Archpriest Artemy Vladimirov: “The most terrible disease is the pride of the mind... John Chrysostom on arrogance, pride and humility

Conversation with Archpriest Artemy Vladimirov live on the Soyuz TV channel on December 1, 2010.

– On the air of the Orthodox TV channel “Soyuz” is the program “Conversations with the Father.” In the studio of Mikhail Karelin. Hello, dear brothers and sisters. Today our guest in the studio at the St. Andrew's Monastery is the rector of the Church of All Saints in the former Novoaleksievsky Monastery, Archpriest Artemy Vladimirov.

Hello, Father Artemy. Bless our viewers.

– Greetings, dear friends. And may our evening meeting be blessed.

– Our conversation today will focus on such sins as vanity and pride. Father Artemy, tell us what vanity is? What passions accompany this sin? How to deal with this?

“It’s inconvenient to talk about this, because I’m tied hand and foot.” Pride, vanity... And just as a sick person shows his wounds to his fellow sufferers, so, I think, this will be saving for me. It’s not for nothing that St. John Climacus says in his famous book: “He who, sitting head over heels in a swamp, shouts with all his might: “Don’t walk my way!” You may die! Go around the swamp! “God will not leave this poor sinner without His help.” Sometimes it is very useful to think about the words themselves. “Vanity” is the pursuit of some kind of glory. But which one? Divine, incorruptible, belonging to the Heavenly Father? Or another, vain, vain, false? What kind of false, vain glory is this? This, of course, is the desire to glorify oneself, to act in one’s own name. A vain person is not before the living God, but he is entirely in the plane of attention of the people around him: to gain his points, to receive his own, even spiritual, dividends. A vain man has not read the wonderful work of the Strugatsky brothers, “It’s Hard to Be a God.” After all, such a person strives to establish himself as the navel of the earth, and thus be everything for the people around him.

– How is pride different from vanity? Or are they two sisters?

- Whether they are sisters, or they have another relationship - aunts and nieces - however, a proud person may not seek communication with people at all: not everyone needs expressed approval and encouragement. The proud man revels in himself and without an outside audience. The Holy Fathers say: “Pride of mind is the most terrible disease" A proud person feels imaginary self-sufficiency; A proud man, looking at the sky, is ready to utter the terrible words of the one who fell from heaven: “I will exalt my throne above the throne of the Most High.” The proud man quite consistently goes so far as to deny the existence of God, because he secretly or openly deifies himself.

- Father, but why can’t you seek glory on earth? You can’t work hard and do your job well?

– The question is: why and for whom are you doing this? The Holy Scripture gives a wonderful medicine: “Lord, not to us, not to us, but to Your name give glory.” And therefore, striving to work, doing everything with fire, with a spark, with high quality, I must not please myself: “Oh, Pushkin, well done!” (Alexander Sergeevich has no direct relation to this), but I must try to glorify the One who gives me the strength to do good with my activities, words, thoughts, and undertakings.

– It turns out that there are professions that an Orthodox person cannot engage in?

– Profession and profession are different. But now we are talking about the internal structure. An opera singer, a television commentator, and the president of a country - each has his own field, his own ministry. Why are you doing this? I think that a Christian should express his creative credo in the words of the Lord’s Prayer: “Hallowed your name, God".

- Father, is there a difference between pride and pride?

“Unfortunately, we don’t see the dizzying fall, maybe then we would study more - we only see the ups.”

– You see, the mind is for thinking. Yes you are right. Besides your channel, what else can you find instructive on television? There is, of course, zombification there, but there is no desire to awaken good feelings among the people.

- So, pride and pride. Is there a difference between these concepts?

– I think more lexical, on a verbal level. Although one could think: pride, stronghold, goose. Feminine nouns of the first declension, but in this “-nya” I, for example, feel something expanded, terry, which has become the absolute dominant of the personality. Pride is a worm, a wormhole. Fuel it with vanity and you will get this “-nya” - such pride that you can’t go around or go through it.

- Father, let's talk about women's pride. Does it have a right to exist? Is there anything to do with pride? Should a woman have feminine pride? What it is?

– Let’s talk about the relationship between pride and personal dignity. Dignity and honor are integral qualities of a moral person. What is human dignity? First of all, of course, in his mind, in his desire for good, in his ability to distinguish between good and evil. What is the dignity of a Christian? Of course, in the very calling to serve Christ. Of course, in the spark of the Spirit of God, which is sent down to each of us in the sacrament of Baptism and makes us strictly responsible before God. A woman and her dignity, in my understanding, is her purity, her strict moral life, this is her true modesty, this is her maiden virtue, this is her motherhood - everything that makes her beautiful in the eyes of people and angels. Female coquetry is another matter, a dangerous topic; I’m afraid that we will now be shot at with direct questions from the “blue air”. She strives to impress everyone and everything around her: and not a coquette will pass by a lamppost without winking at him. The imagination is such that when the lantern, Ilyich’s light bulb, swings in the winter Moscow wind, it already seems to her that he is not indifferent to her.

– How to fight these passions?

– Fight for life and death: we are descendants of Panfilov’s men, there are few of us, but Russia is behind us – we will not give up an inch of sacred land to the enemy. Let's remember that wonderful recipe, that saving medicine, without which, as the holy fathers assure us, salvation is unattainable - self-reproach. This is the ability to put your own pride in place, the ability to blame yourself for all unpleasant circumstances. Self-reproach is a sign of a morally enlightened person. We will see that it is not in vain that Mother Church commands us to pray unceasingly, in which the word “sinner” is necessarily present: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner,” “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” There won’t be this self-reproach - there will be what we now see in our new Muscovites: static electricity, at the slightest conflict, not only inability - unwillingness to restrain, readiness to throw out all the negativity on your neighbor, who often has no idea what you have. not everyone is at home. There are no Christian virtues, but only aggression. Today it would be so important for us to remember the wonderful skill of our pious ancestors - to be able to blame ourselves, and not to blame our own illnesses on a healthy head.

- Father, what are the limits of pride? Is it possible to be proud of your Motherland, for example?

- Thank you, father. I have a question for you from our online forum from Mikhail Georgievich: “As soon as I get caught up in the hustle and bustle at work, I immediately behave in a non-Christian way. It is especially difficult to treat strangers with love, without judgment. Teach me how to control myself? It seems like while we are at home, we are Christians. And we came out into the public, and everything fell away from us...

– Sometimes it happens the other way around. In public, in my opinion, it is much easier to maintain correctness, English restrained behavior, to be nice to the ladies... And a “commoner in the nobility” will come home when small children and animals are hiding from him. He hits the table with his fist: “Who’s the boss of the house?” It is no coincidence that the 19th century Englishmen, whom we remembered today, said: “Charity begins in your own home.” If you are really good with your family, then, accordingly, you will be so in a wider circle of friends. Well, as for self-control, this ascetic virtue is called “attention” - pay attention to yourself, watch yourself, look at yourself from the outside; this is a sign of a morally developed personality. And vice versa, if you are pathetic and ridiculous in the eyes of others, if you are in an affective, passionate state and cannot see beyond your own nose, then watch the Soyuz TV channel - it will teach you everything good. Paying attention to yourself does not mean being overly immersed in your own experiences. Here extremes are harmful. Let us choose the royal path of the golden mean, with prayer to God, with love for people.

– Father, another TV viewer of ours asks a question on the forum: “Is it possible to pray unceasingly? After all, for this you need to always think about God. Is it very difficult to tune in to the spiritual while working or doing something else?” This is again a question of attention.

– If it is possible to continuously breathe, then it is even easier to continuously be in God’s presence. Surrounded by people, you may not be able to recite within yourself the full text of the prayer “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” However, you can very well, like Adam in paradise, stand before the living God, and with a sixth sense, and today all our friends who communicate with us have it, you can touch, feel, understand, remember that God is looking at you. And if you know how to walk before His Face, that is, you control your thoughts and drive away unclean, prodigal, proud and evil thoughts, then in a month or two it will be as natural for you to remember God and pray to Him as it is for a dog to breathe.

– Leningrad region on the line: “In a fit of family scandal, the husband went to his mother. A short time later, he filed for divorce. We have two children in our marriage, two boys, 10 and 8 years old. According to the court's decision, the reason for the divorce was that we did not get along in character. Question: Who is a justice of the peace? In order to divorce someone, he must find out the reasons, he himself must be a family man, a psychologist, and, I believe, first of all, he must be an Orthodox person.”

– I can only raise both hands in favor of your opinion. However, other representatives of government agencies, who, perhaps, did not hear yesterday’s message from the president, calling us to a bright present, wanting us to transform our entire lives under the sign of decency, honor and duty, can say: “At your age, how can you have your own judgment?” ? If we have such dreams, I would advise our legal system, the Civil Code, to learn at least from the Italians. “Divorce the Italian way” means twenty years of waiting, some procedures, it’s almost impossible. And I am very sorry that our magistrates so easily agree to these non-peaceful decisions. “They didn’t get along” - yes, all this is nonsense. Young, healthy, beautiful, already with children, and the scythe of love found its way onto the stone. Of course, here judicial proceedings give encouragement to human pride, vanity, and irresponsibility. And, of course, Father is missing. So he is, probably, a justice of the peace who calls for peace to spouses looking at each other with beech. Your husband would like to go to Confession, to have a conversation, to talk with the priest. Despite the fact that a priest is required to have exactly those qualities that our good interlocutor mentioned - restraint, wisdom, sincerity and, of course, the willingness to maintain unity on his personal front at any cost.

– One more question for you from the Vladimir region: “Please explain - the third commandment says: “Thou shalt not take the name of thy Lord in vain.” I don’t understand how it is not to take the name of the Lord “in vain” - in vanity? Thank you".

– Surrounded by earthly bustle, being in the crowd of a pedestrian crossing or in a store, we should always remember our Lord, call on Him: “Hallowed be thy name,” “Jesus Christ, have mercy on me,” “Most Holy Theotokos, save us.” And the soul will be a lamp, lit in the midst of the surrounding darkness of human passions. Remembering the name of Jesus Christ and the Divine names in general in vain is a soulless, prayerless, superstitious spinning of His name in the mouth: “Where is your briefcase?” - “God be with him.” God is not with the briefcase, but would like to be with you, if you hadn’t been so fussy. After all, the full text of the commandment reads like this: “Do not take the name of God in vain, for God will not leave those who say this and do so unpunished.” What kind of punishment? Complete insensibility. By the way, true Christians differ from false brethren in the way they pronounce the word “Lord” - always reverently, always reverently, always with the meaning: “The Lord is with you,” “Glory to you, Lord,” “God have mercy.” And on the contrary, those who have only been baptized, but do not have faith and fidelity to Christ, easily bow down the name of God in all cases, often still confusing it with the name of the evil one. We immediately notice this and are internally wary - before us is a person alien to the shrine.

– Moscow on the wire: “Father, we love you very much. You have now called us TV parishioners. My mother is eighty years old, she is very sick and cannot go to church. Nevertheless, she listens to programs every morning, prays with the priests, and participates in prayers. It seemed very strange to her when it sounded from the screen that, by participating in these prayers, we were praying to the television screen, and not to God. She, of course, prays herself in the evening, when she communicates with God. Can these prayers be accepted as going to church?

– In this case, the television screen is a conductor of Divine grace. Indeed, the faces of the priests, the candle burning on the candlestick, and the icon, captured there by a clever plasma method, lift, elevate, elevate our thoughts and feelings to the Heavenly Father. Sound flows from the screen - church chants or sacred prayers. Thus, your dear mother, in her old age, sitting in a chair, as I am now in front of you, prays, crosses herself, listens to what she sees and hears. And of course, the sky opens above her, God’s right hand extends from heaven and blesses her. If the Ostankino Tower wanted to contribute to the enlightenment of our empire, our great country, in two months public morality would change from minus to plus. But this could be the material of our next live broadcast. And today we reflect on human passions.

– Another question, this time from warm Sochi: “I have two sons, the eldest is forty-three years old, he has three children, a wonderful son. And my youngest is furious: he drinks a lot, beats his three-year-old son until he has bruises. I threatened to stop beating him if he didn’t stop. But, of course, I won’t go anywhere to complain, because he already served ten years. I'm scared for him. But he threatens to put me in a psychiatric hospital, he says that he has a lot of friends there. I understand that I have a gorgeous two-roomed flat, they want to take her away. And at the age of 61, I successfully graduate from college. He says: “You disgrace me throughout the whole city, everyone laughs that you are studying at sixty-one years old!” (I already have one diploma, but for some reason I wanted to graduate from medicine). Because of him, I have so many nervous diseases. I go to Church all the time, to the “Inexhaustible Chalice”. Help me, tell me what should I do?”

– Thank you for this confession, we will now pray with the whole world for you. Indeed, “there are dark nights in Sochi,” we hear this from your confession. But it is impossible to leave your son, who has lost his human form, unpunished. After all, your grandson is at risk of mental trauma, not just physical. I am categorically against juvenile justice, it is such a bird of prey that is now soaring over Russia, but, of course, I am against the idea of ​​a child being exterminated alive as an individual like this. You need to gather your relatives, at least contact smart people, talk to the local priest. The authorities must intervene, because you need to protect yourself from the machinations of those who have already lost both honor and conscience, and above all, save your dear grandson from trouble, from this fire. Here delay is like death.

– Question from the forum of our program, from Alexey: “Today there are many people who work in Orthodox organizations: brotherhoods, sisterhoods. We are also talking about those people who help at churches. These are publishing houses, agencies, etc. It is no secret that the evil one takes up arms against these people; it seems to them that they are envied. Please advise how to deal with this?

– When it seems, you just need to cross yourself. After all, it is very dangerous to take what seems to be reality. And the evil one will fool your brains, just give him free rein through a rich imagination and creative imagination. Any person who has an active life position and wants to create, wants to introduce the principles of order, beauty and purity into this world will, of course, be envied by the louts, the little ones who lie on the stoves, those who can only grind and at the same time break people’s bones, but he himself will not move a finger to take a step on the path of salvation. You can simply come to terms with this and not pay too much attention to idle thoughts. As wise people say, listening to everyone will drive you crazy. Another thing is that having chosen the noble field of church education, it is important, according to the words of the Apostle Paul, to enslave your own passions, so that, while preaching to others, you yourself do not turn out to be worthless. I think that this is a special topic for a live broadcast: modern testimony about Christ, for this testimony is not in words, but in thoughts, feelings, in the structure of your soul, in the way of your life. Today we need a shameless, blameless life of a person who testifies to God. And if we try to follow the path of selfless love, we will look to the right and to the left. If you are afraid, then don’t do it; if you do, then don’t be afraid. And if you do nothing, you will die. So choose.

– In touch Moscow region: “My son was married, and he and his wife divorced. They still have a child. The wife was the daughter of the rector of the temple. And now he is married to someone else, also married, and everything is fine in their second family. He really wants to see his son and raise him, but they simply don’t let him. It's too long to tell. What should we do?

– We can guess for ourselves, because this is the prose of the day. This is familiar to anyone who doesn’t have their head in the clouds. We have already talked about these painful topics. What should your son do? He can act within the legal field. Remaining a father, unfortunately divorced, he can achieve the opportunity to see his son through the courts, especially since he can and should exert moral influence on him. First of all, you need to pray, because there will be no life until the mother’s heart softens. O tempora, o mores! Oh times, oh morals! Let us hope for the best. It is a pity that children always remain hostage to such situations.

– Another question from our forum from Alexey: “It is known that smoking is a sin. Undoubtedly, it poisons the smoker's body, which is the temple of God. Isn’t driving a vehicle the same sin, because car exhaust poisons the world around us and those in it. Is the love of driving a passion?

– If you are driving a truck that rhymes with a well-known word (first declension, feminine), and this truck has not passed any CO2 control and smokes like an open-hearth furnace, then the minds of passers-by and motorists really “boil” in indignation. Words are not enough to express my attitude towards this smoky “Cossack”, which can no longer undergo either tuning or peeling, and is generally not amenable to heat treatment. But now Vladimir Vladimirovich has built such factories that it is a candy, not a car, that is leaving the rut of the domestic automobile industry. And in pursuit of a clean, ironed Europe, which even washes its tires with shampoo, we now have no smoke. Therefore, I don’t understand your excitement. Regarding the exhaust pipe, some say in relation to Muscovites: “And the smoke of the fatherland is sweet and pleasant to us.” Well, everything that is not in moderation is from the evil one. If you voluptuously love your car, if you speed around the third traffic ring, driving almost into oncoming traffic in order to look at others and show off yourself, then this is the psychology of a suicide bomber. It is a great sin to put the lives of others at risk by sacrificing them to your automotive passion. Let's be calm: if you drive more quietly, you will continue, if you are not sure, don’t overtake.

– Moscow region again: “I would like to take advantage of the fact that today your guest has a philological education, and ask him a literary question regarding Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita.” There at the Patriarch's Ponds Woland says that he visited Kant and he gave him the sixth proof of the existence of God. No matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t find what it sounded like.”

– Saint John of Kronstadt said that flowers are the remnants of heaven on earth. When we look at a newly blossomed rosebud, covered with drops of transparent dew, or when we look into the pure eyes of a child, not spoiled by whims or selfishness, we see the sixth proof of God’s existence - the perfection of creation: that purity of children’s eyes, that fragrance of transparent rose petals , which the human hand cannot reproduce, no human art can reproduce. But this is such a poetic answer. In general, communicate less with Woland, because this gentleman is on his own. And, seemingly evoking sympathy among readers, he in fact remains the brother of Mephistopheles - and you know where the paths paved with such good intentions of Mikhail Bulgakov lead.

– I wouldn’t let modern children read, but they watch films, and in the films Margarita flies on a broomstick without having time to get dressed. The era has changed. I remember that I read this novel as a tenth grader, and I was not at all interested in its grotesque plan, where demonic activity is depicted in picturesque characters. But I greedily absorbed everything connected with the Gospel story, although Mikhail Bulgakov’s distorted Yeshua Ga Notsri beyond recognition is not our Lord Jesus Christ. But the time was different, we were then completely cut off from the Church, and bit by bit, through the thicket of the forest of atheism, we collected these golden shards of faith and came out to the Light of God. The atmosphere is now demonized. The people seem to be enlightened with a superficial knowledge of the Gospel, but at the same time poltergeists, Harry Potters and other mishmash of occult-pagan nature are doing their job, so today parents, educators and teachers need to be very careful and wise in order to preserve the child’s inner world from demonic invasion.

– In touch Nizhnevartovsk: “I regularly attend services in the Church. But the following situation happens: after the service I have nervous breakdowns, troubles occur, I start fighting, crying, tears. This is the first question. And the second question: I had a fight with my girlfriend after the service, and she said: “Damn you.” Although after that she asked me for forgiveness, saying that she was taking back her words.”

- God grant you there, in Nizhnevartovsk, firstly, to spend the winter, the winter must be harsh. Secondly, be a little calmer, because a Christian is required, first of all, to have a balance of feelings, mind and heart. If you didn’t go to church at all, it would be even worse. The fact that sometimes after church you fall into a restless state is not the fault of the church, but of our painful soul; she is healed by deep confession. I highly recommend that you find an attentive confessor, you have a very good priest in Nizhnevartovsk, Father Dimitri - you will find, whoever is looking will always find. And I suspect that this hyper-emotionality, which you told us about with confidence, is the fruit of some mistakes in life. I suspect that you are not married, and you still don’t love the girl you called yours enough, because you didn’t offer her marriage, didn’t ask for her hand in marriage. Accordingly, being in an unclean state of carnal, unsanctified cohabitation, you willy-nilly opened the doors of your heart to demonic action, breaking through such unmotivated irritability - either laughter, then tears, then anger, or something else. Therefore, confession is needed. With a girl you need to figure out who you are - friends or two halves destined for each other; then we need to get married. And, of course, try to be calmer yourself, watch the Soyuz TV channel, it has an excellent therapeutic effect on its users.

– Question from Tolyatti: “I try to take steps towards God, read the Gospel, the Psalter, try to find out what this or that holiday means. I work in a women's group, sometimes I talk about something, sometimes they ask me, I can explain what kind of holiday it is, sometimes I can argue with non-believers, sometimes I even get angry about it. Isn't this considered pride, vanity? After all, I’m not a teacher, I still don’t know much.”

– My short advice to you: be the sun. “Always shine, shine everywhere - that’s your and the sun’s slogan.” If your colleagues consider you a believer, they are already asking you doubly. And what is forgiven for yourself will never be forgiven, so some kind of argumentative state, some kind of irritability is completely impossible for you. They look at you as the one about whom Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin said: “I remember a wonderful moment, you appeared before me like a fleeting vision, like a genius of pure beauty.” Therefore, please be friendly, smiling, joyful, and add to this tact and delicacy. It is very dangerous to do a disservice to a person: he does not ask you, he needs to fill out some forms, and you are trying to convince him how good it is to be at this, this and this service during the Nativity Fast. It is very important here to not be a burden, but a joy. It is no coincidence that one village priest from an abandoned bear farm said the following prayer: “Do not stick me, Lord, where I am not wanted.” Be very tactful, delicate, and I advise you to answer only questions, but do not rush to impose your judgments on others.

– Father, is it worth it for a person who has just begun to become a church member to become an apostle?

– To be honest, I don’t even know the verb “to apostle.” If we are talking about apostolic service, service by word, then, of course, you need to be prepared for this, so that your word is pure, clear, simple and beautiful, and most importantly, so that your work goes before it. Pray a little, gain wings of peace and love, and it will be given to you to say what prayer is. Resign yourself in some difficult circumstances, do not give way to irritation - and the meekness acquired by experience will open your lips. That is, from deed to word. It is no coincidence that the ancients said: “Deeds without words are better than words without deeds.”

– Question from Alexey: “If God gives a person complete freedom, freedom as an individual, then why does He determine the gender of a person?”

– Gender policy. Do you know what kind of enemy cavalry is coming towards us now? If we fail, then after sex education and juvenile justice, gender policies will be imposed on schools. It comes here under the banner of women's equality. In our country, women not only have equal rights, but also hang on the honor board. Gender politics is an absolute confusion of concepts, it will proclaim that there are not two, but three, four, five genders, and at the age of twelve you must choose your gender, and it may not be male or female, but something in between . I won’t scare you about what European horror stories are already in effect, for example, in Czechoslovakia, the Czech Republic, from where people are fleeing to Western Ukraine because they can no longer raise their children.

The Lord God did not give us complete freedom, but He gave us the freedom of good choice. He honored us with autocracy, so that each of us at any moment in life can choose life over death, good over evil, light over darkness. As for gender, you are male, and I am fortunately male, and we are asked the question by beautiful women. This is God's gift, which, as the song sang, “must be gratefully accepted.” We are not troublemakers or rebels, and we are already following the poet: “A vain gift, a random gift, life, why were you given to me?” - says Metropolitan Philaret: “It is not in vain, it is not by chance that life was given to me from God.” Therefore, I am a man, thank God, you are a woman, thank God thrice, for if it were not for the woman, I would not have appeared on this sinful earth at all.

– Last question, Sovetsk is in touch: “I am a believer, married, and my husband is an unbeliever. Now is the Nativity Fast, and we are having serious problems in connection with marital intimacy. I do not know what to do. Please advise, father."

- “What should I do, what should I do, and how should I help my grief?” I have to praise our viewers today. They ask such important, vital, burning questions that our program, in terms of its relevance, replaces all the news packages of the day on official television.

As for your question, I think that we still need to give in. Give in, otherwise he will turn green and run away; it is necessary to calculate the consequences. On the other hand, buy him weights and let him swing. Buy him a training suit, let him rock, and tell him that he needs to run around your five-story building for ten to twenty laps: “Oh sport, you are the world! Movement is life". And if he, my dear, bothers himself a little, maybe he will cool his ardor on the street - minus twenty-six there. Don’t worry, feed him something tastier, he will be ours. Because the way to a woman’s heart lies through flowers, and to a man’s heart through a delicious lean, nutritious dinner.

I wish you, dear friends, after our live broadcast a good dinner for the health of the Soyuz TV channel.

– Thank you for the conversation, bless our TV viewers.

“I was very glad to meet you: Father always has something to tell you.” Therefore, I hope for our next communication with friends, I hope that we did not offend anyone or confuse anyone. And may the Lord bless us for a peaceful movement towards the Nativity of Christ.

– Dear friends, this is where we say goodbye. Thank you for your questions. Until next time.

Interviewed by Mikhail Karelin
Transcript of audio recording – Elena Povysheva

High Priest

Patriarchy. RU

Word from His Holiness Patriarch Kirill after Vespers on the Day of the Nativity of Christ I cordially congratulate you all on the great saving holiday of the Nativity of Christ

Literary page

- God bless you, son. – Matt’s father understood Greek quite well, as well as the Bedouin dialect of Arabic. After all, the elder spent seven years in the Judean desert, in a cave next to the monastery of St. George the Khozevit. He came to Jerusalem twenty years ago.

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Human! It's great! It sounds... proud!

M. Gorky “At the Bottom”

“You take yourself too seriously,” don Juan said slowly. - And you perceive yourself as a damn important person. This needs to change! After all, you are so important that you consider yourself entitled to be irritated for any reason. So important that you can afford to turn around and leave when the situation doesn’t turn out the way you want. Perhaps you believe that by doing so you are demonstrating your strength of character. But this is nonsense! You are a weak, arrogant and narcissistic guy!
K. Castaneda. "Journey to Ixtlan"

What do we know about pride?

This feeling, recognized as base by many religious and philosophical concepts, has a huge number of manifestations in Everyday life. What is the norm of behavior for a modern person, and is often encouraged by society, has been a reason to work on oneself for a long time.

The most ancient collections of wisdom that have survived to this day, the Vedas, contain forty signs of pride, and many of them can easily be detected in the composition of their personality by almost every person.


Surprisingly, in the following signs, we will not find a prejudiced attitude in the modern world: some are exalted as virtues, others are preached as gender characteristics of behavior, but, unfortunately, few can be considered an extra burden that is worth getting rid of:

  • I am always right.
  • Patronizing and looking down on others.
  • A sense of self-importance.
  • Humiliation of yourself and others.
  • Thoughts that you are better than others.
  • Boasting.
  • The ability to put an opponent at a disadvantage.
  • Control over the situation, but unwillingness to take responsibility.
  • Arrogant attitude, vanity, desire to look in the mirror.
  • Flaunting wealth, clothing, etc.
  • Not allowing others to help themselves and work with others.
  • Take on overwhelming work.
  • Work without measure.
  • Attracting attention to yourself.
  • Touchiness.
  • Excessive talkativeness or talking about your problems.
  • Excessive sensitivity or insensitivity.
  • Excessive preoccupation with oneself.
  • Thoughts about what others think and say about you.
  • Using words that the audience doesn't know or understand, and you know it.
  • Feeling of worthlessness.
  • Unforgiveness of yourself and others.
  • Creating an idol from yourself and from others.
  • Changing behavior depending on who we are talking to.
  • Ingratitude.
  • Ignoring small people.
  • Inattention (while studying sastras).
  • The presence of an irritable tone.
  • Raising the voice in anger and frustration.
  • Disobedience to the will of God, Guru, Sadhus, Shastra.
  • Lack of self-esteem.
  • Recklessness and madness.
  • Dishonesty towards yourself and others
  • Inability to compromise.
  • The desire to always have the last word.
  • Reluctance to share your knowledge in order to control the situation.
  • Inattention or excessive attention to the physical body.
  • Thoughts about the need to solve other people's problems.
  • Prejudice towards people based on their appearance.
  • Excessive self-respect.
  • Sarcasm, humor, the desire to prick another, joke, laugh at another.

Pride in yoga practice has its manifestations. Often, having achieved some spiritual experience or siddhi, a person becomes swollen with arrogance and pride. He thinks too much about himself, sets himself apart from others, treats others with contempt, and cannot communicate normally. If one is endowed with moral virtues such as the spirit of service, self-sacrifice or brahmacharya, such a disciple may declare: “I have been observing brahmacharya for twelve years, who could be purer than me? For four years I ate leaves and roots, for ten years I worked selflessly in the ashram. No one demonstrated such service except me.”


Laymen are swaggeringly proud of their wealth, and sadhus and disciples are proud of their moral virtues. There is an opinion that pride is a serious obstacle on the path, a condition associated with blocking the Vishuddha chakra. If you do not try to overcome pride, and keep it for yourself as a reward for your work, then Vishuddha will be the limit to which the practitioner’s energy can rise along Sushumna. In turn, the harmonization of all chakras will enable the practitioner to concentrate his energy in the area of ​​the upper centers, which will make the practice of self-knowledge more effective.

Why should you strive to get rid of pride?

Pride, the sense of self-importance, is the source of harmful thoughts and emotions. When a person puts himself above or below someone, he begins to condemn, despise, hate, get irritated, and make claims. The feeling of one's own superiority over others gives rise to arrogance and the desire to humiliate by word, thought or deed. A sense of self-importance gives rise to subconscious aggression towards the world. A feeling of pride means that a person places himself above the Universe and God. He does not want to accept situations that do not correspond to his expectations, he considers his understanding of the world to be the most correct, and strives to subjugate the world around him. The inconsistency with his ideas about what the world around him should be causes a surge of aggressive emotions in his soul: anger, resentment, hatred, contempt, envy, pity.

Pride- this is, first of all, the result of a lack of understanding of one’s true place in the Universe, one’s purpose in this life, a lack of awareness of the purpose and meaning of life. All the energy of a person filled with pride goes into direct or indirect proof of his rightness, into fighting the world around him. This is as absurd as if a cell began to fight with the entire organism and defend its interests, regardless of the interests of the entire organism.

Pride, like any other human behavior, has its own positive intention: it is the desire for perfection, and the desire to feel calm and comfortable, and the desire to declare oneself to the whole world. Every person wants to feel that he lives in this world for a reason, that there is some meaning in his life, that his inner world has a right to exist. But to feel your value and exclusivity due to your elevation above others means wanting to destroy the worlds of other people, their uniqueness. After all, if one is better and higher, then others are worse and lower. But in fact, on a subtle level, we are all equal. Not wanting to accept the world of another person, we make our own world poor and wretched.

How to free yourself from pride?

To love and accept the world as it is, without judging, comparing or blaming anyone, including yourself. You should learn to accept any situation in your life without complaints or offense, and to thank life for events, no matter how negative they may seem at first glance. The well-known saying: “Everything that is done is for the better,” most fully reveals the whole essence of what is happening in life. The positive aspects in any situation are sometimes obvious, and sometimes hidden from our consciousness, and understanding the lesson comes later.


But sometimes it happens that a person cannot overcome this limitation on his own. inner world. And at such a moment, it is very important to be able to hear the “senior comrades”. Those who have already overcome such mental obscurations and are moving further on the Path of self-knowledge.

But the most effective method of curbing your pride is, of course, service. Service in the full sense of the word. Service, not only to your loved ones and acquaintances, but service to society, service to the World. Try to do something every day not only for yourself, but also for those around you. And you will see how the World around you will immediately begin to change.

It is not for nothing that the sages of the past commanded us: “Change yourself - the world around you will change.”

And yet, pride, especially at the beginning of the journey, is a powerful incentive to move forward and a serious assistant in the fight against obstacles. Pride in one’s own merits in asanas and pranayamas will allow the practitioner not to stop there and move forward in mastering them. Pride from pacifying the flesh in food and pleasure will not allow you to break at the first fleeting desire. And even pride from moral virtues will be the engine at the beginning of the practitioner’s path.

It is easier to perceive pride as a stage in a person’s personal, internal evolution, helping him at the beginning and dying out as unnecessary during development.

Each person lives in his own world and creates his own unique world. This is what determines the exclusivity and individuality of any creature. Let's imagine the human body. There are trillions of different cells in it, and together they are united by life, the desire for the whole, and service to the one. At this level, all cells are equal to each other, there are no better or worse cells.

Any organism is a deeply balanced system. All cells are interconnected, but at the same time, each cell is unique in its own way, as it carries out its specific functions for the benefit of the whole organism. And if the cell copes with its duties perfectly, then it receives from the body everything it needs. Every living creature and object is a particle of the Universe. Here everyone is equal, everything in this world is united by one common goal- striving for the Whole: for God, the Universe, the Supreme Mind. Everyone makes their own unique contribution to the general universal process of development, we are all moving in the same direction, but each on our own path. It is very important for a person to feel his value, importance and uniqueness in this world, but not by elevating himself above others, because each person and object is important in his own way, but by realizing his uniqueness in the single organism of the Universe.


  • Pride in the ability to analyze and keep everything under control
  • Know the meaning of emotions such as excitement, fear, pride, doubt, passion.

    • You never know the heart of God with your mind, you know Him with your heart. I've been coming to this conclusion for many years.

    The human mind is a very amazing instrument. And the theology that we adhere to is very important. But our mind must be used to check that we are going in the right direction. He should not take the place of God; we should not discard everything that we do not understand.

    We have this belief that we must understand everything God does before we can accept it. Why should truth depend on our observations and understanding? Paul told the Corinthians: “And my word and my preaching are not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith may not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God” (1 Cor. 2:4-5 ).

    First we see the power of God, and then we receive the wisdom of God. This should be the order. First God works in you, and then you ask: “What happened to me?” And then you can receive wisdom and understanding of what happened.

    Can we dare to think that something is wrong and not from God if it is not clear to us? Isn't this arrogance and pride? Rather, we must have faith in God and what He does, even when we don't understand it.

    “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. But as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

    One wonderful woman came to Toronto from Europe. She came from a very theological and intellectual background - where there was "too much thinking," as she said. When the power of God came upon her, she had a vision. To her surprise, Jesus led her through the events of her childhood and they relived them together.

    This woman played soccer as a child and Jesus gently told her that she took the credit for her successes only to herself. She cried and repented, and they played football together. She laughed a lot at His uniform - long robes, and then asked him to be the goalkeeper. He was good at it and caught all the balls. But when He gave in to her and let her score, she laughed again.

    Then Jesus told her that she had always acted like a boy. She said it was true because her father always wanted a boy and she was very upset about it. But Jesus showed her that He wanted her to be a girl. It was like a movie before her eyes: the yard where she played as a child, she was wearing a beautiful flowered dress, and they were dancing together, and the wind was blowing her hair. Jesus told her, “Know that I always wanted you to be a girl.” And she cried and cried. "It was so wonderful to realize that He planned for me to be born a girl. It was so wonderful."

    The next evening Jesus showed her herself, how small child, and He tickled her. She laughed tirelessly and made sounds like Small child. The next time she was already one year old. She held a toy in her hands, but did not know how to play with it. Then she looked into Jesus' eyes and asked him to help her learn to play with this toy. And He slowly explained everything to her. She said with tears in her eyes:

    "Given my past beliefs, I thought playing with Jesus was the worst thing. But it's so wonderful, and it brings such healing. I'm so glad. I know I'm different now. I have a whole new relationship with Jesus now. He's so good; I didn't know that before."

    Jesus took this woman through experiences that would be offensive to intellectuals. It's too hard to understand how this can be played with Jesus. But it was from God. Let's just accept and accept that we won't always understand what God is doing.

    These experiences are very similar to what is recorded in Joel 2, right? The Holy Spirit is poured out and people see dreams and visions (p. 28).

    When God is working in you, your rational mind can be left behind. The Holy Spirit says, "It's all right. You've given up control because it's a matter of the heart, and it's all under My control." This is submission.


    | | | | | | | | | | | |

    A talented man who graduated with honors from the Athens Theological Academy and taught there for many years, at the age of an archbishop, he got into a serious car accident. Doctors fought for his life and after his experience, he retired to Athos, seeking obedience from a spiritual mentor.

    How did the elder receive him after listening to him?
    “The only thing worse than a bishop is a woman,” he answered and did not want to accept the visitor, but the bishop insisted. They accepted him on the condition that he refused to speak until the day he was allowed to do so.
    The years have flown by. Monks came to the elder and asked for advice: some about prayer, some about humility and other things, and the bishop sometimes wanted to correct those who came, especially if someone, in his simplicity, incorrectly quoted the saints, but he was only allowed to pray.
    I don’t remember how many years the bishop was silent, but one day the elder told him.
    - You can say whatever you want.
    But the bishop did not want to.
    When asked why he continues to remain silent, he answered.
    - I don’t know what to say...
    ………
    I won’t undertake to judge whether this story is true or fictitious (fiction is not excluded), but it revived my memories, because (in the early 90s) I myself was in obedience and my first two confessors also forbade me to speak on religious topics, and I I sincerely did not understand why my attempts to start a conversation: about prayer, about repentance, about humility and about other things useful for the soul were so unceremoniously stopped? I did not understand the reason why I was not allowed to talk about spiritual things? Now I very clearly understand the benefits of these prohibitions, the meaning of which, to the best of my ability, will be revealed in the three numbered topics below.
    ………
    I also remember another story that happened in Russia, very similar to the one I told at the beginning of this article. I also won’t undertake to judge whether it is true or not, and this is not so important. These stories can help to more clearly tune in to understanding the internal mechanisms occurring in the souls of those who, for the sake of humility of mind, out of obedience, (but essentially, still voluntarily) are ready to take themselves into the mental desert of the spirit for decades.
    A certain archimandrite, during the years of persecution of the church after the October Revolution of 1917, entered obedience to the Optina monk, who did not have a priestly rank. The monk was taught to weave fishing nets in prison, and with this craft he earned his living upon leaving prison. The archimandrite was charged with the duty of reading the Jesus Prayer within himself and weaving nets, and he was not given any additional instructions. Years passed. The archimandrite grumbled about the monotony of his life. He was dissatisfied with the fact that his talent as an organizer was being wasted, so he even went to the elders of that time with a request to change his obedience, but he was recommended not to leave the simple monk.
    The time has come and the archimandrite opened that entrance to the world of spirits that opens ONLY to those who know how and love to pray in solitude for decades.
    ……….
    What is the red thread in these two stories?
    Two paths of spiritual development are clearly visible:
    1) Spiritual development through the mind and through reading the fathers and Scripture.
    2) Spiritual development through the deep internal transformation of one’s soul through many years of repentant prayer.
    Is it necessary to say HOW much more fruitful and difficult the last path is than the first, although, at first glance, it is not difficult for the intellect?
    What’s so difficult about reading a prayer within yourself, year after year and decade after decade, over and over again, without allowing ANY thoughts, including spiritual things, to enter your mind? Such achievement of purity of mind (THE SPIRIT OF REPENTANCE) is not difficult. It requires almost no mental effort, but only a lot of patience. If, in practice, one tries to pray like this (as if constantly being in the core of some inner mental desert) for at least 20 years or more, then the result will be such a serious burden for a person that no one could endure this test without help from God.
    .
    Of course, the lack of thorough theological knowledge is in no way a plus for prayer. Ignorance of dogmas is always bad..., but another logical question arises: what is worse..., ignorance of dogmas or their proud interpretation within oneself?
    ………
    And now about why masters of solitary prayer prohibit conversations on spiritual topics. Why (?) is this prohibition so justified both among the Greeks and in Russia, and about what changes can occur within a person, provided that he is SILENT AND PRAYS FOR MANY YEARS.
    .
    1) INNER CHANGES DURING SILENCE AND PRAYER
    It is difficult to talk about internal changes in the hermitage with contemporaries because it is difficult for people to believe in the possibility of an open struggle with the spirits of darkness in our spiritually weak times. And it is even more difficult (for a modern proud Orthodox Christian) to believe in the possibility of man’s victory over his fallen nature.
    He who has been silent and praying for many years, if he begins to tell the truth, will most likely be suspected of making up his mind, of mental disorder, in self-affirmation or in spiritual delusion, than they will believe him.
    But let us leave the unbelievers alone with their unbelief, or, more accurately, alone with their exaltation over the hermits - because the unbelievers themselves chose their unbelief in their teacher, and they themselves will bear responsibility for their chosen way of thinking.
    In solitude, fallen spirits come out to fight with man. Why are they leaving? Yes, because the ascetic leaves them no choice... He burns and burns them with his prayers and they come out. They come out not in visions and insurances (which are so pleasant for bored contemporaries to read about), but in the cunning and power of false God-pleasing, in the power of false prayer, in the colorfulness of false spiritual ideas, and so on. This is the basis for the ban on talking about the spiritual among hermits experienced in prayer...
    In solitude (with experienced spiritual guidance), a person learns by experience HOW deeply he himself is wrapped in lies and false ideas: about God, about demons, about neighbors, about prayer and, above all, in countless false ideas about himself.
    And then (a very, very painful, very, very slow, very, very difficult process) the soul can (with years of repentance) receive from God the Gift of seeing itself and its neighbors through the influx of the Holy Spirit.
    .
    Take a closer look at the world...
    Doesn't the world long for a living miracle of a meeting with God, a miracle of the present, a miracle not implied in the future, but a miracle of a living meeting today, now, during this life?
    The world is thirsty for this, but a living meeting with God is possible ONLY in the (inexorably repentant) solitude of one’s heart.
    And what does a person begin to see in himself as soon as the Spirit of God moves inside him?
    A person begins to see sin in himself where before he did not see sin in himself. But how often is sin recognized in oneself as a virtue, or even as many virtues? One involuntarily recalls the words of the Lord: “If the light that is in you is darkness, then how great is the darkness?” (Matthew 6:23)
    A soul that has acquired the ability to discern spirits will suddenly discover that there is and never has been (not only in some other person, but above all in itself) NEVER ANYTHING sinless. The soul will begin to understand more and more clearly that there is not a single minute of its former life in it and there will never be one over which it would not be worth crying bitterly and another, even deeper vision of that universal sin, which, with (close communication with people) to see in impossible for a human being.
    And in this Holy Madness (guided by the Spirit of God) the soul will cry day and night continuously for itself and for the whole world, seeing ONLY the suggestions of God as good, seeing ONLY His Will as good, seeing ONLY His Desire, ONLY His Actions as good. The soul will see itself as completely dark, absolutely unwholesome and incapable of even any small good.
    But not only will the soul see itself as unkind, but it will also see pride and unkindness in other people. He will see not in order to rise above another person (or over other people), not in order to condemn, but in order to cry over others, just as the soul cries (with Grace) for itself.
    And everything will be simplified... to an extremely simple truth for every lawfully ascetic Orthodox hermit: “EVERYONE WHO DOESN’T CRY IS WORTHY OF CRYING,” as the ascetic monk taught me, teaching me solitary prayer in Altai.
    The world of the silent prayer book is a special world. A world in which ONLY pain reigns and the peace that is born ONLY from the pain of repentance. Repentance is the Life of one who prays correctly. A person who prays correctly does not and should not have a prayer without many tears for himself and for the world. These are the conditions for correct silence and correct prayer, including for those who are forced to pray in the world - every prayer must be permeated with pain for oneself and tears for others.
    And now the very question that I wanted to ask everyone who reads these lines carefully...
    Will someone who truly mourns talk about crying? What about prayer? What about repentance? What about being a hermit? What about God? What about how to save your neighbor?
    And why talk about anything if saving the soul is work?
    Look inside yourself...
    If, when talking about prayer and about God, you rejoice and admire yourself, your mind, your qualities of the soul, then know for sure that Satan is reasoning in you (even if only mentally)... It’s not even you who is reasoning, but the devil himself. Is it only given to your soul to see to whom you are a slave?
    The question arises.
    Why doesn’t God reveal to everyone the obviously flattering works of the devil in their hidden secrets?
    The answer is simple.
    Will a person be able to BEAR the very, very difficult to bear, inexorable pain that such a revelation of his sinfulness will bring him? Does a person ask that he always see his sins not as he himself assumes them, but as they are before God?
    And if a person does not ask to see his sin, then who is to blame for the fact that the person is blind?
    Nobody but the man himself.

    2) WHY IS HUMILITY (THE REPENTENT PRAYER) OF ONE’S CONSCIOUSNESS SO VITALLY IMPORTANT
    It is important so that a person does not remain captive to false ideas: about God, about Scripture, about the instructions of the fathers, about the world, about himself and about other things. Nothing other than humility of mind will give a person the opportunity to see something correctly, and a person can see something correctly and have a correct attitude toward something only when he subordinates his mind to the Reason and Inspirations of God. There is no other way to the truth for anyone. Either the Lord will dwell in man, or... man will be left alone with himself and with the lies that he learned during his earthly life, learned from his ancestors, starting with Adam himself.
    Yes, that's how it is. Lies in humans are older than our personal history and older than the history that we know. This is why the Blood of Jesus Christ is needed - so that lies can be defeated by an even more Ancient Means, by God Himself, His Sacrifice for us.

    3) WHAT HAPPENS TO THOSE WHO COME TO “UNDERSTANDING” THE MEANING OF SCRIPTURE (and the instructions of the fathers) HASTERLY
    He becomes the involuntary lips and involuntary power of Satan present in our world...., with all the ensuing sad consequences of this blind slavery. The only one who can get rid of this slavery is the one who is able to put the commandment of “spiritual poverty” in the first place within his mind and feelings, the one who (according to the teaching of the fathers about the salvation of the soul) is able to achieve a sincere conviction that he is “worse than all creation.”

    Modern man is constantly being told that he must be the first, the best, that it is shameful to be a loser who has achieved nothing in life. Pride in life attracts people to walk over the corpses of their neighbors, push everyone aside with their elbows, and strive for a superior position. This passion is especially cultivated in the world today. It is she who, spurring on the achievement of pleasures, will lead to an increase in lawlessness, because of which love will become scarce among people living on earth.

    Pride - pThe first sign is to measure another by your standards.

    Why do we show dissatisfaction with others? Why are we annoyed with them, angry? There are several reasons for this. Firstly, we measure another person by our standards. When we are healthy, when our heart beats evenly, our blood pressure is normal, when both eyes see and both knees bend, we cannot understand another person who feels bad. We have an even character, but that person is choleric, or vice versa - he is calmer and more pragmatic than us.

    The “I” that reigns in our heart forces us to look at other people through the prism of our own physical, mental and spiritual properties, and we unwittingly consider ourselves a stencil, a model for others. This starts a storm in my soul: I do it, but he doesn’t do it; I don’t get tired, but he complains that he is tired; I sleep five hours, but, you know, eight hours is not enough for him; I work tirelessly, and he shirks and goes to bed early. This is precisely what is characteristic of a proud person; it is the proud one who says: “Why do I do this and he doesn’t? Why do I comply with this, but he does not comply? Why can I do it, but he can’t?”

    But the Lord created all people different. Each of us has our own life, our own path in life, our own life situations. A well-fed person does not understand a hungry person, a healthy person will never understand a sick person. A person who has not gone through troubles and temptations will not understand the grieving person. A happy father will not understand an orphan who has lost his child. A newlywed will not understand a divorced person. A person whose parents are alive will not understand someone who has just buried his mother. You can theorize, but there is the practice of life. We often do not have life experience, and when we begin to gain it, we remember those whom we condemned, with whom we were strict, and we begin to understand that at that moment we were like dummies. We didn't understand what this man was feeling. They tried to edify him, but he had no time for comments. His hands gave up from grief, his soul grieved, he did not need moral teachings and pompous words. All he needed at that moment was sympathy, compassion and consolation, but we did not understand this. And when the Lord takes us through the same thing, we begin to feel what the other person felt.

    This is one of the signs of pride - we measure other people by our standards. When we do this, it shows that we are not generous. And all you need is to try not to judge the other person, not to get irritated, but to accept him as he is and try to let him into your heart. But it is difficult.

    Pride is inthe second sign is “self-”

    To combat pride, I can give you a wonderful prayer that helps you lower your own “I” to the bottom of your heart, drown it in sympathy for another. Here is this prayer: “Lord, teach me not to understand me, but so that I understand others.”
    You complain: “My wife doesn’t understand me, my children don’t understand me, they don’t appreciate me at work, no one hears me.” Do you hear? Here it is, our “I”, “me”, “me” - here it comes out of the soul.
    This prefix “self-” is the second sign of pride: self-indulgence, self-pity, self-love, self-will.

    The action of pride in a person begins with this prefix. I am proud and value myself: “Others rarely go to church and pray weakly, not like me, a respectable Christian. I am full of self-pity, and therefore I do not get up to pray - I am tired. I don’t want to help my neighbor, because I myself am poor, unhappy, I feel so sorry for myself. Everything hurts, I recently got sick, why should I go to church? I need to lie down and recover, even if others, fools, trudge through the cold to the temple and bow there, since they do not understand what serious illnesses they will subsequently suffer, and do not feel sorry for themselves.” Here it is, the second hypostasis of human pride.

    Pride - the third sign - self-will

    In addition to “self-” there is also “own-”: self-will, self-indulgence. A proud person manifests himself by not obeying his superiors, not fulfilling the blessing of his spiritual father, and by being arbitrary and self-willed. This is especially true for new Christians. “I will do as I see fit, the way I want. As I see, and not as I am taught, not as the instructions at work prescribe, not as the boss says. Maybe he is a fool and doesn’t understand anything. And I'm smart, I understand. I’ve been working here for a long time, and he was sent from another city...”

    The proud one does not want to learn from the Church, from the confessor, from elders, from experienced and experienced people: “I will break through the wall with my head and reinvent the wheel, but I will not go to someone who has been married for twenty years, who has been working for this production, who has been singing in the choir for a long time. I will do it myself, according to my own mind, according to books!” This is the sign of a proud person. He does not consult, he does not ask for help, he does not try to understand what, why and where is happening.

    Our self-will is the source of our troubles

    When I receive people in church who come with their troubles and sorrows, I ask everyone: “What is your question?” And they often answer me: “I want... I want this... I want this... I think like this... Why does everyone do this if I want something else?..”.

    “I want” sounds from the lips of many who come to the temple with their broken lives; it can be heard at every step. This is precisely the problem, the reason that led to sad consequences. A person does not ask the question: “Lord, what do you want from me? Where should I direct my path? How can I build my life according to Your will? Instead he says, "I wish I had good job. I want to have a good family. I want to have obedient children. I want to find a direction in life that is profitable for me. I want…"

    I say in response to this “I want”: “Until you break yourself, until you drive out the evil “yashka” from your soul, who puts your own “I” above all else, there will be no place for God in your soul, your life will not get better, you won't succeed. You will not see any light in the darkness in which you remain with your sorrows and worries, because your life problems generated by your own “yashka”, your self-will, pride, your not seeking the will of God, but fulfilling your will.”

    A consumer attitude towards God, the Church and people is the fourth sign of pride
    People come to church and ask indignantly: “Why don’t they like me here?” You often hear this from beginners. They are still infected with all the passions, they do not yet understand anything about church life, they have just crossed the church threshold. The first question they ask is: “We visited the Protestants and saw love there. And here in Orthodox Church, they don't like us. Why is that?" They demand: “Give us love, give us joy, give us that lightness and liveliness like the Protestants!” Everything is very simple there: “Raise your hands!” Picked it up - and that’s it, you’re saved. Here's some lentil soup, here's two kilograms of pasta. Hallelujah! You are saved, go, see you tomorrow, brother, see you tomorrow, sister, the Kingdom of Heaven awaits you, God loves you!

    But with us everything is completely different. IN Orthodox church need to pray. Fasting, standing for long services, concentrating on prayer, forcing and limiting oneself, there are no wide smiles, slapping on the shoulders and deliberate hugs. With us everything is strict, decorous and restrained. And people demand: “Where is the love? I came to church for love, but where is it here? She's not here! Give me love!

    This is another sign of pride - a consumer attitude towards God, the church and the people around us. "Let me! Why don't you give it to me? Where is Love?" - when we hear these words, it means that a person is infected with pride and has not yet been reborn.
    And the ancient prayer says: “Lord, teach me not to love me, but to love others. Not to be consoled, but I consoled. Not so that they would understand me, but I learned to understand others.” Do you see the difference? Don’t give it to “me”, but so that I can learn to give! To the extent that a person succeeds in this, to the extent that he confirms his steps on this path, we can speak of his spiritual rebirth.But we “yak” all the time, and everyone: “Give it to me, give it to me!” Here I am, here I am!”

    Resentment is the fifth sign of pride

    Resentment refers simultaneously to irritable-wrathful passion and to the passion of pride itself. What is resentment? This is sadness and bitterness because it hurts my heart.
    Resentment can be causal or causeless. Causeless resentment refers to the passion of despondency. Causal resentment is when another person hurts me, and the question arises: “Why are they doing this to me? Why are they doing this to me?” As soon as this “why” addressed to God and the “why” addressed to people emerge from the soul, it is immediately clear that the person is infected with pride.

    What will a spiritual person say if he is offended? “Lord, I accept you for my sins. Remember me, Lord, in Your kingdom. Thank You, Lord, for not scolding me and not offending me even more. Perhaps, Lord, I once offended someone and this offense came back to me. Or maybe the nest of anger and resentment is not empty in me, which means I can potentially offend someone, and You inoculate me, let people hurt me so that I myself don’t hurt another person.” For such a Christian, the word “why” does not arise; he understands: since it hurt, it means it’s necessary. St. Isaac the Syrian tells us: “If you, a Christian, have not learned to overcome insults, have not learned to see the healing hand of the Lord behind every insult, then you have not understood that the Lord heals your soul.” And if you do not accept the healing hand of the Lord, you are offended and do not overcome your grievances, then the path of spiritual growth is closed for you. You do not grow as a Christian, you remain the same sinner you were, with a stricken, purulent, unhealed soul. Because behind any offense is the hand of the Lord, which heals the ulcers of our soul and shows where we were wrong.In the grievances caused to us, we can comprehend the Providence of God and draw appropriate conclusions.

    The sixth sign of pride is truth-seeking

    Here, at the lectern, during confession I often hear complaints and insults. The question always arises: why? Why did they treat me this way? Don't I go to church? Didn’t I feed my children, didn’t I water them, didn’t I raise them alone, without my husband? Why do they treat me like this, insult me? I worked in production for twenty years. Why am I being kicked out, fired, while those who have connections and acquaintances remain with their job and salary? Why are they treating me so unfairly? Here it is, a manifestation of pride - truth-seeking. This is another sign of a proud person.

    Such people think that they are doing a good deed and are looking for the truth. But they are looking for the wrong truth. They want earthly, human truth, but do not seek God’s truth. But there is no truth on earth, my dears! How long can I repeat this to you? The truth is only with God. “I have counsel and truth; I am the understanding, I have the power” (Prov. 8:14), says the Lord. “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. But as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Is. 55: 8-9).The Lord tells us that this world lies in evil, that this world is a kingdom of lies and evil. So is it really not clear who rules this world?

    God creates His truth, by acting according to which Christians can be saved. And by engaging in false truth-seeking - I emphasize: false truth-seeking - and the search for false human justice, they become Pharisees, Sadducees. They go to church, pray, outwardly fulfill God’s commandments, but their inner man is so deeply affected, so removed from God and so unChristian, that it becomes scary. The replacement of a Christian by a callous man of earthly truth and justice is a terrible phenomenon for the Church; it is an ulcer, a rust that eats away at it.
    What would a believer say? “Lord, let Your holy will be done for everything. Thank You for everything. For I firmly believe that everything in this life works for good to those who love You and believe in You, and trust You, and put their trust in You. You say that you care about my life, and I entrust my whole life and soul into Your hands.” This is the mood of a believer. So he goes to God and overcomes the proud movements of the soul.

    The seventh sign of pride is self-justification

    What is self-justification? This is one of the types of manifestation of pride: a person wants to defend his own rightness; or wants to be thought better than he is; or at least thought exactly what he really was. When a person is offended or told something he doesn’t like, his pride is hurt. And at this very moment self-justification quietly comes into force. It affects everyone, from children to people of the highest rank.

    Let's take a closer look at the essence of self-justification. Here a husband turns to his wife and makes a fair remark to her that her children are not fed or her apartment is not cleaned. What does he hear in response? “Look at yourself! What are you like, do you bring home a lot of money? And anyway, where do you put your shoes when you come home, and what do you turn your socks or pants into?” This is where the husband's denunciation ends. And then he will say something, and again he will receive a similar response from his wife. Or the mother tries to persuade the child: “Why did you behave so badly at school, offend the children, quarrel with them? And look at your diary, it’s full of comments.” - “No, I behaved no worse than usual, and yesterday you yourself swore and quarreled. Why should I listen to you? A boss says to a subordinate: “Why did you do such and such in bad faith?” - “And you yourself forgot to tell me about this yesterday.” What arises in the boss’s soul? Anger or hostility towards a subordinate. He tries to prove something to him, but instead receives a thousand words in response.

    Wherever we look, self-justification brings great evil. One person tries to either blame or reason with another, but what does he hear in response? A thousand words, and all in defiance of the speaker: “Why are you bothering me? Look at yourself, what you are.” What does this generate? Hatred, anger, hostility. Self-justification is a bridge that leads further to the development of anger, and even further - to quarrels, battles and hatred between people. Self-justification feeds on pride and leads to hell.

    The eighth sign of pride is murmuring

    Let us now talk about what turns the face of God away from man, erects an insurmountable barrier between God and man, causes the anger and irritation of God - about grumbling. Murmuring is a form of blasphemy against God, ingratitude to Him for all His great benefits. This is spiritual and mental blindness, aversion from the Providence of God, a descent from the divine path, the road to the underworld. This is the grief that darkens the soul; it is impenetrable darkness that makes a person’s path deadly for both the temporary life and the future life.
    Murmuring is a manifestation of human pride, the proud resistance of a creature to its Creator. All the days of our lives we should remember that no matter how much we want otherwise, no matter how hard we try, we will always remain creatures of God. The Holy Scripture says: “Woe to him who disputes with his Creator, O shard of earth’s shards! Will the clay say to the potter, “What are you doing?” and your work [shall say of you], ‘He has no hands?’” (Isa. 45:9). The pot did not sculpt itself, but was sculpted by a master. And it is not the pot, but the potter who determines which vessel has great, which small, and which has insignificant use. He himself breaks his creation and restores it again. What can we oppose to our Creator? Nothing. He determined for each his own path in life and his own cross in life. He gave each one a special blessing that we must carry throughout our lives, and perhaps be saved, or perhaps perish.

    From the Holy Scriptures we see what terrible consequences grumbling has always led to. Through the lips of prophets and righteous people - from the Old Testament and our time - the Lord exposes our wrongfulness and our ingratitude to Him. For what? Then, so that we do not anger Him, so that we turn to Him and become truly holy Israel, the holy people of God. But this often doesn't happen. Because everything is not enough for us; or we perceive everything that is sent as evil; or we want something else, we think in our own way, forgetting that the Creator exists above us.

    You should remember, my dears, that for every murmuring word, for every ingratitude to the Lord, for every blasphemy against Him you will give an answer. And it will be with you as it was with the people of Israel. Today the Lord blesses you and puts into your hands the opportunity to live differently and inherit life, but tomorrow He will take it away for your grumbling. And then all the days of your life you will find neither peace nor joy, only sorrows and illnesses will haunt you. Today you were close to finding peace of mind, peace in your family and with those around you, but tomorrow, for murmuring, the Lord will harden those around you, and you will begin to experience terrible disasters. And perhaps, as was the case with the people of Israel, only children, seeing your sorrowful example, will understand how afraid they should be of murmuring against their Creator.

    How to deal with pride

    To fight pride, you need to tackle all the passions it generates at once.
    Why is it so important to simultaneously fight both the diseases of dominant passion and the disease of pride? I'll give you a simple everyday example. Which of you has been involved in gardening knows: when a beet or turnip grows and you want to make borscht, then you pull it by the young tops, and they break off, remain in your hand, and the turnip or beets are in the ground. To pull it out, wise gardeners take hold of all the leaves of the tops at once, closer to the root, and pull - only then does the root crop sitting in the ground fully stretch out. So, in order to draw out the passion of pride, one must immediately take on all the passions it manifests: irritation, pride, despondency, fighting them and at the same time asking the Lord to give him humility and meekness. That's when pride is uprooted.

    The fight against pride begins with small, external

    A proud person is also recognizable outwardly - he loves to laugh, talks a lot, fusses and shows himself, all the time trying to reveal himself. Therefore, throughout the year, I bless you to work on this internal problem: look for the last place, do not show yourself off, do not stick out, do not justify yourself, do not boast, do not get ahead, do not exalt yourself.

    This is the fight with pride. You need to start small. If a person wants to start fighting his pride, then he must find the worst place for himself and sit there; when everyone is talking, be silent; when everyone is bragging, keep your mouth shut and speak only when asked.
    To overcome pride, you need to learn obedience to the Church and obedience to your confessor, cutting off your will.

    I tried to convey to you how terrible pride is, how our own “ego” uses us, how we want to live for our own benefit. But in order to become a disciple of Christ and acquire the mind, heart and soul of Christ, you need to forget yourself and see your neighbor. How difficult it is! All the strings of the soul protest. Why should I think about someone, console someone, help someone? I don't have to. I have my own life, my own problems. Why do I need someone else, why do I need all these strangers?

    But these people are not strangers. These are the ones whom the Lord has placed around you today. So that you can save your soul, remake yourself, remove your “I” so far that it does not stick out, and another person comes first for you. Without this it is impossible to become a disciple of Christ, for the Lord says: “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23 ). “He who saves his life will lose it; but he who loses his life for My sake will save it” (Matthew 10:39; Mark 8:35; Luke 9:24). These are the words we hear in the Gospel. What do they mean? That a person is called upon, for the sake of love for God and neighbor, to lack sleep, to be malnourished, to waste time, nerves, and strength. But modern man does not want to do this, because he sees only himself and stews in his own juice.

    Do you want to be disciples of Christ? Deny yourself and learn to see God in the neighbor who is near you. Turn over everything that lives in your soul and put it in proper order, as the Lord blesses it. And the passion of pride will begin to heal in your souls.

    Repentance is pharisaical and false

    It seems that you go to church, and you have reason to think that everything is in order, that you have finally begun to live like a Christian. But with such an attitude, the heart begins to become covered with a film of spiritual fat, becomes impenetrable, lazy, and soft. But this is not pleasing to the Lord, and the Lord will disturb your soul all the time. We seem to calm down - and we don’t fully see our sins. Constantly looking for sins in yourself and bringing them to confession is the path to delusion. It’s a different matter when the Lord, by His grace, opens our eyes to our sinfulness. I want you to understand the difference between what the Lord says in relation to the Pharisees: “blind guides, straining out a mosquito and swallowing a camel” (Matthew 23:24), and the situation when we pray to God, repent to Him, try to cleanse our soul - and our eyes open to all the torment of our inner man, we see how imperfect and weak we are; and this prompts us to deep repentance and leads us to confession. When a person seeks out sins in himself, this often happens according to Pharisaism; It’s awkward for him to go to confession and not say anything to the priest. He thinks: “What should I say about myself? It seems like he’s not exactly a saint, but I can’t find any sins.” But it’s another thing when a person’s heart is bursting with understanding of what is happening in him. These are two qualitatively different states. The first is Pharisaic hypocrisy; in the second we remain unfalsely.

    Let us remember the parable of the publican and the Pharisee. The Pharisee stood humbly in the temple, but at the same time said: “God! I thank You that I am not like other people, robbers, offenders, adulterers, or like this publican” (Luke 18:11). This is the path of elevating oneself through the humiliation of others. The publican repeated: “God! Be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13). This is the path of self-abasement.

    We ask you to open the doors of our heart of stone

    The second path leads to opening the doors of the heart, and the first slams them. The difference between these two paths is often visible in confession. Some begin to repent and at the same time look for those to blame for their sins; whoever provokes them: the husband, the front door neighbors, the wardrobe maids, the authorities, the President, the head of the district, the priest - all together. When everyone around is pushing you to commit a sin, the person himself seems to have nothing to do with it: yes, he sinned - but he could not help but sin because he was hurt. He thinks: “How could I not sin here? I’ll share the guilt with everyone, and they are sinners, and I am a sinner.” This is a direct path to delusion - the path of covering up one’s sins, running away from them, unwillingness to see one’s weakness and honestly say: “Lord, I’m lazy, I’m selfish, I love myself, I’m hard-hearted. It’s not anyone’s fault that I don’t get up for prayer, that I want to break my fast or do something else, it’s not others who are to blame, I myself am to blame for this.”

    During Lent, you and I stand on our knees all-night vigil and we hear: “Open the doors of repentance for us.” Where do these doors lead, where are they? We are talking about the doors of your own heart. We ask God to give us the opportunity to enter into the depths of our hearts and truly know ourselves. We ask: “Open the doors of repentance, O Life-Giver Christ,” so that the key to our heart of stone may finally be found, so that we can see what is inside, feel it, repent, and be cleansed. These are the doors we are talking about and what we ask the Lord for.

    Forgive me, bless me, pray for me

    The Holy Fathers left us many great pieces of advice, and one of them concerns how to stop irritation, which, perhaps rightly, or perhaps unjustly, flares up in relation to another person. According to patristic advice, in such a situation a person should remember three words worthy of a Christian. These three words: “Forgive, bless and pray for me.” They spiritually influence the one who proves something to you.

    Of course, you most likely won’t say these words at work. Most of our work is secular, and many of our employees are non-believers. If you say in front of them what the holy fathers advise, they will simply consider you crazy. But in a believing family, or in church obedience, or in relation to an Orthodox Christian - a friend or sister - these three words are enough to stop the mouth of any anger, to immediately, in the beginning, extinguish all hostility and all irritation.

    Think about these three simple words. “Forgive, bless and pray for me.” “Sorry” means a person asks for forgiveness. This is the first indicator of humility. He doesn’t declare: I’m right or I’m wrong, he doesn’t talk a lot about himself, he doesn’t start reasoning and he doesn’t promise - now we’ll figure out which of us is right. He says: "I'm sorry." The subtext of this “sorry” is that I don’t know whether I’m right or wrong, but I’m still sorry if I upset you as a fellow man. Then the person says: “Bless.” This means that he calls on the grace of God for help. The one who will really manage, who will pacify a brother or sister, who will pacify the situation, who will extinguish all the machinations of the devil in order for man to quarrel with man. And when he adds: “Pray for me,” this is the third sign of humility. A person asks for prayers for himself, so that the grace of God will help him to actually do works of righteousness.

    In this way, a person truly grows rich in God, and not in himself. He does not feed his granary of pride, does not fill the granary of his vanity with the obscene grain of pride, but grows rich in God, exhausts himself, bows before his neighbor, humbles himself before his neighbor, asks for his holy prayers and calls on the grace of God for help.

    Suggest to your neighbor no more than twice

    How, however, should a person who is trying to reason with another convey the truth to him? It would be good if he came across a believer who truly humbled himself and acted on the advice. A person who behaves this way brings peace into communication between people, between Christians. But if this is not the case, if in response to admonition there are thousands of excuses?

    You and I, Orthodox Christians, are like spiritual lumberjacks. We have such a spiritual saw, and we saw with it our neighbor until the juice flows out of him. This is typical for our environment. How can we stop in time so that our neighbor does not squeal, cry or groan because of our good admonitions, and at the same time our pride does not develop? There is also corresponding patristic advice for this. It says the following: inspire your neighbor no more than twice. The Holy Fathers verified this. If a person repeats something more than twice, then hostility will appear in his soul, then irritation, then anger.

    How to be? What to do in this situation - your neighbor does not listen? It is necessary to convey to the consciousness of a person a very important life circumstance– explaining something to a child, a family member, a co-worker – but it doesn’t work. The Holy Fathers say: say it twice and stop. Otherwise, irritation will come into your soul, anger will come into your soul, and you will no longer admonish your neighbor in a Christian way, but with passion, with hostility. And instead of admonition, a quarrel may result.

    Who benefits from a quarrel? To the murderous devil. God doesn't need a quarrel. Better a bad peace than a good quarrel. Better family, which is preserved than a broken family. Friends who maintain relationships are better than friends who look askance at each other. A community of people where there is peace, albeit a bad peace, a weak one, but peace, is better than enmity, quarrel and hostility towards each other. This needs to be understood. And take care of what the Lord gives us.

    Therefore, here are two pieces of patristic advice for you, very instructive for both sides - for the admonisher and for the admonished. Let's repeat them again.

    First tip: do not admonish more than twice, do not try to force the will of another with your will. Say it twice, and then leave everything to the will of God. Wait for the Lord to enlighten a person, when He opens his heart and soul so that your words fall on good soil. If you continue to rape a person, you will get anger, irritation, a quarrel, and, moreover, you will cultivate pride in your own soul.

    And the second advice– for those who are admonished: under no circumstances try to justify yourself. Who needs your excuses? Nobody needs them. With them you will only push your neighbor away from you, you will cause despondency in him, quarrel with him, move away from him, and you will lose a friend. Therefore, there is no need, no need to make excuses. Whether you are right or wrong is of no concern to anyone. God sees everything. God sees your heart, your soul. Say three simple words of humility: “Forgive, bless and pray for me.”

    Act according to God's truth, not man's

    Human justice is very much related to human flesh. She forgets about mercy towards others and is in no way connected with the Gospel of God. This justice is a law that a person writes himself for his own convenience, or for the convenience of his life, or for the convenience of self-justification, or for his other conveniences.

    Elder Paisios gives a simple example. You have ten plums, and you decided to divide them between you and your brother. You say that there are two of you, and you divide them into five, exactly equally. This is human justice. There is nothing shameful about it, it’s an ordinary act an ordinary person. Everyone remained to their own, neither you nor your brother were offended. What will be the injustice? If you gave less to your neighbor and took more for yourself. And somehow he justified himself: “I’m older and more experienced,” or “this morning I said three prayers, and you two, and I was entitled to six plums, and you four - you were too lazy.” But in fact, gluttony was secretly thriving in the heart. I just wanted to eat six plums, even if I deprived my neighbor. Such is human injustice. But there is also the justice of God, when a person saw that his neighbor was hungry, that he was in need, that he wanted plums - and for the sake of his neighbor he gave in. He says: “Friend, eat eight plums, I don’t like them, and in general they make my stomach swell; I don’t need these plums, I’ve eaten enough, eat these eight for Christ’s sake.” This is divine justice.

    Do you see how the three justices differ from each other? So it is in the life of God: God’s justice is always associated with some kind of limitation, self-abasement and sacrifice for the sake of one’s neighbor, when a person sacrifices either time, or something dear to him, or what is sent to him.

    We see this in the Gospel parable. The father has two sons. And the father first acts according to human justice. How does he divide his estate between his eldest son and his youngest? In half. The youngest son wanted half an estate - please get half an estate. The father does not ask his son: “What will you do with him, what will you turn him into?”, and in human justice he gives him half his estate. We do not know the true motives of the youngest son - whether it was greed or foresight - but we see a truly human act: he took away half of his father’s estate for his own benefit.

    We have seen similar things on the pages Old Testament, when Lot and Abraham almost quarreled with each other over pastures for their animals. And what did the holy righteous Abraham do? “We, relatives, will not quarrel over who got the best and who got the worst,” and the elder gives way to the younger. He invites Lot to choose pastures that he likes. And what does Lot choose? Sodom and Gomorrah. We know what the green pastures of Sodom and Gomorrah turned out to be for him. He barely made it out of there, lost his wife there, all his belongings, all the animals and slaves. Abraham acts in righteousness, in love, but Lot acts in a human way. In one lives the desire for human justice, and in the other – for God’s justice. And Lot then disentangles this human justice and remains poor, in rags, mocked and ridiculed. And Abraham flourished and continues to flourish.

    We see the same thing on the pages of the Gospel narrative. The younger son, having coveted what did not belong to him, and having acted un-Godly, having taken away half the estate from his father and older brother, went to another country. He lived prodigally, squandered everything he had, and as a result, his lot turned out to be to eat with his owner’s pigs. And then his conscience woke up in him, he turns to God, he goes back to his father. The father sees the resurrected son, the converted son, returned to the bosom of the Father, and acts according to the truth of God, he accepts the son and does not spare anything for him. With a generous hand he slaughters a well-fed calf, with a generous hand he prepares all kinds of dishes, gathers guests for a feast and rejoices with his son at his return.

    What does the eldest son, who has remained with his father all these years, do? According to human truth. With bitterness, he tells his father the same thing that we often reproach relatives and friends - that they treat us differently than others. “Why do you treat me differently than you treat my older sister, my brother? Why did you give your brother the opportunity to live with his family in a separate apartment, while I have to hang around and experience all sorts of difficulties?” Such reproaches towards parents and other loved ones also arise in Christian circles. We ask “why?”, we torment the souls of our loved ones. But the answer is simple: because such is the truth of God. You think like a human being, but your parents, relatives and friends, often admonished by God, think like God. They see who needs it more at this moment, who suffers more. You don't have a family, but your older brother does. You have one person in your family, and your sister has three. You complain, you want and seek justice, and you will receive it. But then you will bitterly repent, as Lot repented. You will then shed bitter tears for your earthly human justice. Having finally found her, you won’t get anything good from her.

    But when you give place to the grace of God, humble yourself and act in God’s way, give eight plums to your neighbor, then the grace of God will completely cover you, fill in everything that you lack, and the Lord Himself will help you on all your paths.

    If we seek fairhuman righteousness, and not the truth and justice of God; if we do not humble ourselves before God and our neighbor; Let us not act as the holy fathers advise us - to oppress ourselves for the sake of Christ, to limit ourselves for the sake of our neighbor, to do what is best for our neighbor and not for us - then there will be no Christianity, no spiritual growth in us.

    Of course, it is very difficult for a person to live according to the truth of God. You need to break yourself to the roots every time. We love ourselves very much, we warm ourselves very much. It is not for nothing that the Lord, knowing this human essence, said: “As you want them to do to you, do so to others.” Our own shirt is closer to the body, and it is difficult for us to tear off a piece of it and bandage the wounds of our neighbor with it. To accomplish this, you need to overcome yourself with God’s help and prayer. It is very difficult and very painful, but necessary. If this does not happen, then there will be no acquisition prodigal son, there will be no change of soul. We will be honest, good, decent, respected, diligent, correct people, but people of this age - and not sons and daughters of God.

    The Lord Himself delivers us from pride. Boomerang Law

    We all wonder why misfortune befalls us and our children. When we analyze our life, it becomes obvious that not everything is smooth and even. If it arrives somewhere, then it will definitely leave somewhere else; if something happens “with a plus,” then something “minus” will definitely give something. It seems that everything is fine in the family, there is prosperity, but there is no happiness: the husband does not love his wife, or the family sees their father very rarely, or the wife is not in good health, and the family suffers, visiting their mother in hospitals. And others, on the contrary, are healthy, but have no money - so they are constantly thinking about what to buy to eat and what to wear. And so it is with everyone: it doesn’t happen that everything is there at once - one thing is there, but the other is not.

    Why does this happen, what is God’s Providence here, what is the meaning of our, sometimes temporary, misadventures? The boomerang law applies here. We allow some kind of weakness, indulge ourselves, our passions, follow the love of money, allow some adventurous notes to sound in our souls - and “suddenly”, after a year or a year and a half, the boomerang we launched returns to us, the fact that we created, begins to haunt us. What is the meaning of this boomerang? I would say that the Lord gives us spiritual vaccinations. For what? If a person is not vaccinated against pride, then it can destroy him. If a person is not vaccinated today against the temptation that may arise for him tomorrow, this temptation will completely cover him and the person will perish.

    What does it mean to act humbly?

    A true Christian will not make trouble or make noise. What will he do? In God’s way, that is, he will humble himself, cross himself: “Lord, Thy will be done.” And he will repeat the words of the Lord: “If it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; however, not as I want, but as You want” (Matthew 26:39). Here it is, Christian submission to the will of God, here it is, humility before God, humility before God’s providence and one’s fate in the eyes of God.

    And when a person humbles himself in this way and surrenders everything to God, seeks everything from God, prays: “In the Lord who weighs destinies, direct my path,” then it is really not he himself, not his human pride, not his understanding that begins to help him in this life , but the Lord Himself.

    Too often we do not act as the Lord commanded us. We fume, swear, insist on our rights. For example, parents come home and say: “You are not our daughter (or you are not our son), get out of here, from this square, from this apartment, it’s cramped for us to live with you!” So, get married or get married - and away from your father’s house. Or something else: “You have a good job, we are not obligated to help you and your children, don’t contact us, and don’t let us hear your calls anymore.” And so say relatives, fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles! Is there anything surprising here? No. For it is said in the Holy Scripture: “Every man is a lie” (Ps. 116:2).

    We must trust in the Lord, and in Him alone see joy, consolation and support for our long-suffering life. We must ask Him to help us at every time and at every hour, not to rely “on princes, on the sons of men, in them there is salvation” (Ps. 146:3).

    It is important, dear brothers and sisters, that we subordinate our will to the will of God. Very often, in the crucible of life's trials, our pride and vanity are highlighted. We see this situation that is developing, we see the offensive injustice, and then our own “I” comes forward: “I think so! I want it to be like this!” But we do not say preemptive words: “Let God’s will be done for everything; not as I want, but as the Lord wants it.” And it is necessary to say them, because with His unexplored and inscrutable paths He leads us through life, leads us through injustices and insults, and then it turns out that this was for our great benefit, that it was for us to save our souls, and that there is no other way could have turned out, but only the way the Lord arranged it. To drink without complaint the cup that the Lord drank and that He gives us is great Christian humility, a Christian feat that we need to learn.

    Murmur blocks God's mercy

    Murmuring pushes the Kingdom of God away from us, brings upon us the wrath of God and His rebuke. Let's look at the pages of Holy Scripture, at the pages of history, at today. What happens to those who go against God and do not accept what He sends? Where are they? They are no more, and their ashes were scattered by the wind, and their very race was uprooted.

    Let us remember the suffering of the people of Israel. The Lord sent many plagues before the people of Israel could leave Egypt. During the first procession through the desert, it was extremely difficult for the people, and people grumbled, remembering the old time when they had plenty of meat and lived calmly, although they were slaves. And when the Lord had already led them to the promised land, when it was visible - just a stone's throw away - another murmur blocked God's mercy, and the people were forced to wander in the desert for another forty years. The Lord, angry, did not allow almost anyone to enter the promised land. The entire generation of those who grumbled died out. They were buried in the desert. Only their children inherited the opportunity to enter there, into the land where, as the Lord said, milk and honey flow. Only children who grew up in obedience and loyalty to their Creator and Creator inherited the promise of the Lord.

    Human life is a procession through the desert. The tabernacle that the Israelites carried with them is a type of the altar of the Lord; the ministers who bear this tabernacle are the priests; and you, naturally, are Israel, which must go through a difficult path of testing.

    The Lord did not spare His chosen people and, because of their grumbling, sent them to wander in the desert for another forty years. So the Lord can delay for each of you to see the Kingdom of Heaven, to find peace of mind, peace in the soul, the Kingdom of God within yourself - to delay for thirty years, forty, for seventy - for how long. Remember that every murmuring word, every blasphemy of the day of our life, of what happens to us, angers the Creator and leads to Him changing the line of our life. He makes it so that we come to our senses, come to our senses and come to the right conclusions.

    Slaves of sin, we came out of the land of Egypt. Will we be healed?

    You need to firmly understand that, perhaps, many of you standing here in the temple will not see the Kingdom of God and will not find what you are now looking for: healing from illnesses, easing your sorrows, all this can continue until death. There is no need to despair - God was so favorable. Perhaps your children or grandchildren will inherit what you are striving for now. Why? Because you and I came “out of Egypt,” we were slaves—slaves of sin—and with this we came to the Church. And many of us, as we were, remain, in our inner essence, slaves. And they serve the Lord not as sons or daughters, but out of fear of punishment, of future torment in Gehenna.

    Is this good or bad? On the one hand, it's good. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. There will be no restraining fear and we will all perish. On the other hand, this is bad. For God needs love not from under the stick, not the obedience of a slave. He needs the love of his son or daughter. And in order to reach the state of a son or daughter, obedient to the Father in everything and always, all the days of his life, one has to go through a considerable life path.

    Therefore, there is no need to be mistaken and there is no need to grumble. The children will inherit - thank God, the grandchildren will inherit - thank God. The Lord is trying to lead us out of our spiritual slavery and give us a different life. To give the opportunity to fulfill God’s commandments not in a ritual sense; feel the breath of the Holy Spirit in the temple; with a free heart, pray to Him as the Living God, serve Him and see Him, the Living One, always, in every place: here, in church, and at home, and at work, and feel Him in your heart.

    In order to be faithful to the Living God, to serve the Holy Trinity, to worship God in spirit and truth and to truly be a daughter or son of God, we must thank God for everything that He sends to us all the days of our lives. To glorify His name, no matter how hard it may be, to endure everything that is sent. Did the Lord deprive the Israelites of water as they walked through the desert? Cheated. Have you been deprived of food? Cheated. Wasn't it hot and difficult for them to walk? Was. So it is in our lives. Yes, it’s hard, it hurts – but there is no other way. Who said, that with light effort can you enter the Kingdom of Heaven? On the contrary, the Lord says: “The Kingdom of Heaven is taken by need, and neediness takes it away.” Those in need - that is, those who are forced, endure, and in great patience, in great humility and submission to God go where God's blessing extends them.

    Therefore, let us submit to what is, and accept with joy and gratitude the blessing of God that descends on us. Even the unpleasant, sick, suffering, it is a blessing of God, given specifically to us, and there is no other way for a person to find peace and tranquility, and for the Holy Spirit to change his heart and soul for the better.

    Vaccination against pride

    When we begin to shift our sins onto someone else, the Lord sends us misadventures—spiritual inoculations. Just when we think we have everything in order, the Lord vaccinates us. Suddenly we quarreled with someone, quarreled. Or suddenly something we did turns out to be shameful, evil, and we cannot understand how we could have done such a thing. We only raised our heads, but the Lord immediately lowered them down to the ground: “You thought that you had completed your salvation here. Behold, I am showing you what you are. Don’t lift your head high, lower it down, and just go. Walk humbly, don’t look around you, don’t look around, don’t look at the sins of others.”

    We very often need this vaccination against pride. I have seen many prosperous families in which parents and children gradually fell into a state of neglect of God and the Church. “What do you ask God for? We have everything. The children are healthy, they themselves are healthy, there is well-being and prosperity in the family. There is enough money for the children to study, the younger ones go to the gymnasium, the older ones receive higher education. What more do we need? Why should we go to church? - they reason. These people, who are in a state of consumerism towards the Church, have not yet entered the ranks of those serving God; they can fall off at any moment. The Lord sees this, the Lord is merciful, the Lord is pained by these people and inoculates them against pride, sends a shock or a misfortune.

    He shakes us up - and there is so much money that it’s barely enough to pay the rent, but we also need to feed ourselves and our children. And we understand that we cannot do without the help of the Lord. And we go and ask the Lord for help: “Lord, help us, we can’t do anything.” Some kind of new law released - and we understand that tomorrow we may be evicted from the apartment, and it is unknown where we will be - in a communal apartment, with a roof, without a roof, on the street, and whether we will even have a piece of bread. That’s when we go to the Lord: “Lord, help me, without You I cannot do anything.”

    The Lord gives us such vaccinations so that you and I have resistance against the proud state, which to one degree or another is inherent in every person. The Lord hides from us the extent of our infection with pride. It's different for everyone. Some have severe severity. And some have very mild symptoms. Maybe it doesn’t manifest itself at all, nestling somewhere deep in the heart. But the Lord sees that even this little pride can destroy us forever, forever close the doors of the Kingdom of Heaven for us. And the Lord vaccinates us - gives us misadventures.

    We hit our foreheads and bowed our heads: “Lord, how did I not notice this, how could I do this, what did I think of myself, what did I think?” For such thoughts to be born, you need to hit your forehead against a wall or have it slammed on your head from above. And before that they don’t exist.

    My dears, we have a lot of events in our lives. Sometimes we skid, we lose our sense of proportion, our brakes don’t work. In other cases, a person is carried away, and he cannot stop - he wants to, but cannot. Then the Lord stops him. Especially if he is a believer. The Lord is not pleased with this state of man; he sees that he can continue to grow in evil. And today He sends him a little admonition, so that tomorrow, in a year, having found himself in exactly the same situation, a person will not do greater evil, will not break wood, will not commit such sins because of which he would be ashamed to even come to confession, threshold church cross. The Lord is giving you a little vaccination today so that tomorrow a big, huge, serious misfortune does not happen to you, so that you understand God’s providence, understand that the Lord has mercy on us, that He loves us and that all the evil that happens to us is actually great good for us. The Lord stops us like foolish children. It gives us the opportunity to reflect on whether we are doing the right thing.

    If the Lord had not done this to us, I assure you, we would all have perished. For no one is safe from satanic pride, which is inherent in the people of this age. Therefore, my dears, please accept with gratitude everything that the Lord sends to you, try to learn lessons from the Lord’s inoculations. Draw the right conclusions from everything that happens. Then you will be delivered from many troubles and misadventures and with a grateful heart you will pass unharmed through all the devil’s snares. Amen.

    Fighting the passion of pride based on patristic teaching

    What is pride

    “The eighth and final battle comes before us with a spirit of pride. This passion, although in the order of depicting the struggle with passions is supposed to be the last, but in its beginning and time it is the first. This is the most ferocious and most indomitable beast, attacking especially the perfect and devouring them with fierce gnawing when they reach almost the very pinnacle of virtues.”

    “Pride is a tumor of the soul, filled with tainted blood; if it ripens, it will break through and cause great trouble...

    Pride inflates thoughts to the point of pompousness, teaches one to disdain every person and look with contempt at those who are natural to oneself as something insignificant, drives pompous thoughts to the point of madness, inspires one to dream of equality with God, does not recognize the Providence and trusteeship of the All-Good God, believes that he receives his due for deeds. all the graces that he uses, he does not want to see God’s assistance in what he does and what he succeeds in, he considers himself sufficient for every good deed, out of conceit he thinks that he has the strength to do everything, although he is completely powerless. She is a bubble of water, inflated with a vain opinion about herself, which, if only blown, turns into nothing.”

    “Pride is the rejection of God, the contempt of men, the mother of condemnation, the offspring of praise, the driving away of God’s help, the culprit of falls, the source of anger; a bitter tormentor of other people's affairs, an inhuman judge, an opponent of God, the root of blasphemy...

    Pride is the poverty of the soul, which dreams of itself that it is rich, and, being in darkness, thinks that it has light.

    The proud is like an apple, rotten on the inside but shining with beauty on the outside.

    The proud person has no need for the tempting demon; he himself became a demon and adversary for himself.”

    What gives rise to the passion of pride

    The Holy Fathers talk about two types of pride: carnal, material and spiritual - the pride of the perfect.“There are two kinds of pride: the first is that which, as we said, affects men of high spiritual life; and the other captures the beginners and the carnal. And although both of these types of pride raise a destructive exaltation both before God and before people, however, the first directly relates to God, and the second actually concerns people...

    This is the reason for the first fall and the beginning of the main passion, which then, through the one who was first wounded by it, crept into the primordial, and gave rise to the whole multitude of passions. And he - the primordial one - having believed that by the mere power of his free will and his own efforts he could achieve the glory of the deity, he also lost that which he received through the goodness of the Creator.

    Thus, examples and testimonies of Holy Scripture most clearly prove that the passion of pride, despite the fact that in the order of spiritual warfare is the very last, at the beginning, however, is the very first and is the source of all sins and crimes. Not like other passions, it destroys not only the opposite virtue, that is, humility, but it is the destroyer of all virtues together and tempts not just some mediocre and insignificant ones, but especially those who stand at the height of power. For this is how the prophet mentions this spirit: his chosen food (Hab. 1:16). Therefore, blessed David, although he guarded the secrets of his heart with such attention, that to Him from whom the secrets of his conscience were not hidden, he boldly proclaimed: Lord, my heart is not exalted, lower are my eyes exalted, lower do we walk in the great; lower in wonder than me (Ps. 130:1); and again: do not live in the midst of my house and create pride (Ps. 100:7); however, knowing how difficult it is, even for the perfect, to protect himself from any movement of this passion, he did not rely on his own efforts alone, but in prayer asked for help from the Lord, may he allow him to avoid being wounded by the arrow of this enemy, saying: let him not the foot of pride will come to me (Ps. 35:12), (i.e., do not forbid me, Lord, to take any step towards instilling pride) - fearing and dreading, lest I be subjected to what is said about the proud: God resists the proud (James 4:6), and also: everyone who is high-hearted is not pure before God (Prov. 16:5)

    This is what humility before God actually consists of, this is what the faith of the most ancient saints consists of. fathers, which remains even hitherto untainted among their successors. This faith of theirs is unquestionably evidenced by the apostolic powers they demonstrated not only among us, but also among the infidels and those of little faith.

    Joash, king of Judah, at first had a commendable life; but then, having become proud, he was given over to dishonorable and unclean passions, or, according to the Apostle: the mind is not skilled in doing inappropriate things (Rom. 1:26,28). This is the law of God’s truth, that whoever is unrepentantly puffed up with the proud exaltation of his heart, gives himself over to the most vile carnal shame, so that, being humiliated in this way, he will feel that if he now turns out to be so defiled, it is because before he did not want to recognize the deepest and the most important impurity from proud exaltation, and so that, realizing this, he becomes jealous to cleanse himself of both passions [abbr. paraphrase].

    So, it is obvious that no one can achieve the final limit of perfection and purity except through true humility, which he, visibly testifying before his brethren, also expresses before God in the secrets of his heart, believing that without His protection and help, at every moment visiting him, he cannot in any way achieve the perfection that he desires and towards which he flows with effort.”

    Carnal pride

    We also call carnal pride worldly pride or worldly pride.
    “Carnal... pride if... without the proper zeal of the beginning<воцерковления христианина, не позволяет>for him to descend from his former worldly arrogance to the true humility of Christ, at first makes him rebellious and stubborn<прихожанином>; then it does not allow him to be meek and courteous, as well as to behave on a par with all the brothers<и сестрами>and live like everyone else, without standing out; especially does not concede, so that, according to the commandment of God and our Savior, he is stripped of all earthly acquisitions<и земных временных, часто порочных пристрастий>; and meanwhile, so...<удаление>from the world there is nothing else but a demonstration of the death of everything and the cross, and cannot in its true form be begun and built on other foundations than to recognize oneself not only as spiritually dead to all the affairs of this world, but to believe that one has to die bodily every day ".

    Carnal pride as worldly pride prompts a Christian to seek vain earthly glory and comfort, convenience, various blessings and temporary pleasures of this world.

    Spiritual Pride

    This type of pride is tempted by perfect people who have succeeded in deeds and virtues.

    “This kind of pride is not known to many and is experienced by many, because not many try to acquire perfect purity of heart in order to reach such warfare. It usually fights only those who, having conquered all other passions, are already almost at the very top of virtues. Our most cunning enemy, since he could not overcome them, attracting them to a carnal fall, is now trying to stop them and cast them into a spiritual fall, plotting through him to deprive them of all their former fruits, acquired with great difficulty.<нас, опутанных>carnal passions...<враг>stumbling with rude and, so to speak, carnal arrogance. And therefore, about this, into which we are in danger of falling, especially we or people of our measure, and especially the souls of young or beginners<христиан>» .

    Monastic pride

    “A monk who has not begun his renunciation of the world so well can never embrace the true, simple humility of Christ. He will not cease either to boast of the nobility of his family, or to be arrogant about his former worldly rank, which he left only in his body and not in his heart, or to be proud of the money he kept to himself for his own destruction, because because of it he can no longer calmly bear the yoke of monastic order. , nor obey the instructions of any elder."

    Stages of Pride

    The conditions for the development of pride can be divided into three stages.“The flash of lightning foretells a thunderclap, and pride foretells the appearance of vanity.”

    “The beginning of pride is the rooting of vanity; the middle is humiliation of one’s neighbor, shameless preaching about one’s labors, self-praise in the heart, hatred of reproof; and the end is rejection of God’s help, arrogant reliance on one’s own diligence, demonic disposition.”
    By carefully observing ourselves, we can understand what phase of the disease we are in.

    “It is another thing to be arrogant, another thing to not be arrogant, and another thing to be humble. One judges all day long; the other does not judge anything, but does not condemn himself either; and the third, being innocent, always condemns himself.”

    How passion manifests itself

    “Do you want to know more precisely the measure of the power of this cruel tyrant, let us remember how such an angel, who was called Lucifer for the excessiveness of his brilliance and beauty, was cast out of heaven for nothing other than this passion, and how he, wounded by the arrow of pride , from such a high rank of blessed angels fell into the underworld. So, if such an incorporeal force, adorned with such significant advantages, one elevation of the heart could cast down from heaven to earth, then with what vigilance we, clothed with mortal flesh, must beware of this, this shows the greatness of that destructive fall. And how we can avoid the most destructive infection of this passion, we can learn this by tracing the beginning and causes of the said fall. For it is impossible to cure any illness or determine medicines against any diseases, if their origins and causes are not first explored through careful research. This (archangel), clothed in divine light, shining more than other higher powers due to the generosity of the Creator, imagined that he possessed this brilliance of wisdom and this beauty of virtue, which he was adorned by the grace of the Creator, with his natural powers, and not due to the generosity of God. And having ascended for this reason, he considered himself equal to God, as if he had no need for anything, like God, as if he had no need for divine help to remain in such purity. So he relied entirely on the power of his free will, believing that it alone would provide him in abundance with everything he needed for complete perfection in virtues and for the continuity of supreme bliss. This one thought became the first cause of his disastrous fall. For her sake, having been abandoned by God, of whom he considered himself to have no need, and immediately becoming unstable and clingy, he felt the weakness of his own nature, and lost the bliss that he had enjoyed as a gift from God. Thus, because he loved the verbs of the flood, in which, magnifying himself, he said: I will ascend into heaven (Is. 14:13); and a flattering tongue, with which, deceiving himself, he said: and I will be like the Most High; how he later deceived Adam and Eve, inspiring them: you will be like gods; then here is his sentence: for this reason God will completely destroy you, delight you, and drive you away from your village. They will see the righteous, and they will fear, and they will laugh at him, and they will say: “Behold, man, who has not made God a helper for himself, but trusts in the abundance of his wealth, and what he can achieve through his vanity” (Ps. 51:6-9). The last words (behold man) can very rightly be addressed to those who hope to achieve the highest good without God’s protection and help.”

    What happens to those who are overcome by pride?

    “Whoever is overcome by pride considers it humiliating for himself to observe any rules of subordination or obedience, he even reluctantly listens to the general teaching about the perfection of spiritual life, and sometimes he has a complete aversion to it, especially when, convicted by his conscience, he accepts the suspicion that it deliberately directed against him. In the latter case, his heart becomes even more hardened and flares up with anger. After which he has a loud voice, rude speech, an obstinate and bitter answer, a proud and agile gait, and uncontrollable talkativeness. Thus, it happens that a spiritual conversation not only does not bring him any benefit, but, on the contrary, turns out to be harmful, becoming for him a reason for greater sin [abbr.].”

    How carnal pride manifests itself, signs of pride

    “Carnal pride is manifested in these actions: in speaking there is loudness, in silence - annoyance, in gaiety - loud, spreading laughter, in sadness - meaningless gloominess, in response - causticity, in speech - lightness, words that come out at random without any participation of the heart. She does not know patience, is alien to love, is bold in inflicting insults, is cowardly in enduring them, is difficult to obey if her own desire and will does not precede it, is not susceptible to admonitions, is incapable of renouncing her own wills, and is extremely incapable of submitting to others. stubborn, always strives to stand by her decision, but never agrees to give in to another; and thus, it happens that, having become unable to accept saving advice, she trusts her own opinion more than the reasoning of the elders.”

    “Pride lifts the proud to great heights and from there casts him into the abyss.
    Pride sickens those who fall away from God and attribute good deeds to their own strength.”

    “The humble one... is not curious about incomprehensible objects; the proud one wants to explore the depth of the Lord’s destinies...

    Whoever in a conversation stubbornly wants to defend his opinion, even if it is fair, let him know that he is possessed by a devilish illness (pride); and if he does this in conversation with equals, then perhaps the reproof of his elders will heal him; if he treats his greatest and wisest people this way, then people cannot heal this disease.

    I once asked one of the most skillful elders, how does obedience have humility? He answered: a prudent novice, even if he raises the dead, and receives the gift of tears, and achieves deliverance from battles, always thinks that this is accomplished by the prayer of his spiritual father, and remains alien and far from vain exaltation; and can he be proud of what, as he himself realizes, he did with the help of another, and not with his own efforts?

    A saving sign of humility is to have a humble way of thinking even during great deeds and achievements, but a sign of destruction, that is, pride, is when someone is exalted even in small, insignificant deeds.

    “If a form of destruction, that is, pride, is when someone is exalted in small and insignificant deeds; then the saving sign of humility is to have a humble way of thinking even during great undertakings and corrections.

    I once caught this crazy charmer in my heart, carried into it on the shoulders of her mother - vanity, tying both with bonds of obedience and beating them with the scourge of humility, I forced them to tell me how they entered my soul? Finally, under blows, they said: “We have no beginning; nor birth, for we ourselves are the directors and mothers of all passions. One of our enemies antagonizes us a lot - contrition of heart, born of obedience. But to be subordinate to someone - we cannot stand this; That is why we, who were leaders in heaven, retreated from there. To put it briefly: we are the parents of everything that is contrary to humility; – and what promotes it resists us. However, if we appeared in heaven in such power, then where will you run away from our presence? We very often follow the patience of reproaches; for the correction of obedience, and lack of anger, and forgetfulness of malice, and service to others. Our offspring are the downfalls of spiritual men: anger, slander, vexation, irritability, outcry, blasphemy, hypocrisy, hatred, envy, bickering, self-will, disobedience. There is one thing - why we do not have the strength to resist - being strongly beaten by you, we will tell you this too - if you sincerely reproach yourself before the Lord, you will despise us like a spider’s web. You see,” said pride, “humility and self-reproach will laugh at the horse and its rider, and with sweetness they will sing this victorious song: I will sing to the Lord, gloriously 6o glorified: the horse and the rider were cast into the sea (Ex. 15:1), i.e. into the abyss of humility."

    “A proud person does not tolerate superiority over himself - and when he encounters it, he either envies or competes. Rivalry and envy stick together, and whoever has one of these passions has both of them...

    If you see a person who is disobedient, proud and wise about himself, then his root is already half dead; because it does not accept the fatness imparted by the fear of God. And if you see a silent and humble person, then know that his root is strong; because he is drunk with the fatness of the fear of God...

    Who has...<гордость>, he is tormented by the success of others; but whoever is not, he does not grieve. This one, when honor is shown to another, is not embarrassed; when another is elevated, he does not worry, because he gives preference to everyone, prefers everyone to himself.”

    How passion works

    “The unclean spirit of arrogance is resourceful and diverse and uses all its efforts to prevail over everyone: it captures the wise with wisdom, the strong with strength, the rich with wealth, the handsome with beauty, the artist with art.

    And he does not allow those who lead a spiritual life to be tempted in the same way and sets his nets: for those who renounce the world - in renunciation, for the abstinent - in abstinence, for the silent - in silence, for the non-covetous - in non-covetousness, for the man of prayer - in prayer. He tries to sow his tares in everyone.”

    “There is no other passion that so destroys all virtues and so exposes and deprives a person of all righteousness and holiness, like this evil pride: it, like some kind of all-encompassing infection, is not content with relaxing one member or one part, but damages the whole body with fatal disorder and the virtues already standing at the heights are attempted to be overthrown by a severe, extreme fall and ruined. Every other passion is content with its limits and its goal, and although it disturbs other virtues, it is mainly directed against one, it is primarily pressed and attacked. Thus, gluttony, that is, the passion for gluttony or sweet eating, spoils strict abstinence, lust defiles purity, anger drives away patience. So sometimes a person devoted to one passion is not completely alien to other virtues, but after the destruction of that one virtue, which falls from the jealously armed passion opposite it, he can at least partially hold back the others; and as soon as this one takes possession of the poor soul, then, like some fierce tyrant, after taking the highest fortress of virtues (humility), their entire city completely destroys and ravages the once high walls of holiness, leveling and mixing them with the soil of vices, no later he does not allow the sign of freedom in the soul, subjugated to him, to remain. The richer the soul he captivates, the more severe the yoke of slavery he subjects it to, stripping it of all the property of its virtues with the cruelest robbery.”

    “Just as someone who stands on a web falls through and is carried down, so he who relies on his own strength also falls...

    Rotten fruit is of no use to the farmer, and the virtue of the proud is indecent to God...

    Just as the weight of the fruit breaks a branch, so pride overthrows a virtuous soul.

    Do not betray your soul to pride - and you will not see terrible dreams; because the soul of the proud is abandoned by God and becomes the delight of demons...

    The prayer of the humble bows down God, but the petition of the proud insults Him...

    When you rise to the heights of virtues, then you have a great need for protection; for if someone standing on the floor falls, he will quickly get up, but someone who falls from a height is in danger of dying.”

    “Where the Fall took place, pride was established there first; for pride is the harbinger of fall...

    Those who are captivated by pride need God’s extreme help for deliverance; for human means to save him are unsuccessful...

    Whoever says that he feels the fragrance of humility even during praise, although his heart moves little; Let him not be deceived, for he is deceived...

    He who is inwardly proud of his tears and condemns in his mind those who do not cry, is like one who asked the king for a weapon against his enemy and killed himself with it.”

    “If you are healthy in body, then do not be arrogant and be afraid.”

    How to treat the passion of pride

    “How great an evil is pride when there are few angels and other forces opposing it to oppose it, but for this purpose God Himself is raised up. It should be noted that the apostle did not say about those who are entangled in other passions that they have God opposing them, that is, he did not say: God opposes gluttons, fornicators, the wrathful, or lovers of money, but only the proud. For those passions either turn only on each of those who sin with them, or, apparently, are unleashed on their accomplices, that is, other people; and this one is actually directed against God and therefore especially deserves to have Him as an opponent.”

    “When you fall, sigh and when you succeed, do not be arrogant. Do not magnify yourself because you are blameless, lest instead of beauty you be clothed with shame.”

    “He who rejects reproof reveals the passion of pride; and whoever accepts it has been freed from the bonds of pride.”

    One wise old man admonished his proud brother; but this one, blind in soul, said: “Forgive me, father, I am not at all proud.” Then the wise old man objected: “How can you, my son, more clearly prove that you are proud, if not by the assurance that there is no pride in you.
    It is most useful for people of a proud disposition to be obedient, to lead a life that is rude and despicable, and to read stories about the harmful consequences of pride and supernatural cures for it...

    Let us not stop testing ourselves and comparing our lives with the lives of the saints who came before us. fathers and luminaries; and we will find that we have not yet taken a step to follow in the footsteps of the lives of these great men - we have not even fulfilled our vow as we should, but we are still in a worldly dispensation...

    Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory, - said someone in the feeling of the soul (Ps. 113:9); for he knew that human nature, being so weak, cannot accept praise harmlessly. From this is my great praise in the Church (Ps. 21:26), in the next century; and before that I can’t take it safely...

    If pride turned some of the angels into demons; then, without a doubt, humility can make angels out of demons. So, let the fallen be bold, trusting in God.

    People can correct the prodigal, angels can correct the wicked, and God Himself heals the proud...

    Visible pride is healed by sorrowful circumstances; and the invisible - before the Invisible Age."

    Do not take credit for the works and glory of God

    “We can avoid the snares of this most obscene spirit if we speak with the apostle about each of the virtues in which we feel ourselves succeeding: not I, but the grace of God is with me; - and: by the grace of God I am (1 Cor. 15:10); - and: God is the One who works in us, both to will and to do good (Phil. 2:13); - as the Accomplisher of his salvation Himself says: He who is in Me, and I in him, will do the same. The fruit is abundant: for without Me you can do nothing (John 15:5); - and the psalmist sings: unless the Lord builds a house, those who build it labor in vain; unless the Lord preserves the city, it will be built in vain (Ps. 126:1). And none of the willing and current will is sufficient to ensure that one clothed with flesh warring against the spirit can, without the special protection of divine mercy, achieve perfect purity and immaculateness and for this be worthy of receiving what he so strongly desires and for which he so flows. For every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights (James 1:17). Why imashi, did you accept him? Even if you accepted that you boasted, it was not accepted (1 Cor. 4:7).”

    Attributing to oneself the works of God is the greatest madness. He will escape it who will do everything for the glory of God.

    “I do not say this so that, by disparaging human efforts, I would like to discourage anyone from caring and intense work. On the contrary, I resolutely affirm - not my opinion, but the elders - that perfection cannot be achieved in any way without them, and by them alone, without the grace of God, it cannot be brought to the proper degree by anyone. For just as we say that human efforts by themselves cannot achieve it without the help of God, we also affirm that the grace of God is communicated only to those who work in the sweat of their brow or, in the words of the Apostle, is given only to those who want and are willing, judging by the fact that in Psalm 88 is sung on behalf of God: He placed help on the strong, He lifted up the chosen one from among men (v. 20). Although, according to the word of the Lord, we say that it is given to those who ask, it is opened to those who ask, and it is found to those who seek; but asking, searching and pushing in themselves are not sufficient if God’s mercy does not give what we ask, does not open what we are pushing into, and does not allow us to find what we are looking for. It is ready to give us all this as soon as we give it the opportunity by bringing our good will: for much more than we desire and expect our perfection and salvation. And blzh. David was so deeply aware of the impossibility of achieving success in his business and labor through his own efforts alone, that with a redoubled petition he asked to be worthy, so that the Lord Himself would correct his deeds, saying: “And correct the work of our hands on us, and correct the work of our hands” (Ps. 89:17 ); - and again: God strengthen this which you have done in us (Ps. 67:29).

    So, we must strive for perfection in such a way, diligent in fasting, vigils, prayers, contrition of heart and body, so that, inflated with pride, we do not make all this in vain. We must believe that not only cannot we achieve perfection through our own efforts and labors, but also the very thing that we practice in order to achieve it, that is, ascetics and various spiritual works, we cannot accomplish as it should without the help of God’s grace.”

    “Look at your nature, that you are earth and ashes and will soon be resolved into dust; Now you’re great, but after a while you’ll be a worm. Why are you raising a neck that will soon rot?
    A man is something great when God helps him; and as soon as he is abandoned by God, he recognizes the weakness of his nature.

    You have nothing good that you would not receive from God. Why do you boast of a stranger as if you were your own? Why do you boast about the given grace of God as if it were your own acquisition?

    Recognize the Giver and do not boast too much; You are a creature of God, do not separate yourself from the Creator.

    God helps you, do not deny the Benefactor; You have ascended to the heights of life, but God has guided you; excelled in virtue, but God acted in you; Confess the Exalted One, so that you may remain unshakably on high.”

    “It is a shame to be proud of other people’s jewelry, and it is extreme madness to be proud of God’s gifts. Exalt yourself only in those virtues that you accomplished before you were born; and those that you performed after birth were given to you by God, as well as birth itself. If you have corrected any virtues without the help of your mind, then let them only be yours, because the mind itself has been given to you by God. And if you showed any feats without a body, then they were only due to your diligence; for the body is not yours - it is God’s creation.

    Do not rely on your virtues until you hear the last saying about you from the Judge; for in the Gospel we see that the one who was already reclining at the wedding supper was bound hand and foot and cast out into utter darkness (Matthew 22:13).”

    Humility and fear of God

    Humility is a virtue, healing pride, fear of God is an inoculation against pride.
    Successful in spiritual life is considered to be successful in humility, repentance, meekness and love. He who does not strive in humility walks in danger of spiritual destruction at any moment.

    “So, if we want our building to rise to the very top and be pleasing to God, then we will try to lay the foundation for it not according to our self-indulgent will, but according to the exact teaching of the Gospel, according to which such a foundation can be nothing other than the fear of God and humility , generated by meekness and simplicity of heart. Humility cannot be acquired without stripping oneself of everything, without which it is impossible to establish oneself either in good obedience, or in firm patience, or in unperturbed meekness, or in perfect love; and without these our hearts cannot at all be the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, as the Lord proclaims about this through the prophet: to whom will I look but to him who is meek and silent and trembles at My words (Isa. 66:2).”

    “A pole supports a branch laden with fruit, and the fear of God supports a virtuous soul.

    Humility is the crown of the home and keeps the one who enters safe.

    A golden setting befits a precious stone, and the humility of a husband shines with many virtues.

    Do not forget your fall, even though you repent; but remember your sin by crying to your humility, so that, having humbled yourself, if necessary, cut off your pride.”
    “When holy humility begins to flourish in us, then we will begin to despise all human praise and glory. When it matures, then we will not only consider our good deeds as nothing, but also consider them an abomination, thinking that we daily strive to the burden of our sins with a waste of virtues unknown to us.

    Diligent repentance and crying, cleansed of all filth, erecting a temple of humility in the heart, destroy the shack of pride fenced in on the sand [peripheral].

    The end of all passions is vanity and pride, for anyone who does not pay attention to himself. Their destroyer - humility - keeps his partner unharmed from all deadly poison (passions).

    Pride and attitude towards neighbors

    Pride inevitably leaves its mark on our relationships with neighbors, relatives, employees, colleagues and just people around us. At the same time, the nature of these relationships shows to what extent a person is infected with the passion of pride.
    “Recognize your fellow natural being that he is of the same essence as you, and do not deny your kinship with him out of arrogance.

    He is humbled, and you are exalted; but one Creator created both.

    Do not despise the humble; he stands stronger than you - he walks on the ground - and will not fall soon; but the tall one, if he falls, will be crushed.

    Do not look at the fallen with an arrogant thought that puffs you up as if you were a judge, but listen to yourself with a sober thought - a tester and appraiser of your deeds.”

    “When a horse runs alone, it seems to him that he is running quickly; but when he is running with others, then he becomes aware of his slowness. (Compare yourself with the best and avoid self-importance).

    If you want to acquire an unyielding love for prayer, first train your heart not to look upon the sins of others, but the forerunner of this must be hatred of vanity.

    If we want to comprehend ourselves, let us not stop testing and torturing ourselves; and if we hold in the true feeling of our souls that each of our neighbors is superior to us, then God’s mercy is not far from us.

    While in the hostel, pay attention to yourself and do not at all try to appear more righteous than other brothers in any way; otherwise you will do two evils: you will offend the brethren with your false and feigned jealousy and you will give yourself a reason for arrogance.

    Be zealous, but in your soul, without at all showing this in external behavior, neither in appearance nor in any word; nor a fortune-telling sign; Be like your brothers in everything to avoid arrogance.

    If anyone notices that he is easily overcome by arrogance and irascibility, deceit and hypocrisy, and wants to draw against these enemies the double-edged sword of meekness and gentleness: let him hasten to enter, as it were, into the whitewash of salvation, into the council of brethren - and, moreover, the most severe ones, when he wants completely get rid of your vicious habits; so that there, shaken by the annoyances, humiliations and worries of the brethren and struck by them mentally, and sometimes sensually depressed, trampled and struck by the heels, he could cleanse the robe of his soul from the filth that exists in it.”

    “Do not condemn your brother for his inconstancy, lest you yourself fall into the same weakness...

    Let<христианин>has himself from the last to be the last - and will gain confidence for himself.

    For he who humbles himself will be exalted, and he who is exalted will humble himself (Luke 18:14).

    Do you want to be great? – Be the least of all (Mark 9:35).

    If you see that your brother is sinning, and you see him the next morning, then do not despise him, recognizing him as a sinner in your thoughts: for you do not know that, perhaps, when you left him, after his fall he did something good and appeased Gentlemen with sighs and bitter tears.

    We must refrain from judging others; each of us must humble himself, speaking about himself with the words of the psalm: my iniquities have surpassed my head, like a heavy burden weighs heavily on me (Ps. 37:5).”

    Fighting proud thoughts

    The grace of God leaves a person as soon as he accepts a proud thought. This is how these thoughts differ from all others.

    “Demons approached one of the most sensible brothers and pleased him. But this humble man said to them: “If you would stop praising me in my soul, then from your departure I would conclude that I am great; If you do not stop praising me, then from your praise I see my uncleanness; For everyone who is high-hearted is dishonorable before the Lord (Prov. 16:5). So, either step away, so that I consider myself a great man; or praise - and through you I will gain great humility.” They were so struck by this double-edged sword of reasoning that they immediately disappeared.

    Unclean demons secretly placed praise in the heart of one attentive ascetic. But he, being instructed by divine inspiration, knew how to defeat the wickedness of the spirits with such pious cunning: he wrote on the wall of his cell the names of the highest virtues, i.e. perfect love, angelic humility, pure prayer, incorruptible purity and others like that. When later his thoughts began to praise him, he told them: “Let’s go to reproof,” and, going up to the wall, he read the written titles and added: “When you acquire all these virtues, know that you are still far from God”...

    Keep a vigilant eye on pride, for among seductions there is nothing more destructive than this passion.”

    “Humble the thought of pride before pride humbles you. Bring down the thought of arrogance before it brings you down. Crush lust before lust crushes you...

    If the spirit of pride, or covetousness, or wealth disturbs you, then do not get carried away by it, but, on the contrary, stand courageously against the armies of the evil and flattering spirit. Imagine in your mind ancient buildings, dilapidated images, pillars eaten away by rust - and think with yourself, and see where the owners and builders of all this are; and try to please the Lord, so that you may be considered worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven: for all flesh is like grass, and all the glory of man is like the flower of grass (1 Pet. 1:24). What is higher and more glorious than royal dignity and glory? But kings also pass away, and so does their glory. But those worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven do not experience anything like this, being in peace and joy in heaven with the angels, without illness, sadness and sighing, in joy and joy, praising, glorifying and magnifying the King of Heaven and the Lord of all the earth.

    If you come to the service of God first of all and stand until the end, do not let this thought puff you up; for arrogance is like a hole in which a serpent nests and kills the one who comes near.”

    Signs of disappearing pride

    “The signs of the disappearance of pride and the establishment of humility are the joyful acceptance of reproaches and humiliations, the quenching of rage and disbelief in one’s virtues.”

    Blasphemous thoughts

    Blasphemous thoughts are among those that come from pride and indicate infection with it.

    “Blasphemous thoughts are born from pride, but pride does not allow them to be revealed to the spiritual father. Why does it often happen that this calamity plunges others into despair, destroying all their hope, like a worm eating away a tree.

    There are no thoughts that (due to pride) are as difficult to confess as a blasphemous thought; therefore, it often remains in many until old age. But, meanwhile, nothing strengthens demons and evil thoughts against us so much as the fact that we do not confess them, but conceal them in our hearts, which feeds them.

    No one should think that he is guilty of blasphemous thoughts; for the Lord is a knower of the heart and knows that such words and thoughts are not ours, but those of our enemies.
    Let us learn to despise the spirit of blasphemy and, without paying any attention to the thoughts it puts in, say to it: follow me, Satan; I worship the Lord my God and serve Him alone; Let your illness and your words be turned on your head, and let your blasphemy come down on your top, in this present age and in the future (Ps. 7:17).

    He who despises this enemy is freed from his torment; and whoever intends to fight him in a different way will prevail. He who wants to conquer spirits with words is like someone who tries to block the winds.”

    Humility and thanksgiving to God. Humility

    “We must always give thanks to God not only for the fact that He created us rational, endowed us with the ability of free will, bestowed the grace of baptism, gave knowledge of the law to help us, but also for what He gives us with His daily providence for us, namely: frees us from the slander of the enemy, helps us overcome carnal passions, covers us without our knowledge from dangers, protects us from falling into sin, helps and enlightens us in the knowledge and understanding of the requirements of His law, secretly breathes contrition for our negligence and sins, saves us, deigning a special visit, sometimes even against our will draws us to salvation. Finally, our freest will, more prone to passions, directs us to better, soul-beneficial action and turns us onto the path of virtue by visiting Its influence on it...

    Why should the warrior of Christ, who, legitimately struggling in spiritual deeds, desires to be crowned by the Lord, try in every possible way to destroy this fiercest beast as the devourer of all virtues, being confident that as long as he is in his heart, not only will he not be able to free himself from all passions, but what if he acquires some virtue, and she dies from his poison. For the building of virtues cannot be erected in our soul in any way unless the foundations of true humility are first laid in our hearts, which, being most firmly built, alone can strongly hold back the erected building of perfection and love. For this, we must, firstly, express true humility before our brethren with sincere disposition, not allowing ourselves to sadden or offend them in any way, which we cannot do in any way unless, out of love for Christ, true renunciation of everything is deeply rooted in us , consisting in completely stripping oneself of all acquisition; secondly, we must accept the yoke of obedience and submission in simplicity of heart and without any pretense, so that, besides the Abba’s commandment, no other will lives in us; which cannot be observed by anyone except one who not only considers himself dead to this world, but also considers himself unreasonable and stupid and, without any reflection, does everything that the elders command, out of faith that everything is sacred and is proclaimed from God Himself ...

    When we maintain ourselves in such a mood, then, without any doubt, this will be followed by such an imperturbable and unchanging state of humility that, considering ourselves the lowest of all, we will most patiently endure everything inflicted on us, no matter how futile it may be, offensive or even harmful, as if it were imposed on us by our superior fathers (as obedience or testing). And not only will all this be easily bearable for us, but it will also be considered small and insignificant if, moreover, we constantly keep in our memory and feeling the suffering of our Lord and all the saints, because then the lies we experience will seem to us as much easier as we are far away we are from their great deeds and prolific life. The inspiration for patience that comes from here will be even stronger if we think at the same time that we too will soon move from this world and at the speedy end of our life we ​​will immediately become participants in their bliss and glory. Such thinking is destructive not only for pride, but also for all passions. After this, we should firmly hold such humility before God; what will be fulfilled by us if we harbor the conviction that we ourselves, without His help and grace, cannot do anything that relates to the perfection of virtue, and we sincerely believe that the very thing that we have managed to understand is His gift ".

    “Without humility, all asceticism, all abstinence, all obedience, all non-covetousness, all learning are in vain...

    He who exalts himself prepares for his own dishonor; and whoever serves his neighbor in humility will be glorified...

    A beginner who does not have humility does not have a weapon against the enemy; and he will suffer a great defeat...

    Great is the success and great is the glory of humility, and there is no fall in it. A sign of humility is to meet your brother’s needs with both hands, just as you would accept an allowance yourself.

    The proud and rebellious man will see bitter days; But the humble and patient will always rejoice in the Lord...

    If you study all the Divine Scriptures, be careful not to let the thought puff you up; because all inspired Scripture teaches us humility. And whoever thinks or does the opposite of what he has learned, thereby shows that he is a criminal...

    In every place and in every matter, let humility be with you. For just as the body has a need for clothing, whether it is warm or cold outside; so the soul has an ever-present need to clothe itself with humility. It is better to walk naked and barefoot than to be naked in humility; because the Lord covers those who love it.
    Have a humble way of thinking, so that, having exalted yourself to the heights, you will not be broken in a terrible fall.

    The beginning of humility is submission. Let humility be both the basis and the clothing of your response; Let your speech be simple and friendly in the love of God. High-mindedness does not obey, is disobedient, disobedient, driven by its own thoughts. But humility is obedient, submissive, modest, giving honor to both small and large...

    There is no humility in this for a sinner to consider himself a sinner: but humility consists in recognizing that there is much and greatness in oneself, and not imagining anything great about oneself. A humble person who is like Paul, but says about himself: I am nothing in myself (1 Cor. 4:4), or: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, from whom I am the first (1 Tim. 1:15). So, to be high according to your merits and to humble yourself in your mind is humility.”

    Portrait of a humble man
    Humble

    To know how to gain humility, you need to know what guidelines exist for acquiring this virtue, what to strive for, and what a humble person looks like.

    “The humble man is not vain or proud, serving the Lord out of fear of Him. The humble person does not establish his own will, contradicting the truth, but obeys the truth. The humble person does not envy his neighbor’s success and does not rejoice at his contrition (fall), but, on the contrary, rejoices with those who rejoice and weeps with those who weep. The humble one is not humbled in deprivation and poverty, and does not appear arrogant in prosperity and glory, but constantly remains in the same virtue. A humble person does not become irritable, does not insult anyone, does not quarrel with anyone. The humble man is not stubborn and is not lazy, even if he is called to work at midnight; because he placed himself in obedience to the commandments of the Lord. The humble person knows neither vexation nor guile, but serves the Lord in simplicity, living peacefully with everyone. A humble person, if he hears a reprimand, does not complain, and if he is bitten, will not lose patience; because he is a disciple of Him who endured the cross for us. The humble person hates pride, which is why he does not strive for primacy, but considers himself in this world to be like a temporary swimmer on a ship.”

    Characteristics and Characteristics of a Person with True Humility

    “The distinctive features and signs of a person who has true humility are the following: to consider himself a sinner more than all sinners, who has done nothing good before God, to reproach himself at every time, in every place and for every deed, not to blaspheme anyone and not to be found on earth a person who would be more sinful and negligent than himself, but always praise and glorify everyone, never condemn anyone, never humiliate or slander anyone, remain silent at all times and say nothing unless ordered or absolutely necessary; when they ask and there is an intention or extreme need forces one to speak and answer, then speak quietly, calmly, rarely, as if under duress and with shame; do not expose yourself to the standard in anything, do not argue with anyone about faith or anything else; but if someone speaks well, say to him: yes; and if it’s bad, answer: as you know; to be submissive and abhor your own will as something harmful; always have your eyes cast down on the ground; have your death before your eyes, never idle talk, don’t talk idle, don’t lie, don’t contradict the highest; bear insults, humiliation and losses with joy, hate peace and love work, do not upset anyone, do not hurt anyone’s conscience. These are the signs of true humility; and blessed is he who has them; because here it still begins to be the house and temple of God, and God dwells in him - and he becomes the heir of the Kingdom.”

    Strive for this, and you will become a beloved child and friend of God.

    Basic patristic rules for curing the passion of pride

    Accept other people's reproofs with patience and gratitude.

    Try to be obedient to someone.

    Do not attribute to yourself the works and glory of God: “Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory”; “It is not I who create and do, but the grace of God that is with me.”

    Have humility and fear of God. Despise human praise and glory. Cut off proud thoughts.

    Prayerfully lift up against pride:

    Ps. 135:23).

    Humble yourself and save me (Ps. 114:5).

    Anyone who has a high heart is unclean before the Lord (Prov. 16:5).

    Prayer from pride

    The Holy Fathers left us samples prayer requests and praises that help to sober up from pride.

    “As a remedy against pride, read often the following and other similar passages of Scripture directed against it:

    When you have done all that is commanded you, say: For we are unbreakable servants (Luke 17:10).

    If anyone imagines that he is worthless, he flatters himself with his mind (Gal. 6:3).” . Ibid. pp. 110–111. . Ibid. pp. 112–113. . Ibid S. 521. . Ibid. pp. 114–115. . Ibid. pp. 675–679. . Ibid. pp. 526–527.
    St. Ephraim the Syrian. Ibid. pp. 530–531.
    St. Ephraim the Syrian. Ibid. pp. 521–522.

    prot. Sergiy Filimonov



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