasing.“And, as we see from the sacred narrative, this “ do the truth” was so pleasing to God that an angel of the Lord appeared to Cornelius the centurion, who feared God and did righteousness while he was praying and said: “ went to Joppa to Simon Usmar, there you found Peter and he spoke the words of eternal life, in them you and your whole house will be saved“. So, the Lord uses all His Divine means to provide such a person with the opportunity for his good deeds not to lose his reward in the life of rebirth. But for this we must begin here with right faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came into the world to save sinners, and by acquiring for ourselves the grace of the Holy Spirit, who introduces the kingdom of God into our hearts and paves the way for us to acquire the bliss of life in the next century. But this is where this pleasingness to God of good deeds, not done for the sake of Christ, is limited: our Creator provides the means for their implementation. It is up to the person to either implement them or not. This is why the Lord said to the Jews: “ If we had not seen it, we would not have sinned. Now you say, we see, and your sin remains on you“. If a person, like Cornelius, takes advantage of the pleasure of God in his deed, not done for the sake of Christ, and believes in His Son, then this kind of deed will be imputed to him, as if done for the sake of Christ and only for faith in Him. Otherwise, a person has no right to complain that his good did not go to work. This never happens only when doing any good for Christ’s sake, for good done for His sake not only intercedes for the crown of righteousness in the life of the next century, but also in this life fills a person with the grace of the Holy Spirit and, moreover, as it is said: “ For God gives the Holy Spirit beyond measure, for the Father loves the Son and gives everything in His hand“.

- What about acquisition? – I asked Father Seraphim. – I don’t understand this.

While practicing virtues, these virgins, out of their spiritual foolishness, believed that this was the only Christian thing, to do only virtues. We have done virtue, and thus we have done the work of God, but whether they received the grace of the Spirit of God or whether they achieved it, they did not care. About such and such ways of life, based only on the creation of virtues without careful testing, whether they bring and how much exactly they bring the grace of the Spirit of God, it is said in the books of the fathers: “ There is no way, pretend to be good in the beginning, but its ends are at the bottom of hell“. Anthony the Great, in his letters to the monks, speaks about such virgins: many monks and virgins have no idea about the differences in the wills operating in man, and do not know that three wills operate in us: 1st God, all-perfect and all-saving; 2nd own, human, i.e. if not harmful, then not salutary; and the 3rd demonic one is quite harmful. And it is this third enemy will that teaches a person either not to do any virtues, or to do them out of vanity, or for the sake of good alone, and not for the sake of Christ. The second is that our own will teaches us to do everything to please our lusts, and even, as the enemy teaches, to do good for the sake of good, not paying attention to the grace that it acquires. The first - the will of God and the all-saving one consists only in doing good only for the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, as an eternal treasure, inexhaustible and cannot be fully and worthily appreciated by anything. It is this, this acquisition of the Holy Spirit, that is actually called the oil that the foolish virgins lacked. That is why they are called holy fools, because they have forgotten about the necessary fruit of virtue, about the grace of the Holy Spirit, without which there is no salvation for anyone and there cannot be, for: “ By the Holy Spirit every soul is alive and exalted in purity, and the sacred mystery is brightened by the Trinity unity“. The Holy Spirit Himself dwells in our souls, and this very dwelling in our souls of Him, the Almighty, and the coexistence with our spirit of His Triple Unity, is granted to us only through the all-out acquisition of the Holy Spirit on our part, which it prepares in our soul and flesh the throne of the all-creative God with our spirit co-abiding according to the immutable word of God: “ I will dwell in them and become like them, and I will be like God to them, and they will be my people.“.

This is the oil in the lamps of the wise virgins, which could burn brightly and for a long time, and those virgins with these burning lamps could wait for the Bridegroom, who came at midnight, and enter with Him into the chamber of joy. The holy fools, seeing that their lamps were going out, although they went to the marketplace to buy oil, did not manage to return in time, for the doors were already closed. The marketplace is our life; the doors of the bridal chamber, closed and not allowing the Bridegroom, are human death; wise virgins and holy fools are Christian souls; oil is not works, but the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God received into our nature through them, transforming it from corruption into incorruption, from spiritual death into spiritual life, from darkness into light, from the den of our being, where passions are tied up like cattle and beasts, - to the temple of the Divine, to the bright palace of eternal joy in Christ Jesus our Lord, Creator and Savior and Eternal Bridegroom of our souls. How great is God’s compassion for our misfortune, that is, inattention to His care for us, when God says: “ I’m standing at the door and it’s no use!“... meaning by doors the course of our life, not yet closed by death. Oh, how I would like, your love for God, that in this life you would always be in the Spirit of God! “ What I find you in is what I judge“, says the Lord.

Woe, great woe, if He finds us burdened with the cares and sorrows of life, for who will endure His wrath and who will stand against the face of His wrath! This is why it is said: “ watch and pray, so as not to fall into misfortune“, i.e. May you not be deprived of the Spirit of God, for vigil and prayer brings us His grace. Of course, every virtue done for the sake of Christ gives the grace of the Holy Spirit, but prayer gives most of all, because it is always in our hands, as a tool for acquiring the grace of the Spirit. For example, you would like to go to church, but either there is no church, or the service has passed; you would like to give to a beggar, but there is no beggar, or there is nothing to give; you would like to maintain virginity, but you do not have the strength to fulfill this due to your constitution or due to the efforts of the enemy’s machinations, which you cannot resist due to human weakness; We would like to do some other virtue for the sake of Christ, but we also don’t have the strength, or we can’t find the opportunity. But this has nothing to do with prayer: everyone always has the opportunity to do it - the rich, the poor, the noble, the simple, the strong, the weak, the healthy, the sick, the righteous and the sinner. How great is the power of prayer, even of a sinful person, when it ascends with all your soul, judge by the following example of Sacred Tradition: when, at the request of a desperate mother who had lost her only begotten son, kidnapped by death, a harlot wife who came across her path and even just not cleansed of her former sin, touched by her mother’s desperate grief, she cried out to the Lord: “ Not for the sake of the accursed sinner, but for the sake of tears for the sake of the mother, grieving for her son and firmly confident in Thy mercy and omnipotence, Christ God, raise up, O Lord, her son!“... - and the Lord raised him up. So, your love for God, the power of prayer is great, and most of all it brings the Spirit of God, and it is most convenient for everyone to correct it. Blessed will we be when the Lord God finds us vigilant, in the fullness of the gifts of His Holy Spirit! Then we can confidently hope to be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, who is coming with glory and much power to judge the living and the dead and to reward each according to his deeds.

Now, your love for God, you deign to consider it a great happiness to talk with the poor Seraphim, being confident that he is not deprived of the grace of the Lord. What we are talking about is the Lord Himself, the ever-inexhaustible Source of all goodness, both heavenly and earthly! But through prayer we are worthy to converse with Him Himself, the All-Good and Life-Giving God and our Savior. But even here we must pray only until God the Holy Spirit descends on us in the measures of His heavenly grace known to Him. And when He deigns to visit us, then we must stop praying. Why then pray to Him: “ come and dwell in us and cleanse us from all filth and save, O Blessed One, our souls“When He had already come to us to save us, who trust in Him and call on His holy Name in truth, i.e. in order to humbly and lovingly meet Him, the Comforter, inside the temple of our souls, hungry and thirsty for His coming. I will explain this to your love of God with an example: if only you would invite me to visit you, and at your call I would come to you and would like to talk with you. But you would still invite me: you are welcome, yes, please, please, they say, come to me! Then I would inevitably have to say: what is he? Have you lost your mind? I came to him, but he still called me! – This is how it relates to the Lord God the Holy Spirit. That is why it is said: “ be abolished and understand that I am God, I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted to the earth“, that is, I will and will appear to everyone who believes in Me and calls on Me, and I will talk with him, as I once talked with Adam in Paradise, with Abraham and Jacob and with My other servants, with Moses, Job and the like. Many interpret that this abolition applies only to worldly affairs, i.e., that during a prayerful conversation with God one must abstain from worldly affairs. But I will tell you, according to God, that although it is necessary to abstain from them during prayer, when, with the almighty power of faith and prayer, the Lord God the Holy Spirit deigns to visit us and comes to us in the fullness of His ineffable goodness, then it is also necessary to give up prayer be abolished. The soul speaks and is in rumor when it prays; and during the invasion of the Holy Spirit, one must be in complete silence, hear clearly and intelligibly all the verbs of the eternal life, which He then deigns to proclaim. Moreover, one must be in complete sobriety of both soul and spirit and in chaste purity of the flesh. So it was at Mount Horeb, when the Israelites were told that until the appearance of God on Sinai for three days they would not touch women, for our God is “ fire consumes everything unclean“, and no one from the filthiness of the flesh and spirit can enter into fellowship with Him.

- Well, what, father, should we do with other virtues done for the sake of Christ, in order to acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit? After all, you only want to talk to me about prayer?

– Acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit and all other virtues for Christ’s sake, trade them spiritually, trade those that give you the most profit. Collect the capital of the grace-filled excesses of God's goodness, put them in God's eternal pawnshop from immaterial interest and not four or six per hundred, but one hundred per spiritual ruble, and even that countless times more. Approximately: prayer and vigil gives you more of God’s grace, watch and pray; Fasting gives much of the Spirit of God, fast; If alms give more, do alms, and thus reason about every virtue done for the sake of Christ.

So I’ll tell you about myself, poor Seraphim. – I come from Kursk merchants. So, when I was not yet in the monastery, we used to trade goods that gave us more profit. So do you, father, and, just as in the business of trade, the strength lies not in just trading, but in getting more profit, so in the business of Christian life the strength does not lie in just praying or some other -or do a good deed. Although the apostle says: “ pray without ceasing“, but, as you remember, he adds: “ I’d rather say five words with my mind than thousands with my tongue“. And the Lord says: “ not everyone says Mi, Lord, Lord! will be saved, but do the will of My Father“, i.e. doing the work of God and, moreover, with reverence, for “ Cursed is everyone who does God's work carelessly“. But God’s work is: “ Yes, you believe in God and He sent Jesus Christ“. If we judge correctly about the commandments of Christ and the Apostles, then our Christian work consists not in increasing the number of good deeds that serve the goal of our Christian life only as means, but in deriving greater benefit from them, i.e. the greater acquisition of the most abundant gifts of the Holy Spirit.

So I would like, your love for God, that you yourself would acquire this ever-depleting source of God’s grace and always judge for yourself whether you are found in the Spirit of God or not; and if - in the Spirit of God, then blessed be God! - there is nothing to grieve about: at least now - at the Last Judgment of Christ! For “ what I find you in is what I judge“. If not, then we need to figure out why and for what reason the Lord God the Holy Spirit deigned to leave us, and again seek and seek Him and not give up until the sought-after Lord God the Holy Spirit is found and will be with us again. grace. We must attack our enemies who drive us away from Him until their ashes are scattered, as the prophet David said: “ I will marry my enemies and I will suffer, and I will not return until they die, I will insult them, and they will not be able to stand it, they will fall under my feet“.

That's it, father! So, if you please, trade in spiritual virtue. Distribute the gifts of the grace of the Holy Spirit to those who need it, following the example of a lit candle, which itself shines, burning with earthly fire, and lights other candles, without diminishing its own fire, to illuminate everyone in other places. And if this is so in relation to earthly fire, then what can we say about the fire of grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God?! For, for example, earthly wealth, when it is distributed, becomes scarce, but the more heavenly wealth of God's grace is distributed, the more it multiplies for the one who distributes it. So the Lord Himself deigned to say to the Samaritans: “ He who drinks from this water will thirst again, and he who drinks from the water that I will give him will never thirst, but the water that I will give him will be a spring in him, ever flowing into his eternal belly.“.

“Father,” I said, “you all deign to talk about acquiring the grace of the Holy Spirit as the goal of Christian life, but how and where can I see it? Good deeds are visible, but how can the Holy Spirit be visible? How will I know whether He is with me or not?

“At the present time,” the elder answered, “due to our almost universal coldness towards the holy faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and our inattention to the actions of His Divine Providence for us and man’s communication with God, we have come to such a point that, one might say, almost completely removed themselves from the true Christian life. Now the words of Holy Scripture seem strange to us, when the Spirit of God through the mouth of Moses says: “ and Adam saw the Lord walking into paradise” or when we read from the Apostle Paul: “ died in Achaia, and the Spirit of God did not go with us, we turned to Macedonia

This was on Thursday. The day was cloudy. There was a quarter of the snow on the ground, and quite thick snow pellets were falling on top, when Father Seraphim began a conversation with me at his nearby harvest, near the same nearby hermitage, opposite the Sarovka River, near a mountain that comes close to its banks.

He placed me on the stump of a tree he had just cut down, and he squatted opposite me.

The Lord revealed to me,” said the great elder, “that in your childhood you earnestly wanted to know what the purpose of our Christian life was, and you repeatedly asked many great spiritual persons about this...

I must say here that from the age of 12 this thought inexorably worried me, and I, indeed, addressed many of the clergy with this question, but their answers did not satisfy me. The elder did not know this.

But no one,” Father Seraphim continued, “told you definitively about this. They told you: go to church, pray to God, keep God’s commandments, do good - that’s the goal of Christian life. And some were even indignant at you because you were busy with non-godly curiosity, and they told you: do not seek higher things for yourself. But they did not speak as they should have. So I, poor Seraphim, will now explain to you what this goal really is.

So, the Lord uses all His Divine means to ensure that such a person, for his good deeds, does not lose his reward in life. But for this we must begin here with right faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came into the world to save sinners, and by acquiring for ourselves the grace of the Holy Spirit, introducing the Kingdom of God into our hearts and paving the way for us to acquire the bliss of life in the future century. But this is where this pleasingness to God of good deeds not done for the sake of Christ is limited. The Creator gives us the means to implement them. It remains up to the person to implement them or not. That is why the Lord said to the Jews: “If you had not seen it, you would not have sin. Now say, we see, and your sin remains on you.” If a person, like Cornelius, takes advantage of the pleasure of God in his deed, not done for the sake of Christ, and believes in His Son, then the deed will be imputed to him for such a sake as something done for the sake of Christ, only for faith in Him. Otherwise, a person has no right to complain that his good did not go to work. This never happens, only when doing some good deed for Christ’s sake, for good done for His sake not only in the life of the next century intercedes the crown of righteousness, but also in this life fills a person with the grace of the Holy Spirit, and moreover, as it is said, “God gives the Holy Spirit beyond measure; the Father loves the Son and gives everything in His hand.”

So, your love for God! So the acquisition of this Spirit of God is the true goal of our Christian life, and prayer, vigil, fasting, almsgiving and other virtues done for the sake of Christ are only means to acquire the Spirit of God.

What about acquisition? - I asked Father Seraphim: I don’t understand something.

Acquisition is the same as acquisition, he answered me, because you understand what acquiring money means. So it is the same with the acquisition of the Spirit of God. After all, you, your love of God, understand what acquisition is in the worldly sense? The purpose of the worldly life of ordinary people is to acquire money, and among the nobles, in addition, to receive honors, distinctions and other awards for state merits. The acquisition of the Spirit of God is also capital, but only grace-filled and eternal, and it, like money, official and temporary, is acquired in almost the same ways, very similar to each other.

God the Word, our Lord God-man Jesus Christ likens our life to a marketplace, and calls the work of our life on earth a purchase, and says to everyone: “Buy until I come, redeeming the time, for the days are evil,” that is, gain time to receive heavenly blessings through earthly goods. Earthly goods are virtues done for the sake of Christ, providing us with the grace of the All-Holy Spirit, without Whom no one has or can have salvation, for: “By the Holy Spirit every soul is alive and exalted in purity, brightened by the triple unity of the sacred mystery.” The Holy Spirit Himself dwells in our souls, and this very dwelling in our souls of Him, the Almighty, and the coexistence with our spirit of His Trinity Unity, is granted to us only through the complete acquisition of the Holy Spirit on our part, which prepares the throne of God in our soul and flesh The all-creative co-existence with our spirit, according to the immutable word of God: “I will dwell in them and resemble and become like God, and these will be my people.” Of course, every virtue done for the sake of Christ gives the grace of the Holy Spirit, but prayer gives it most of all, because it is, as it were, always in our hands, as a tool for acquiring the grace of the Spirit. For example, you would like to go to Church, but either there is no Church, or the service has been postponed; you would like to give to a beggar, but there is no beggar, or there is nothing to give; you would like to observe virginity, but due to your constitution or the efforts of the enemy’s machinations, which you cannot resist due to human weakness, you do not have the strength to fulfill this; We would like to do some other virtue for the sake of Christ, but we also don’t have the strength, or we can’t find the opportunity. But this has nothing to do with prayer: everyone always has the opportunity to do it - rich and poor, noble and simple, strong and weak, healthy and sick, righteous and sinner. The power of prayer is great, and it brings the Spirit of God most of all, and it is most convenient for everyone to correct. Through prayer we are worthy to converse with the All-Good and Life-Giving God and our Savior, but even here we must pray only until God the Holy Spirit descends upon us in the measures of His heavenly grace known to Him. And when He deigns to visit us, then we must stop praying. Why then pray to Him: “Come and dwell in us, and cleanse us from all filth, and save, O Blessed One, our souls,” when He has already come to us to save us, who trust in Him and call on His holy Name in truth, that is, in order to humbly and lovingly meet Him, the Comforter, inside the temple of our souls, hungry and thirsty for His coming.

Well, what, father, should we do with other virtues done for the sake of Christ to acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit? After all, you only want to talk to me about prayer.

Acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit and all other virtues for Christ’s sake, trade in those that give you the greatest profit. Collect the capital of the grace-filled excesses of God’s goodness, put them in God’s eternal pawnshop, and not four or six per hundred, but one hundred per spiritual ruble, and even that countless times more. Approximately: prayer and vigil will give you more of God’s grace, watch and pray; Fasting gives much of the Spirit of God, fast; If alms give more, do alms, and thus reason about every virtue done for the sake of Christ.

So, if you please, trade in spiritual virtue. Distribute the gifts of the grace of the Holy Spirit to those who need it, following the example of a lighted candle, which itself shines, burning with earthly fire, and other candles, without extinguishing its own fire, lights for the illumination of everyone in other places. And if this is so in relation to earthly fire, then what can we say about the fire of grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God?!

Father,” I said, “you all deign to talk about acquiring the grace of the Holy Spirit as the goal of Christian life, but how and where can I see it? Good deeds are visible, but how can the Holy Spirit be visible? How will I know whether He is with me or not?

“At present,” the elder answered, “due to our almost universal coldness towards the holy faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and due to our inattention to the action of His Divine providence for us and man’s communication with God, we have come to such a point that one can say, almost completely moved away from the true Christian life. Now the words of the Holy Scripture seem strange to us, when the Spirit of God through the mouth of Moses said: “And Adam saw the Lord walking into paradise,” or when we read from the Apostle Paul: “We went to Achaia and the Spirit of God went with us.” Repeatedly in other places of the Holy Scriptures it is spoken of the appearance of God to men.

So some say: “These places are incomprehensible, could people really see God so obviously?” And there is nothing unclear here. This misunderstanding arose from the fact that we moved away from the scope of the original Christian knowledge and, under the pretext of enlightenment, entered into such darkness of ignorance that it already seems inconceivable to us what the ancients understood so clearly that they did not understand the concept of appearing to God in ordinary conversations. seemed strange. People saw God and the grace of His Holy Spirit not in a dream, not in a daydream, and not in the frenzy of a frustrated imagination, but truly in reality. We have become very inattentive to the matter of our salvation, which is why it turns out that we and many other words of Holy Scripture are not accepted in the sense that they should be. And all because we do not seek the grace of God, we do not allow it, through the pride of our minds, to dwell in our souls, and therefore we do not have true enlightenment from the Lord sent into the hearts of people who wait and thirst for truth with all their hearts.

When our Lord Jesus Christ deigned to complete the entire work of salvation, after His resurrection, He breathed on the apostles, renewing the breath of life lost by Adam, and gave them this very Adamic grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God. On the day of Pentecost, He solemnly sent down the Holy Spirit to them in the breath of burna in the form of fiery tongues that sat on each of them, and entered into them, and filled them with the power of fiery Divine grace, dew-bearing, breathing and joyfully acting in the souls, partaking of Her power and actions. . And it is this very fiery-inspired grace of the Holy Spirit, when it is given to us all of Christ’s faithful, in the sacrament of Holy Baptism, that it is imprinted in the most important places indicated by the Holy Church in our flesh as the eternal custodian of this grace. It says: “The seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit.” And what, father, your love for God, do we, poor people, put our seals on, if not on vessels storing some treasure we value highly. What could be higher than anything in the world and what is more precious than the Gifts of the Holy Spirit sent down to us from above in the sacrament of baptism, for this baptismal grace is so great, and so necessary, so life-giving for a person, that even a heretic is not taken away from him until his death: that is, before the period designated from above by God’s Providence for the lifelong trial of a person on earth - what he will be fit for and what he can accomplish in this time given by God, with the help of the power of grace given to him from above. And if we had never sinned after our baptism, then we would forever remain holy, blameless and free from all defilement of the flesh and spirit, saints of God. But the trouble is that, while we prosper in age, we do not prosper in grace and in the mind of God, as our Lord Jesus Christ prospered in that; on the contrary, as we become corrupted little by little, we are deprived of the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God and become in many different ways by sinful and sinful people. But when someone, being excited by the Wisdom of God seeking our salvation, decides for her sake to attend morning prayers to God and vigil for the sake of gaining his eternal salvation, then he, obedient to her voice, must resort to true repentance for all his sins and to commit the opposite sins committed by virtues, and through the virtues of Christ for the sake of acquiring the Holy Spirit, acting within us and establishing the Kingdom of God within us. The grace of the Holy Spirit, bestowed upon baptism in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, despite the fall of man, despite the darkness around our soul, still shines in the heart from time immemorial with the former Divine light of the priceless merits of Christ. It is this Light of Christ, when a sinner turns to the path of repentance, that completely erases the traces of the crimes committed, clothing the former criminal again with the garment of incorruptibility, woven from the grace of the Holy Spirit, the acquisition of which, as the goal of Christian life, I have been talking about for so long to your love for God. .

If I tell you, so that you understand even more clearly what is meant by the grace of God, and how to recognize it, and in what way its effect is especially manifested in people enlightened by it. The grace of the Holy Spirit is the light that enlightens man. The Lord repeatedly demonstrated to many witnesses the action of the grace of the Holy Spirit in those people whom He sanctified and enlightened with His great inspirations. Remember about Moses after his conversation with God on Mount Sinai. People could not look at him - he shone so much with the extraordinary light that surrounded him. He was even forced to appear to the people only under a veil. Remember the transfiguration of the Lord on Mount Tabor.

“And His garments shone like snow, and His disciples fell on their faces for fear.” When Moses and Elijah appeared to Him, in order to hide the radiance of the light of Divine grace, which blinded the eyes of the disciples, the “cloud,” it is said, “overshadowed them.” And in this way the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God appears in an indescribable light to everyone to whom God reveals its action.

“How,” I asked Father Seraphim, “can I know that I am in the grace of the Holy Spirit?”

This, your love for God, is very simple! - he answered me, - that’s why the Lord says: “Everything is simple to those who gain understanding”... being in this mind, and the apostles always saw whether the Spirit of God abides in them or not, and, having penetrated them and seeing the Spirit’s presence with them God, they affirmatively said that their work was holy and completely pleasing to God. This explains why they wrote in their epistles: “It pleased the Holy Spirit and us,” and only on these grounds did they offer their messages, as immutable truth, for the benefit of all the faithful - so the holy apostles were tangibly aware of the presence of the Spirit of God in themselves... So this is your love for God, do you see how simple it is?”

I answered:

Still, I don’t understand why I can be firmly convinced that I am in the Spirit of God. How can I recognize His true appearance myself?

Father o. Seraphim answered:

I have already, your love for God, told you that this is very simple, and I have told you in detail how people are in the Spirit of God and how we should understand His appearance in us... What else do you need, father?

“It is necessary,” I said, “for me to understand this thoroughly!”

Then Fr. Seraphim took me very firmly by the shoulders and said to me:

We are both now, father, in the Spirit of God with you!.. Why don’t you look at me? I answered:

I can’t look, father, because lightning is pouring out of your eyes. Your face has become brighter than the sun, and my eyes are aching with pain!..

O. Seraphim said:

Do not be afraid, your love of God, and now you yourself have become as bright as I myself. You yourself are now in the fullness of the Spirit of God, otherwise you would not be able to see me like this.

And, bowing his head to me, he quietly said to me in my ear:

Thank the Lord God for His ineffable mercy towards you. You saw that I did not even cross myself, but only mentally prayed to the Lord God in my heart and said within myself: “Lord, grant him to clearly and with his bodily eyes see the descent of Your Spirit, with which You honor Your servants when You deign to appear in the light of the magnificent Thy glory,” And so, father, the Lord instantly fulfilled the humble request of the poor Seraphim... How can we not thank His ineffable gift to both of us! This way, father, the Lord God does not always show His mercy to the great hermits. It was the grace of God that deigned to console your contrite heart, like a loving mother through the intercession of the Mother of God Herself... Well, father, don’t look me in the eyes? Just look and do not be afraid - the Lord is with us!

After these words, I looked into his face, and even greater awe fell upon me. Imagine, in the middle of the sun, in the most brilliant brightness of its midday rays, the face of a person talking to you. You see the movement of his lips, the changing expression of his eyes, hear his voice, feel that someone is holding you by the shoulders with their hands, but not only do you not see these hands, you do not see either yourself or his figure, but only one dazzling light , stretching far, several yards around, and giving its bright shine to the snow veil covering the clearing, and snow pellets, showering both me and the great old man from above. Is it possible to imagine the situation in which I was then!

How do you feel now? - Seraphim.

Extraordinarily good! - I said.

How good is that? What exactly?

asked me about.

I answered:

I feel such silence and peace in my soul that I cannot express it in any words!

This is your love for God,” said Father Fr. Seraphim is the world about which the Lord said to His disciples: “My peace I give to you, not as the world gives, I give to you. If you had been quicker from the world, the world would have loved its own, but I chose you out of the world, and for this reason the world hates you. But dare, for I have won the world.” It is to these people, hated by this world, but chosen by the Lord, that the Lord gives the peace that you now feel within yourself. “Peace,” according to the apostolic word, “abounds in all minds” (Phil 1:7).

What else do you feel? - Fr. asked me. Seraphim.

Extraordinary sweetness! - I answered. And he continued:

This is the sweetness about which the Holy Scripture says: “They will make Thy house drunk with the fatness, and I will give Thy stream of sweetness to drink.” It is this sweetness that now fills and spreads through all our veins with indescribable delight. From this sweetness our hearts seem to melt, and we are both filled with such bliss that cannot be expressed in any language... What else do you feel?

Extraordinary joy in all my heart! And Father Seraphim continued:

When the Spirit of God descends upon a person and overshadows him with the fullness of His influx, then the human soul is filled with indescribable joy, for the Spirit of God joyfully creates everything that it touches, this is the same joy about which the Lord speaks in His Gospel:

“When a woman gives birth, she has sorrow, for her year has come; When the child gives birth, he does not remember the sorrow for the joy that a man was born into the world. You will be in the world of sorrow, but when I see you, your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” But no matter how comforting this joy that you now feel in your heart may be, it is still insignificant in comparison with that about which the Lord himself, through the mouth of His apostle, said that that joy “neither eye has seen, nor ear heard, not a good sigh has entered into the heart of man, such as God has prepared for those who love Him.” The preconditions for this joy are given to us now, and if they make our souls feel so sweet, good and cheerful, then what can we say about the joy that is prepared in heaven for those who cry here on earth?! So you, father, have cried enough in your life, and look, with what joy the Lord consoles you even in this life.

What else do you feel, your love of God? I answered:

Extraordinary warmth!

How, father, warmth? Why, we are sitting in the forest. Now winter is outside, and there is snow under our feet, and there is more than an inch of snow on us, and cereals are falling from above... How warm can it be here?!

I answered:

And the kind that happens in a bathhouse, when they turn it on the stove and when a column of steam comes out of it...

“And the smell,” he asked me, “is it the same as from the bathhouse?”

No,” I answered, “there is nothing on earth like this fragrance.” When, during my mother’s lifetime, I loved to dance and went to balls and dance evenings, my mother used to sprinkle me with perfume, which she bought in the best fashion stores in Kazan, but even those perfumes did not emit such a fragrance...

And Father Fr. Seraphim, smiling pleasantly, said:

And I myself, father, know this just as much as you do, but I’m purposely asking you - do you feel it this way? The absolute truth, your love for God! No pleasant earthly fragrance can be compared with the fragrance that we now feel, because we are now surrounded by the fragrance of the Holy Spirit of God. What earthly thing can be like it? Notice, your love of God, you told me that it’s warm all around us, like in a bathhouse, but look, the snow doesn’t melt either on you or on me, and above us the same way. Therefore, this warmth is not in the air, but in ourselves. It is this very warmth about which the Holy Spirit, through the words of prayer, makes us cry out to the Lord: “With the warmth of Your Holy Spirit, warm me!” It was his warmed hermits and hermits who were not afraid of the winter filth, being dressed, as in warm fur coats, in grace-filled clothing woven from the Holy Spirit. This is how it should actually be, because the grace of God must dwell within us, in our hearts, for the Lord said: “The Kingdom of God is within you.” By the Kingdom of God, the Lord meant the grace of the Holy Spirit. This “Kingdom of God is now within you, and the grace of the Holy Spirit shines and warms us from without and, filling the air around us with a variety of fragrances, delights our feelings with heavenly delight, filling our hearts with unspeakable joy. Our present situation is the very thing about which the apostle says: “The kingdom of God is food and drink, but truth and peace in the Holy Spirit.” Our faith consists “not in convincing human wisdom in words, but in manifestations of the spirit and power.” This is the state in which we are now with you And we are in. It is about this state that the Lord said: “There is nothing from those who stand here, who have not tasted death, until they see the Kingdom of God coming in power”... Behold, father, your love for God, what indescribable joy the Lord God has now vouchsafed us! - This is what it means to be in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, about which Saint Macarius of Egypt writes:

“I myself was in the fullness of the Holy Spirit.” The Lord has now filled us, the poor, with this fullness of the Holy Spirit... Well, now, it seems, there is nothing more to ask, your love for God, how people are in the grace of the Holy Spirit!.. Will you remember the present manifestation of the ineffable mercy of God? who visited us?

I don’t know, father! - I said, - will the Lord deign to remember me forever as vividly and clearly as I now feel this mercy of God.

But I remember,” Father Seraphim answered me, “that the Lord will help you to keep this in your memory forever, for otherwise His goodness would not have so instantly bowed to my humble prayer and would not have preceded and so quickly listened to the poor Seraphim, especially since and it was not given to you alone to understand this, but through you for the whole world, so that you yourself would be confirmed in the work of God and could be useful to others. As for the fact, father, that I am a monk and you are a worldly person, then there is no need to think about it. Right faith in Him and His Only Begotten Son is sought from God. For this, the grace of the Holy Spirit is given abundantly from above. The Lord is looking for a heart filled with love for God and neighbor - this is the throne on which He loves to sit and on which He appears in the fullness of His heavenly glory. “Son, give me your heart,” He says, “and I myself will add everything else to you,” for the Kingdom of God is in the human heart. “The Lord is near to all who call on Him in truth, and He has no sight of their faces, for the Father loves the Son and will give everything in His hand,” if only we ourselves loved Him, Our Heavenly Father, in a truly filial way. The Lord listens equally to a monk and a layman, a simple Christian, as long as both are Orthodox, and both love God from the depths of their souls, and both have faith in Him, even “like the grain of a pea,” and both will move mountains. “One moves thousands, but two are darkness.” The Lord Himself says: “All things are possible to him who believes,” and Father Apostle Paul loudly exclaims: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Isn’t it even more recent than this that our Lord Jesus Christ speaks of those who believe in Him: “Believe in Me, the works that I do, He will do the same, and greater works than these He will do, because I go to My Father and I beseech Him for you, that your joy may be yours.” will be fulfilled. Hitherto you have not asked for anything in My Name, but now ask and you will receive”... So, your love for God, whatever you ask from the Lord God, accept everything, as long as it is for the glory of God, or for the benefit of your neighbor, because He also attributes the benefit of his neighbor to His glory, which is why He says: “Everything that you did to one of the least of these, you did to Me.” So do not have any doubt that the Lord God did not fulfill your offerings, as long as they went to the glory of God, went to the benefit and edification of others. But even if for your own needs, or for your benefit, or benefit, you needed something, and even if the Lord God deigned to send it all so quickly and benevolently to you, if only the extreme need and necessity insisted on it, for the Lord loves those who love His; The Lord is good to everyone, but He will do the will of those who fear Him and hear the prayer.

CONVERSATION OF REVEREND SERAPHIM OF SAROV ABOUT THE PURPOSE OF CHRISTIAN LIFE WITH SIMBIRSK LANDLANDER AND CONSCIOUS JUDGE NIKOLAI ALEXANDROVICH MOTOVILOV

(From the handwritten memoirs of N.A. Motovilov)

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do will he do also, and greater works than these will he do...

“Once,” Motovilov writes in his notes, “it was in the Sarov Hermitage, soon after my healing, at the beginning of the winter of 1831, on a Tuesday at the end of November, I stood during Vespers in the warm Cathedral of the Life-Giving Spring on the ordinary, as I always did later. used to be in my place, right opposite the miraculous icon of the Mother of God. Then one of the sisters of the Diveyevo Mill community came up to me. At that time I had no idea about the name and existence of this community, separate from another church community, also Diveyevo. to me:

Are you, perhaps, a lame gentleman who was recently healed by our father, Father Seraphim? I answered that this is exactly who I am.

Well, then,” she said, “go to the priest - he ordered to call you to him.” He is now in his cell in the monastery, and said that he will be waiting for you.

People who, at least once during the life of the great elder Seraphim, were in the Sarov desert and even only heard about him, can fully comprehend with what inexplicable joy my soul was filled with this unexpected call from him. Leaving the hearing of the Divine Service, I immediately ran to him, to his cell. Father Seraphim met me at the very door of his vestibule and said to me:

I was waiting for your love for God! And just wait a little while I talk to my orphans. I have a lot to talk with you. Sit down here!

At these words, he pointed to me a staircase with steps, probably made to cover the stove pipes and placed opposite his stove, with the mouth in the vestibule, like in all the double cells of Sarov, built. I sat down on the bottom step, but he said to me:

No, sit higher!

I moved to the second one, but he told me:

No, your love for God! Please sit on the top step. - And, having sat me down, he added:

Well, sit here and wait until I, having talked with my orphans, come out to you.

Father brought two sisters into his cell, one of whom was a girl from the nobility, the sister of the Nizhny Novgorod landowner Manturova, Elena Vasilievna, as the sisters who remained with me in the Senets told me about this when I asked.

For a long time I sat waiting for the great old man to open the door for me. I think I sat there for two hours. Father Seraphim’s cell attendant, Pavel, came out to me from another cell closest to the entrance to this cell, and, despite my dissuasions, he convinced me to visit his cell and began to give me various instructions on spiritual life, which in fact had the goal of at the instigation of the enemy, to weaken my love and faith in the merits of the great elder Seraphim before God.

I felt sad, and I said to him with sorrow:

I was stupid, Father Paul, that, having obeyed your convictions, I entered your cell. Father Abbot, Nifont is a great servant of God, but even here I did not come to the Sarov hermitage for him and I am coming, although I respect him very much for his shrine, but only for Father Seraphim alone, about whom I think that in In ancient times there were few such holy saints of God, gifted with the power of Elijah and Moses. Who are you that you impose yourself on me with your instructions, while, I guess, you yourself don’t really know the way of God. Forgive me - I regret that I listened to you and came to your cell.

With that, I left him and sat down again on the top step of the staircase in the entryway of my father’s cell. Then I heard from the same Father Paul that the priest threateningly reprimanded him for this, telling him: “It’s not your business to talk with those who thirst for the poor Seraphim’s words and come to him in Sarov. And I myself, poor one, am not theirs.” I say, but what the Lord deigned to reveal to me for edification. Do not interfere in other than your own affairs. Know yourself, and never dare to teach anyone; God did not give you this gift - after all, it is not given to people for nothing, but for their merits before the Lord our God and according to His special mercy and Divine care for people and His Holy Providence." I write this here for the memory and edification of those who value the small speech and barely noticeable character trait of the great elder Seraphim.

Sergey Nilus

About the purpose of Christian life - a conversation between St. Seraphim of Sarov and Motovilov

(full version)

He placed me on the stump of a tree he had just cut down, and he squatted opposite me.

- What about acquisition? – I asked Father Seraphim. – I don’t understand this.

“Acquisition is the same as acquisition,” he answered me: “after all, you understand what acquiring money means.” So it is the same with the acquisition of the Spirit of God. After all, you, your love of God, understand what acquisition is in the worldly sense? The purpose of the worldly life of ordinary people is to acquire, or make money, and for nobles, in addition, to receive honors, distinctions and other awards for state merits. The acquisition of the Spirit of God is also capital, but only grace-filled and eternal, and it, like money, official and temporary capital, is acquired in the same ways, very similar to each other. God the Word, our Lord the God-man Jesus Christ likens our life to a marketplace and calls the work of our life on earth a purchase, and says to all of us: " Buy, until I come, redeeming time, for the days are evil", that is, gain time to receive heavenly blessings through earthly goods. Earthly goods are virtues done for Christ's sake, providing us with the grace of the All-Holy Spirit. In the parable of the wise and holy fools, when the holy fools lacked oil, it is said: " Go ahead and buy it at the market". But when they bought, the doors to the bridal chamber were already closed, and they could not enter it. Some say that the lack of oil among the holy fools signifies a lack of good deeds in their lifetime. This understanding is not entirely correct. What kind of thing is this? they were lacking in good deeds, when they, even though they were holy fools, were still called virgins? After all, virginity is the highest virtue, as a state equal to the angels, and could serve as a substitute in itself for all other virtues. I, poor one, think that they have precisely the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God was not sufficient. While creating virtues, these virgins, out of their spiritual foolishness, believed that this is the only Christian thing, to do only virtues. We did, de, virtue, and thus, de, we did the work of God , and before they received the grace of the Spirit of God, whether they achieved it, they didn’t care. About such and such ways of life, based only on the creation of virtues without careful testing, whether they bring and how much exactly the grace of the Spirit brings God, and it is said in the books of the fathers: " There is no way, pretend to be good in the beginning, but its ends are at the bottom of hell". Anthony the Great, in his letters to the monks, speaks about such virgins: many monks and virgins have no idea about the differences in the wills operating in man, and do not know that there are three wills operating in us: 1st God, all-perfect and all-saving ; 2nd own, human, i.e. if not harmful, then not saving; and 3rd demonic - completely destructive. And it is this third enemy will that teaches a person either not to do any virtues, or to do them out of vanity, or for good alone, and not for the sake of Christ. The second is that our own will teaches us to do everything to please our lusts, and even, as the enemy teaches, to do good for the sake of good, not paying attention to the grace that it acquires. The first - the will of God and the all-saving one consists only in doing good only for the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, as an eternal treasure, inexhaustible and cannot be fully and worthily valued by anything. This, this acquisition of the Holy Spirit, is actually called that oil, which the holy fools lacked. That is why they are called holy fools, because they have forgotten about the necessary fruit of virtue, about the grace of the Holy Spirit, without which there is no salvation for anyone and there cannot be, for: " By the Holy Spirit every soul is alive and exalted in purity, and the sacred mystery is brightened by the Trinity unity". The Holy Spirit Himself dwells in our souls, and this very dwelling in our souls of Him, the Almighty, and the coexistence with our spirit of His Triple Unity, is given to us only through the utmost acquisition of the Holy Spirit on our part, which prepares in the soul and our flesh is the throne of God, the all-creative one, with our spirit co-abiding according to the immutable word of God: " I will dwell in them and become like them, and I will be like God to them, and they will be my people.". This is the oil in the lamps of the wise virgins, which could burn brightly and for a long time, and those virgins with these burning lamps could wait for the Bridegroom, who came at midnight, and enter with Him into the palace of joy. The foolish ones, seeing that their lamps were going out, although they went to the market place to buy oil, they did not manage to return in time, for the doors were already closed. The market place is our life; the doors of the bridal chamber, closed and not allowing us to the Bridegroom, are human death; the virgins wise and holy fools are Christian souls; oil is not works, but the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God received through them into our nature, transforming it from corruption into incorruption, from spiritual death into spiritual life, from darkness into light, from the den of our being, where the passions are tied like cattle and beasts - to the temple of the Divine, to the bright palace of eternal joy in Christ Jesus our Lord, Creator and Savior and Eternal Bridegroom of our souls. How great is God's compassion for our misfortune, that is, inattention to His care for us, when God says: " I’m standing at the door and it’s no use!"... meaning by the doors the course of our life, not yet closed by death. Oh, how I would like, your love for God, that in this life you would always be in the Spirit of God!" What I find you in is what I judge", says the Lord. Woe, great woe, if He finds us burdened with the cares and sorrows of life, for who will endure His wrath and who will stand against the face of His wrath! That is why it is said: " watch and pray, so as not to fall into misfortune", that is, do not be deprived of the Spirit of God, for vigil and prayer brings us His grace. Of course, every virtue done for the sake of Christ gives the grace of the Holy Spirit, but prayer gives us most of all, because it is always in our hands, as a tool for acquiring the grace of the Spirit. Would you like, for example, to go to church, but either there is no church, or the service has passed; you would want to give to a beggar, but there is no beggar, or there is nothing to give; you would want to observe virginity, but you don’t have the strength to fulfill it according to your constitution yours or through the efforts of the enemy’s machinations, which you, due to human weakness, cannot resist; you would like to do some other virtue for the sake of Christ, but you also don’t have the strength, or you can’t find the opportunity. And this has nothing to do with prayer: it There is always an opportunity for everyone - the rich, the poor, the noble, the simple, the strong, the weak, the healthy, the sick, the righteous and the sinner. How great is the power of prayer, even of a sinful person, when it is from the whole soul ascends, judge by the following example of the Holy Tradition: when, at the request of a desperate mother who had lost her only begotten son, kidnapped by death, a harlot wife, who got in her way and had not even been cleansed from the sin that had just happened, touched by the mother’s desperate grief, cried out to the Lord: " Not for the sake of the accursed sinner, but for the sake of tears for the sake of the mother, grieving for her son and firmly confident in Thy mercy and omnipotence, Christ God, raise up, O Lord, her son!"... – and the Lord raised him up. So, your love for God, the power of prayer is great, and it most of all brings the Spirit of God, and it is most convenient for everyone to correct. Blessed will we be when the Lord God finds us vigilant, in the fullness of gifts His Holy Spirit! Then we can confidently hope to be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, who is coming with glory and much power to judge the living and the dead and to reward each according to his deeds.

Now, your love for God, you deign to consider it a great happiness to talk with the poor Seraphim, being confident that he is not deprived of the grace of the Lord. What we are talking about is the Lord Himself, the ever-inexhaustible Source of all goodness, both heavenly and earthly! But through prayer we are worthy to converse with Him Himself, the All-Good and Life-Giving God and our Savior. But even here we must pray only until God the Holy Spirit descends on us in the measures of His heavenly grace known to Him. And when He deigns to visit us, then we must stop praying. Why then pray to Him: " come and dwell in us and cleanse us from all filth and save, O Blessed One, our souls"When He had already come to us in order to save us, who trust in Him and call on His holy Name in truth, that is, in order to humbly and lovingly meet Him, the Comforter, inside the temple of our souls, hungry and thirsty for Him coming. I will explain this to your Godly love with an example: if only you would invite me to visit you, and I would come to you at your call and would like to talk with you. But you would still invite me: you are welcome, de, please, please, they say, come to me! Then I would inevitably have to say: what is he? Has he gone out of his mind? I came to him, but he still calls me! - So it is to the Lord God the Holy Spirit This is why it is said: " be abolished and understand that I am God, I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted to the earth", that is, I will and will appear to everyone who believes in Me and calls on Me, and I will talk with him, as I once talked with Adam in Paradise, with Abraham and Jacob and with My other servants, with Moses, Job and the like. Many interpret , that this abolition applies only to worldly affairs, i.e., that during a prayerful conversation with God it is necessary to abstain from worldly affairs... But I will tell you according to God that although it is necessary to abolish them during prayer, but when, with the almighty the power of faith and prayer, the Lord God the Holy Spirit will deign to visit us and come to us in the fullness of His ineffable goodness, then it is necessary to abstain from prayer. The soul speaks and is in prayer when it prays; but during the invasion of the Holy Spirit one must be in complete silence ", to hear clearly and intelligibly all the verbs of the eternal life, which He then deigns to proclaim. Moreover, one must be in complete sobriety of both soul and spirit and in chaste purity of the flesh. So it was at Mount Horeb, when the Israelites were told that before the appearance of God on For three days Sinai would not have touched the wives, for our God is " fire consumes everything unclean", and no one from the defilement of the flesh and spirit can enter into fellowship with Him.

- Well, what, father, should we do with other virtues done for the sake of Christ, in order to acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit? After all, you only want to talk to me about prayer?

So I’ll tell you about myself, poor Seraphim. – I come from Kursk merchants. So, when I was not yet in the monastery, we used to trade goods that gave us more profit. So do you, father, and, just as in the business of trade, the strength lies not in just trading, but in getting more profit, so in the business of Christian life the strength does not lie in just praying or some other -or do a good deed. Although the apostle says: " pray without ceasing", but, as you remember, he adds: " I’d rather say five words with my mind than thousands with my tongue". And the Lord says: " not everyone says Mi, Lord, Lord! will be saved, but do the will of My Father", i.e. doing the work of God and, moreover, with reverence, for " Cursed is everyone who does God's work carelessly". And the work of God is: " Yes, you believe in God and He sent Jesus Christ"If we judge correctly about the commandments of Christ and the Apostles, then our Christian work consists not in increasing the number of good deeds that serve the goal of our Christian life only as means, but in deriving greater benefit from them, that is, in the greater acquisition of the most abundant gifts of the Holy Spirit .

So I would like, your love for God, that you yourself would acquire this ever-depleting source of God’s grace and always judge for yourself whether you are found in the Spirit of God or not; and if - in the Spirit of God, then blessed be God! - there is nothing to grieve about: at least now - at the Last Judgment of Christ! For" what I find you in is what I judge"If not, then we need to figure out why and for what reason the Lord God the Holy Spirit deigned to leave us, and again seek and seek Him and not give up until the sought-after Lord God the Holy Spirit is found and will be with us again. us by His grace. We must attack our enemies who drive us away from Him until their ashes are scattered, as the prophet David said: “ I will marry my enemies and I will suffer, and I will not return until they die, I will insult them, and they will not be able to stand it, they will fall under my feet".

“At the present time,” the elder answered, “due to our almost universal coldness towards the holy faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and our inattention to the actions of His Divine Providence for us and man’s communication with God, we have come to such a point that, one might say, almost completely removed themselves from the true Christian life. The words of the Holy Scripture seem strange to us now, when the Spirit of God through the mouth of Moses says: " and Adam saw the Lord walking into paradise"or when we read from the Apostle Paul: " I died in Achaia, and the Spirit of God did not go with us; we turned to Macedonia, and the Spirit of God did not go with us". Repeatedly in other places of the Holy Scriptures it is spoken of the appearance of God to men.

So some say: “These places are incomprehensible. Could people really see God so obviously?” And there is nothing unclear here. This misunderstanding occurred because we moved away from the simplicity of the original Christian knowledge and, under the pretext of enlightenment, entered into such darkness of ignorance that it already seems incomprehensible to us what the ancients understood so clearly that they even in ordinary conversations understood the concept of the appearance of God it didn’t seem strange between people. So Job, when his friends reproached him for blaspheming God, answered them: “ How can this be when I feel the breath of the Almighty in my nostrils?"i.e., how can I blaspheme God when the Holy Spirit abides with me. If I blasphemed God, then the Holy Spirit would depart from me, but here I feel His breath in my nostrils. This is exactly what it says and about Abraham and Jacob, that they saw the Lord and talked with Him, and Jacob even wrestled with Him. Moses saw God and all the people with him, when he was honored to receive from God the tablets of the law on Mount Sinai. A pillar of cloud and fire, or, what is the same thing - the obvious grace of the Holy Spirit, served as guides to the people of God in the desert. People saw God and the grace of His Holy Spirit not in a dream or in dreams, and not in the frenzy of a frustrated imagination, but truly in reality. We have become very inattentive to the work of our salvation, which is why it turns out that we and many other words of Holy Scripture do not accept in the sense that they should. And all because we do not seek the grace of God, we do not allow it, through the pride of our mind, to dwell in our souls and therefore We do not have true enlightenment from the Lord, sent into the hearts of people who with all their hearts hunger and thirst for the truth of God. For example, many interpret that when the Bible says: " God will breathe the breath of life into the face of Adam, the first created and created by Him from the dust of the earth", - which supposedly meant that in Adam before that there was no soul and human spirit, but there was only one flesh, created from the dust of the earth. This interpretation is incorrect, for the Lord God created Adam from the dust of the earth in the composition as Father Saint Apostle Paul states: " may your spirit, soul and flesh be perfect at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ". And all three of these parts of our nature were created from the dust of the earth, and Adam was not created dead, but as an active animal being, like other animate creatures of God living on earth. But this is the power that if the Lord God had not breathed then in the person of this breath of life, that is, the grace of the Lord God the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and rests in the Son and is sent into the world for the sake of the Son, then Adam, no matter how perfectly superior he was created above the other creatures of God, as the crown of creation on earth, would still remain without the Holy Spirit within him, elevating him to God-like dignity, and would be like all other creatures, although they have flesh and soul and spirit, belonging to each according to their kind, but without the Holy Spirit within himself When the Lord God breathed into Adam’s face the breath of life, then, according to Moses’ expression, “ Adam will live in the soul", i.e., completely similar to God in everything and one like Him, immortal forever. Adam was created so unsubject to the action of any of the elements created by God that neither water drowned him, nor fire burned him, nor the earth could not devour in its abysses, nor the air could harm in any way. Everything was subjugated to him, as the favorite of God, as the king and owner of creation. And everyone admired him, as the all-perfect crown of God's creations. It was this breath of life, breathed into the face of Adam from the All-Creative Lips of the All-Creator and Almighty God, that Adam became so wise that there has never been, no, and there will hardly ever be on earth a man wiser and more knowledgeable than him. When the Lord commanded he gave the names of every creature, then he gave each creature in the language such names that fully signify all the qualities, all the strength and all the properties of the creature that it has according to the gift of God given to it at its creation.It is by this gift of the supernatural God By the grace sent down to him from the breath of life, Adam could see and understand the Lord walking into paradise, and comprehend His words and the conversation of the holy angels and the language of all the animals and birds and creeping things that live on the earth, and all that is now from us, as from the fallen and sinners, it is hidden and what was so clear to Adam before his fall. The Lord God gave the same wisdom and strength, and omnipotence, and all other good and holy qualities to Eve, creating her not from the dust of the earth, but from Adam’s side in the sweet Eden, in the paradise He planted in the middle of the earth. In order for them to comfortably and always maintain within themselves the immortal, God-gracious and all-perfect properties of this breath of life, God planted a tree of life in the middle of paradise, in the fruits of which he contained the entire essence and completeness of the gifts of this Divine breath of His. If they had not sinned, then Adam and Eve themselves and all their descendants could always, taking advantage of eating from the fruit of the tree of life, maintain in themselves the eternally life-giving power of God's grace and the immortal, eternally youthful fullness of the powers of the flesh, soul and spirit and the unceasing agelessness of the infinitely immortal his all-blessed state, even incomprehensible to our imagination at the present time.

When, by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil - prematurely and contrary to the commandment of God - they learned the difference between good and evil and were subjected to all the disasters that followed for breaking the commandment of God, they were deprived of this priceless gift of grace of the Spirit of God, so that until the coming of the God-man into the world Jesus Christ the Spirit of God" for no reason shall there be in the world, for Jesus shall not be glorified"However, this does not mean that the Spirit of God was not in the world at all, but His presence was not as complete as in Adam or in us, Orthodox Christians, but manifested itself only from the outside, and the signs of His presence in the world were known to the human race. So, for example, after the fall, Adam, as well as Eve along with him, were revealed to many secrets related to the future salvation of the human race. And Cain, despite his wickedness and his crime, clearly understood the voice of the gracious Divine, albeit accusatory, conversation with him. Noah talked with God. Abraham saw God and His day and rejoiced. The grace of the Holy Spirit, acting externally, was reflected in all the Old Testament prophets and saints of Israel. The Jews then established special prophetic schools, where they taught to recognize the signs of the appearance of God or angels and to distinguish the actions of the Holy Spirit from ordinary phenomena that occur in the nature of an ungraceful earthly life.Simeon the God-Receiver, the Godfathers Joachim and Anna and many countless servants of God experienced constant, varied and visible Divine appearances, voices, revelations, justified by obvious miraculous events. Not with such power as in the people of God, but the manifestation of the Spirit of God acted also in the pagans, who did not know the True God, because from among them God found people chosen for Himself. Such, for example, were the virgins - the prophetesses, the Sibyls, who doomed their virginity, although for an unknown God, but still for God, the Creator of the universe and the Almighty and Ruler of the World, as the pagans recognized Him as. Also, pagan philosophers, who, although they wandered in the darkness of ignorance of the Divine, but, seeking the truth beloved of God, could be, by this very God-loving search for it, not uninvolved in the Spirit of God, for it is said: “ tongues that do not know God create what is lawful by nature and what is pleasing to God"And the Lord is so pleased with the truth that He Himself proclaims about it by the Holy Spirit: " truth came from the earth, and truth came from heaven".

So, your love for God, both in the sacred Jewish people, a people dear to God, and in the pagans who do not know God, the knowledge of God was still preserved, that is, father, a clear and reasonable understanding of how the Lord God the Holy Spirit acts in a person and how exactly and by what external and internal sensations one can be convinced that it is the Lord God the Holy Spirit who is acting, and not the charm of the enemy. This is how it all happened from the fall of Adam until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh into the world.

Without this, your love for God, which has always been preserved in the human race perceptibly about the actions of the Holy Spirit of understanding, there would be no way for people to know exactly whether the fruit of the seed of the woman, promised to Adam and Eve, had come into the world, having to erase the head of the serpent.

But here is Simeon the God-Receiver, preserved by the Holy Spirit after the mystery of His ever-virgin conception and birth from the Most Pure Ever-Virgin Mary was announced to him in the 65th year of his life, having lived by the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God for 300 years, then, in the 365th year of his life, he said clearly in the temple of the Lord that he tangibly learned by the gift of the Holy Spirit that this is He Himself, that Christ, the Savior of the world, whose supernatural conception and birth from the Holy Spirit was foretold to him three hundred years ago by an Angel.

So Saint Anna the prophetess, daughter of Phanuel, who served the Lord God for eighty years from her widowhood in the temple of God and was known for the special gifts of God’s grace for a righteous widow, a pure servant of God, announced that it was indeed He who was the Messiah promised to the world, the true Christ, God and man, the King of Israel, who came to save Adam and the human race.

When He, our Lord Jesus Christ, deigned to complete the entire work of salvation, then after His resurrection, He breathed on the apostles, renewing the breath of life lost by Adam, and gave them this same Adamic grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God. But that’s not enough – after all, He told them: “ they have no food, that He may go to the Father; If He does not come, then the Spirit of God will not come into the world; If He, Christ, goes to the Father, He will send Him into the world, and He, the Comforter, will instruct them and all those who follow them in all truth and will remember to them everything that He told them was still in the world with them.". This was already promised to them by grace-grace. And on the day of Pentecost He solemnly sent down the Holy Spirit to them in the breath of a storm, in the form of fiery tongues, sitting on each of them and entering into them, and filling them with the power of fiery Divine grace, dew-bearing breathing and joyfully acting in the souls who partake of its power and actions. And this very fiery-inspired grace of the Holy Spirit, when it is given to us all of Christ’s faithful in the sacrament of Holy Baptism, is sacredly sealed by Chrismation in the most important places of our flesh indicated by the Holy Church, as eternal guardians of this grace. It is said: " seal of the Gift of the Holy Spirit"And what, Father, your love for God, do we, poor people, put our seals on, if not on vessels that store some treasure we value highly? What could be higher than everything in the world and what is more precious than the Gifts of the Holy Spirit sent down to us from above in the sacrament of baptism, for this baptismal grace is so great and so necessary, so life-giving for man, that even from a heretic man it is not taken away until his death, that is, until the period designated from above by the Providence of God for the lifelong trial of man on earth - what, yes, he will be good for and what, de, he will be able to accomplish in this time given by God, through the power of grace given to him from above. And if we had never sinned after our baptism, then we would forever remain holy, blameless and removed from all defilement of the flesh and spirit by the saints of God. But the trouble is that, while we prosper in age, we do not prosper in grace and in the mind of God, as our Lord Jesus Christ prospered in this, but on the contrary, we become corrupted Little by little, we are deprived of the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God and become sinful and many-sinful people in many different ways. But when someone, being excited by the wisdom of God that seeks our salvation, which bypasses all things, decides for its sake to train toward God and vigil for the sake of finding his eternal salvation, then he, obedient to her voice, must resort to true repentance for all his sins and to the creation of the opposite sins committed by virtues, and through the virtues of Christ for the sake of acquiring the Holy Spirit, acting within us and establishing the Kingdom of God within us. It is not for nothing that the Word of God says: " The kingdom of God is within you, and it is necessary to eat it, and those in need delight in it". That is, those people who, despite the bonds of sin that bound them and do not allow them to commit new sins with their violence and incitement, come to Him, our Savior, with perfect repentance to be tortured with Him, despising the entire strength of these sinful bonds, are forced to break their bonds, such people then truly appear before the face of God whiter than snow by His grace.” Come", says the Lord: " and though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow".

So once upon a time the holy seer John the Theologian saw such people in white robes, i.e. robes of excuse, and " Finishes are in their hands"as a sign of victory, and they sang a wondrous song to God" Hallelujah". "No one can imitate the beauty of their singing". About them the Angel of God said: " These are the ones who came from great tribulation, who spent their garments and made their garments white in the blood of Lambs", - having consumed them with suffering and made them whiter in the communion of the Most Pure and Life-Giving Mysteries of the Flesh and Blood of the Lamb of the Immaculate and Most Pure Christ, who was slain before all ages by His own will for the salvation of the world, ever to this day, tempered and crushed, but in no way dependent, giving to us for eternity and our inexhaustible salvation, as the path to eternal life, in response is favorable at His terrible judgment and a replacement dear and superior to every mind of that fruit of the tree of life, which the enemy of men, who fell from heaven, Lucifer, wanted to deprive our human race. Although the enemy the devil deceived Eve , and Adam also fell with her, but the Lord not only gave them a Redeemer in the fruit of the Seed of the Woman, who trampled death by death, but also gave us all in the Woman, the Ever-Virgin Mother of God Mary, who erased in Herself and erases in the entire human race the head of the serpent, the unrelenting An intercessor to Her Son and our God, a shameless and irresistible Intercessor even for the most desperate sinners. For this very reason, the Mother of God is called “The Plague of Demons,” for there is no way for a demon to destroy a person, as long as the person himself does not retreat from resorting to the help of the Mother of God .

Also, your love for God, I, poor Seraphim, must explain what the difference is between the actions of the Holy Spirit, which in sacred mystery dwells in the hearts of believers in the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ, and the actions of sinful darkness, at the instigation and incitement of the demonic, stealthily acting in us . The Spirit of God remembers to us the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and acts in unity with Him, always solemnly, creating joy in our hearts and directing our feet on a peaceful path, but the flattering, demonic spirit philosophizes contrary to Christ, and its actions in us are rebellious, obstinate and filled with lust. carnal, lust and worldly pride. " Amen, amen, I say to you, everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die": he who has the grace of the Holy Spirit for his right faith in Christ, even if, through human weakness, were to die mentally from any sin, he will not die forever, but will be resurrected by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who takes away the sins of the world and bestows grace upon us. It is about this grace, revealed to the whole world and our human race in the God-man, that it is said in the Gospel: " in Tom belly and belly be the light of man", and added: " and the light shines in the darkness and His darkness is not embraced". This means that the grace of the Holy Spirit, bestowed at baptism in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, despite the fall of man, despite the darkness around our soul, still shines in the heart with the ancient Divine light of the priceless merits of Christ. This light Christov, when the sinner is unrepentant, says to the Father: Abba Father, do not be completely angry at this unrepentance! the acquisition of which, as the goal of Christian life, is what I have been talking about for so long to your love for God.

I will also tell you so that you understand even more clearly what is meant by the grace of God and how to recognize it and in what way its effect is especially manifested in people enlightened by it. The grace of the Holy Spirit is the light that enlightens man. All Holy Scripture speaks about this. Thus, Godfather David said: " Thy law is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths, and if Thy law had not been my teaching, then I would have perished in my humility"That is, the grace of the Holy Spirit, expressed in the law by the words of the commandments of the Lord, is my lamp and light, and if it were not for this grace of the Holy Spirit, which I so carefully and diligently acquire that I study seven times a day about the destinies of Your righteousness, it would enlighten me in the darkness of worries associated with the great title of my royal rank, then where would I get even a spark of light to illuminate my path along the road of life, dark from the ill will of my enemies? And in fact, the Lord has repeatedly demonstrated for many witnesses the action of the grace of the Spirit Saint on those people whom He sanctified and enlightened with His great inspirations. Remember about Moses after his conversation with God on Mount Sinai. People could not look at him - he shone so with an extraordinary light surrounding his face. He was even forced to appear to the people not otherwise than under a veil. Remember the Transfiguration of the Lord on Mount Tabor. A great light enveloped Him, and " His garments shone like snow, and His disciples fell on their faces in fear". When Moses and Elijah appeared to Him in the same light, then, in order to hide the radiance of the light of Divine grace, which blinded the eyes of the disciples, “clouds,” it is said, “overshadowed them.” And in this way the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God appears in inexpressible light for everyone to whom God reveals its action.

“How?” I asked Father Fr. Seraphim, - to know that I am in the grace of the Holy Spirit?

- This, your love for God, is very simple! - he answered me, - that’s why the Lord says: “ the whole essence is simple for those who gain understanding"Yes, our whole trouble is that we ourselves do not have this Divine mind, which does not boast (is not proud), for it is not of this world. This mind, filled with love for God and neighbor, creates every person for his salvation. About this mind the Lord said: “ God wants everyone to be saved and to come to the understanding of truth". He said to His apostles about the lack of this mind: " Are you foolish in nature, and have you not respected the Scriptures and understood these parables?"Again, the Gospel says about this mind about the apostles that" Then the Lord opened their understanding to understand the Scriptures". Being in this mind, the apostles always saw whether the Spirit of God abides in them or not, and imbued with it and seeing the presence of the Spirit of God with them, they affirmatively said that their work was holy and completely pleasing to the Lord God. This explains why they in their messages they wrote: " please the Holy Spirit and us“And only on these grounds did they offer their messages as immutable truth for the benefit of all the faithful - so the holy apostles were tangibly aware of the presence of the Spirit of God in themselves... So, your love for God, do you see how simple it is?

I answered: “Still, I don’t understand why I can be firmly convinced that I am in the Spirit of God.” How can I recognize His true appearance in myself?

Father o. Seraphim answered: “I have already, your love for God, told you that it is very simple and I told you in detail how people are in the Spirit of God and how we should understand His appearance in us... What do you need, father?

“It is necessary,” I said, “for me to understand this thoroughly.”

Then Fr. Seraphim took me very tightly by the shoulders and said to me: “We are both now, father, in the Spirit of God with you.” Why don't you look at me?

I answered: “I can’t look, father, because lightning is pouring from your eyes.” Your face has become brighter than the sun, and my eyes are aching with pain.

O. Seraphim said: “Do not be afraid, your love of God, and now you yourself have become as bright as I myself.” You yourself are now in the fullness of the Spirit of God, otherwise you would not be able to see me like this.

And, bowing his head to me, he quietly said to me in my ear: “Thank the Lord God for His ineffable mercy towards you.” You saw that I didn’t even cross myself, but only mentally prayed to the Lord God in my heart and said within myself: Lord! deign him to clearly and with his bodily eyes see the descent of Thy Spirit with which Thou dost deign Thy servants when Thou deignest to appear in the light of Thy magnificent glory! And so, father, the Lord instantly fulfilled the humble request of the poor Seraphim... How can we not thank Him for this ineffable gift of His to both of us! This way, father, the Lord God does not always show His mercy to the great hermits. This grace of God has deigned to console your contrite heart, like a loving mother, through the intercession of the Mother of God Herself... - Well, father, don’t look me in the eyes? Just look, don’t be afraid - the Lord is with us!

After these words, I looked into his face, and even greater awe fell upon me. Imagine, in the middle of the sun, in the most brilliant brightness of its midday rays, the face of a person talking to you. You see the movement of his lips, the changing expression of his eyes, hear his voice, feel that someone is holding you by the shoulders with their hands, but not only do you not see these hands, you do not see either yourself or his figure, but only one dazzling light , stretching far, several yards around and illuminating with its bright shine both the snow veil covering the clearing and the snow pellets showering both me and the great old man from above. Is it possible to imagine the situation in which I was then?

– What do you feel now?! – Fr. asked me. Seraphim.

“Extraordinarily good,” I said.

- How good is that? What exactly?

I answered: “I feel such silence and peace in my soul that I cannot express it in any words.”

“This is your love for God,” said Father Fr. Seraphim, is the world about which the Lord told His disciples: " My peace I give to you, not as the world gives, I give to you. If you were quicker from the world, the world would love its own, but because you were chosen from the world, for this reason the world hates you. Either way, dare, for I have conquered the world“It is to these people, hated by this world, but chosen by the Lord, that the Lord gives the peace that you now feel within yourself; “peace,” according to the apostolic word, “ every superior mind". The apostle calls him this because no word can express the spiritual well-being that he produces in those people into whose hearts the Lord God introduces him. Christ the Savior calls him peace from His own generosity, and not from this world, for no temporary earthly well-being cannot give it to the human heart: it is given from above by the Lord God Himself, which is why it is called the peace of God... What else do you feel? - Father Seraphim asked me.

“Extraordinary sweetness,” I answered.

And he continued: “This is the sweetness about which the Holy Scripture speaks: “ from the fatness shall Thy house be drunken, and will I give to drink the stream of Thy sweetness"Now this sweetness fills our hearts and spreads through all our veins with indescribable delight. From this sweetness our hearts seem to melt, and we are both filled with such bliss that cannot be expressed in any language... Well, do you still feel it?

- Extraordinary joy in all my heart.

And Father Fr. Seraphim continued: “When the Spirit of God descends on a person and overshadows him with the fullness of His influx, then the human soul is filled with indescribable joy, for the Spirit of God brings joy to everything that He touches. This is the same joy that the Lord speaks about in His Gospel; " When a woman gives birth, she has sorrow, for her year has come; When the child gives birth, he does not remember the sorrow for the joy that a man was born into the world. You will be in the world of sorrow, but when I see you, your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you."But no matter how comforting this joy that you now feel in your heart may be, it is still insignificant in comparison with that about which the Lord Himself, through the mouth of His Apostle, said that this joy is " neither eye has seen, nor ear has heard, nor has the good sigh entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love Him.". The prerequisites for this joy are given to us now, and if they make our souls so sweet, good and cheerful, then what can we say about the joy that is prepared there, in heaven, for those who cry here on earth? Here you are, father, enough - you have cried in your life on earth, and look, with what joy the Lord consoles you even in this life. Now, father, it is up to us, applying labor to labor, to ascend from strength to strength and reach the measure of the age of the fulfillment of Christ may the words of the Lord come true on us: " But those who endure the Lord will change their strength, they will flock like eagles, they will flow and not be weary, they will walk and not be hungry, they will go from strength to strength, and the God of gods will appear to them in the Zion of understanding and heavenly visions"... Then our present joy, which appears to us in small and brief ways, will appear in all its fullness, and no one will take it from us, filled with inexplicable, heavenly pleasures... What else do you feel, your love for God?

I answered: “Extraordinary warmth.”

- How, father, warmth? Why, we are sitting in the forest. Now it’s winter outside and there’s snow underfoot, and there’s more than an inch of snow on us, and grain is falling from above... How warm can there be here?

I answered: “And the kind that happens in a bathhouse, when they turn it on the stove and a column of steam comes out of it...

“And the smell,” he asked me, “is it the same as from the bathhouse?”

“No,” I answered, “there is nothing on earth like this fragrance.” When, during my mother’s life, I loved to dance and went to balls and dance evenings, my mother used to sprinkle me with perfume that she bought in the best fashion stores in Kazan, but those perfumes did not emit such a fragrance...

From the book Harvest of Life [Wheat and Tares] author Nilus Sergey Alexandrovich

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5. From the life of Seraphim of Sarov. On August 13, 1786, Seraphim was tonsured a monk, and he was given, without his knowledge, a suitable name chosen by the monastery authorities: Seraphim, which means fiery. In December 1787, he was ordained a hierodeacon. From that day onwards

From the book The Path of My Life. Memoirs of Metropolitan Eulogius (Georgievsky), based on his stories by T. Manukhina author Georgievsky Metropolitan Evlogy

Church of St. Seraphim of Sarov (Paris)In 1932, when the Gallipolians moved their church from the 15th Arrondismant to the 16th (on rue de la Faisanderie), priest O.P. Biryukov, who soon left the Gallipolians, decided with a group of friends to reopen church in the same place (on rue

From the book Chronicle of the Seraphim-Diveevo Monastery author Chichagov Seraphim

Life of St. Seraphim, Sarov Wonderworker Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery, 1903 Father Fr. Seraphim entered the Sarov hermitage in 1778, on November 20, on the eve of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the temple and was entrusted with obedience to the elder hieromonk Joseph. His homeland

From the book of Lives of the Saints (all months) author Rostovsky Dimitri

Life of our Reverend Father Seraphim of Sarov Reverend Seraphim the Elder of Sarov, was from Kursk and came from pious and wealthy parents, by the name of Moshnin, who belonged to the eminent merchant class of the city; he was born on the 19th July 1759

From the book of Creation author Mechev Sergiy

9. Day of Remembrance of the Venerable Seraphim of Sarov In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! We have come today to commemorate the holy saint of God, the Venerable Seraphim, to magnify him as one who fought the world, like a monk. We need to remember on this day that happening in our

From the book The Miraculous Power of Mother's Prayer author Mikhalitsyn Pavel Evgenievich

Miracles of St. Seraphim of Sarov Healing at the spring of St. Seraphim and the amazing conversion of her husband to God Dear sisters of the Diveyevo monastery! Allow me to tell you about the healing that I received after bathing in the spring of Father Seraphim. At first

From the book Miraculous and Healing Prayers and Icons of the Holy Trinity, the Savior, the Mother of God, Venerable Saints and Saints author Mikhalitsyn Pavel Evgenievich

Miracles of the Venerable Seraphim of Sarov after his death The glorification of the Venerable Seraphim of Sarov was accompanied by a large number of miraculous healings. Here is what evidence there is of this. Here on the very shore of the blessed spring of Father Seraphim

From the book Real help in difficult times [Nicholas the Wonderworker, Matrona of Moscow, Seraphim of Sarov] author Mikhalitsyn Pavel Evgenievich

Modern miracles of St. Seraphim of Sarov Healing from a tumor Another case of healing at the spring of St. Seraphim occurred with a young man, Oleg Kudryavtsev, living in Cheboksary. He suffered from a headache. Doctors found out on ultrasound

From the book Veneration of the Saints author Mikhalitsyn Pavel Evgenievich

The Life of the Venerable Seraphim of Sarov Pious Parents The Venerable Seraphim of Sarov was born on July 19, 1759 (according to other sources - 1754) in ancient Kursk, into the eminent merchant family of Isidore and Agathia Moshnin. In Holy Baptism he was named Prokhor in honor of the Apostle

From the author's book

Modern miracles of St. Seraphim of Sarov Healing at the spring of St. Seraphim and her husband’s amazing appeal to God Dear sisters of the Diveyevo monastery! Allow me to tell you about the healing that I received after bathing in the spring of Father Seraphim. IN

From the author's book

Miracles and healings through the prayers of St. Seraphim of Sarov The Holy Orthodox Russian Church glorifies St. Seraphim of Sarov as a miracle worker. In the akathist dedicated to him, he is called “the chosen miracle worker.” And this is not only a figurative expression, but also