St. John of Kronstadt · 47 of 49

Part II · Part 23

To those who do not read the Gospel. Are you pure, holy, and perfect without reading the Gospel, and is it not needful for you to look in this mirror? Or is it that your soul is so deformed that you are afraid of seeing your deformity? "They looked unto Him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed."

Do not be anxious about money; if you really need it, then God will send it to you, as He did the manna or quails to the Israelites. "The earth is the Lord's, and all that therein is: the compass of the world, and they that dwell therein." First seek the kingdom of God, the salvation of men, their strengthening in faith, the amendment of their lives; strengthen yourself in faith, cleanse your heart, conscientiously fulfil your calling, carefully perform your duties, and everything else, such as money, food, clothing, etc., shall be added to you.

O Holy Trinity, our God! incomplex Being, Who hath created our soul also after Thine image, grant that we may have life and peace in Thee! O Holy Trinity, our Nourisher and Hope! grant that we may ever put our trust in Thee alone, and ever find life and peace in Thee alone! Thou carriest us all, like a mother, in Thine arms, and feedest us all from Thy hands, like the most tender mother! Thou never forgettest us, and wilt never forget us, for Thou Thyself hast said: "Can a woman forget her sucking child? . . . . yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee;" that is, "I will not cease to feed, preserve, protect, deliver, and save thee." Also Thou Thyself hast said: "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." Why, then, are we anxious about our food ? Why are we so greedy ] Why do we surfeit and delight ourselves with dainties? Why do we grudge to share with our neighbour? O impiety! O blindness! O filthy self-love! O want of love for God and our neighbour! For God dwells in the person of our neighbour, and therefore we grudge His own gifts to God Himself. Remember how generously the spirit-bearing Prophet Elisha rewarded the Shunamite woman who received him in her house and entertained him in the simplicity of her heart! He implored God to give her a son, and afterwards, when this son died, he raised him from the dead.

Vain is our life—that is, vainly and for nothing, uselessly, to no purpose are the days of our lives, lost for eternity; we only care about earthly, worldly things, and think but little of eternity. We do not represent to ourselves the future terrible judgment, future torment, and future endless bliss. We all live in a kind of spiritual mist; the flesh and passions have overpowered us, whilst the spirit is oppressed, crushed, stifled. But "behold! the Bridegroom" of our souls "cometh in the middle of the night, and blessed is that servant whom He shall find watchful; but unworthy is he whom He shall find cast down " by worldly cares. "Beware then, my soul, lest thou be weighed down by sleep, lest thou be given over to death, and be shut out from the kingdom; but arise, and cry: 'Holy, holy, holy, art Thou, O God! Through the Mother of God have mercy upon us'"

Believe that the prayer even of one friend of God, especially a priest of God, who lives a holy life, can work wonders upon a considerable part of nature, as the prayers of the prophets Moses, Elijah, and others. Therefore, live in a manner pleasing to God, especially you who are priests of God; be holy, pure, meek, humble, merciful, temperate, laborious, patient, and your prayer shall always penetrate the heavens, and shall be heard and fulfilled. Always pray with your whole heart, and, above all, with a pure heart. " There was given unto the angel much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand." And to you also this incense is given. The censer with the incense ought always to remind you of this—that is, of how easily your prayer for yourself, and "for the errors of the people" and their iniquities, ascends to God and is accepted by Him.

You glorify God by your words, but you do not glorify Him by your deeds. Glorify God above all by your deeds, by temperance, laboriousness, love, mercy, humility, and patience. Do not doubt in any truth: " O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt ?" Woe unto us for our doubt and presumption!

The sacrament of unction with holy oil is spiritual honey, life-giving drink. What a wealth of hope! What prayers! It is an abstract of the whole Gospel.

How little men really require, and how abundantly the Lord bestows His gifts upon us in order that we may supply our brethren with food and drink! We only give away a ladleful from the river, and even this is God's and not ours. And yet we are avaricious, stingy; we grudge every penny, and grow anxious, as though we were threatened with the loss of our life itself. O, how wanting Christians are! O, vain, blind trust in food and drink! O, wiles of the flesh! O, want of Christian simplicity!

"He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood dwelleth in Me and I in him." As an infant carried in its mother's bosom lives wholly by her, so also the Christian communicating of the Body and Blood of Christ dwells in Christ, like an infant in its mother's bosom, and lives wholly by Christ. " As I live by the Father, so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me." In what, then, do you trust besides your Christ, communicant of God's Mysteries, and especially you who are a priest? To what do you cleave ? In what do you seek your life? Is it in money, which made Judas hang himself ? Is it in food and drink? But your incorruptible food is the Body of Christ, of which you so often partake. "Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none on earth that I desire in comparison of Thee . . . God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever."

The malice of the enemy. The more piously a man lives, the more the Devil forces men to anger against him, as was the case with Saul against the pious David. The more holy a person is, the more such an one is blasphemed, as, for instance, the Holy Virgin, Who is more honourable than the cherubim, and incomparably more glorious than the seraphim. The Devil incites us to exalt ourselves before simple-hearted persons, and to despise the simplicity of their faith and the very objects of their faith and reverent worship.

The Word of God says, "Be not drunk with wine "; whilst you builders of public-houses say, " Get drunk with wine," and have built thousands of public-houses to tempt your brethren. And yet you go to church and pray in your homes. "They flatter with their tongues. Destroy Thou them, O God; let them perish through their own imaginations; cast them out in the multitude of their ungodliness; for they have rebelled against Thee."

The Lord is everything good for me and in me; I myself am a moral nothingness and chiefly evil, as my Lord says: "Without Me ye can do nothing." This the Lord says even to every saint. But if the Lord is every good for me and in me, then He is the same also in relation to the saints, for they are also men like unto me. For instance, the saints pray for us by the grace bestowed upon them by God (Revelation v. 8; viii. 3, 4). Had the Lord not given them grace to pray for us, they could not have done so.

Undoubting faith, undoubting hope, undoubting love. Implant these words in your heart, and show them in your life.

In this world be one with others in mutual love and service; then not only the angels and saints will be one with you, but even God Himself, here, and still more there in the future world, when God shall "be all in all." Strive, man, by every means to attain to such union, avoiding any spiritual separation through self-love, pride, envy, covetousness, doubt, and little faith—that they "all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us." Union is God; separation is the Devil. The separation of the Churches was the work of the Devil; heresies, dissent, are the work of the Devil.

If you greedily eat and drink much, then you will be flesh; whilst if you fast and pray, then you will be spirit. "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit." Fast and pray, and you shall accomplish great things. The satiated man is incapable of great works. Have simplicity of faith, and you shall accomplish great things; " for all things are possible to him that believeth." Be watchful and zealous, and you shall do great things.

If "joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth," then what a joyful time for God's good angels our great Lent must be, and particularly the days of penitence and communion— the Fridays and Saturdays! And how greatly priests contribute to this their joy by carefully, paternally confessing their spiritual children! But, on the other hand, there is no more grievous time for the demons than the season of Lent; and therefore they rage more furiously and attack priests, who help God's people to sincerely repent of their sins, with special cruelty, and are especially powerful, both in church and at home, in chilling the hearts of the pious Christians who are zealous in prayer, fasting, and penitence. What pious priest and layman does not know of the demoniacal fury attacking them even during the very performance of the sacrament of penitence? The least negligence on the part of the confessing priest, the smallest unrighteous movement of the heart, and the devils enter into the heart of the priest with all their demoniacal ferocity, and torment him for a long, long while, if he does not immediately drive out these uninvited guests by the most fervent prayer of repentance and lively faith.

Moses' fast was for the intemperance of the Israelites. The sufferings of the saints were for our effeminacy; their fasts and privations for our intemperance and luxury; their fervent prayers are for us who are so slothful in prayer. The fast of our Lord Jesus Christ was for our intemperance. His hands were stretched out on the cross for our hands stretched out towards the forbidden tree and to everything forbidden by the commandments of God. Our prayers are imputed to others for the justification of those for whom we pray, also our exploits and virtues on behalf of others, as, for instance, our prayers for the departed and living and our alms to the poor. Thus the prayers and tears of the mother of Augustine for her son saved Augustine.

At confession do not spare yourself, do not hurry, do not grow agitated and angry with your spiritual children who come to you. Say to yourself: "It is my pleasure to confess my spiritual children in detail; they are the sheep of my Lord. I thus offer the most pleasing sacrifice to my Lord, Who laid down His own life for us, and afford great profit to my spiritual children themselves, as well as to myself, by willingly fulfilling my important duty, and thus obtain peace of conscience."

Why did not the Almighty create the world at once, but in six days? In order to teach man, by deeds, to perform his work gradually, not hurriedly, but with consideration. If you pray, pray without hurrying; if you read the Gospel or, in general, any religious or worldly books, do not read them hurriedly, but read with consideration and with a true view of the matter. If you are learning a lesson, do not hurry to finish it quickly, but penetrate into the subject deeply and consider it well. If you are doing any other work, do it without hurrying, with consideration, quietly. Even the world was not created instantaneously, but in six days. The Lord shows us an example in everything; let us follow in His steps.

The characteristics of the men of the second half of the present nineteenth century are:—self-worship, self-government (autonomy), materialism in life, and spiritual scepticism (incredulity).

I promised you the angelic life, Abraham's bosom, to shine forth like the sun, but you have set at nought My promises, the words of My mouth, in which there was never any falsehood.

Why is it that "Every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment"? Because every idle word brings harm both to the soul of the man who speaks idly and to those who listen to such idle speaking; for it withdraws them from God the Word, Who is incomplex. This is why, during Lent, we ask the Lord that our hearing may not be tempted by idle speaking: "Give me not the spirit of vain speaking."

Bear with humble submission to the will of God every sorrow, every sickness and infirmity, every labour, every offence and disappointment, saying: "Thy Will be done," knowing that God's mercy orders everything for your good, and that the Lord can easily change every disappointment into happiness and joy.

Health and the belly, these are the two idols—especially with men of the present age, of whom I myself, a great sinner, am one—for which we live, and which we continually serve, even to the neglect of the duties of our Christian calling—for instance, to the neglect of the reading of the Word of God, which is sweeter than honey and honey-comb; to the neglect of prayer, that sweetest converse with God, and of the preaching of the Word of God. To walk a great deal for health, and to incite the appetite, to eat with appetite —such are the objects of the desires and aspirations of many of us. But through our frequent walks, through our fondness for food and drink, we shall find that one thing has been neglected, and another irrevocably missed, whilst others have not even entered into our minds; for can the time after a good dinner or supper be really a good time for any serious work! Even if we would like to occupy ourselves with work, the belly, full of food and drink, draws us away from it, and constrains us to rest, so that we begin to slumber over our work. What sort of work can it be? Indeed, there is nothing left, if it is after dinner, but to lie down and rest, and if it is after supper, after having prayed somehow or other (for a satiated man cannot even pray as he should), to go to bed and sleep—the miserable consequence of an overloaded stomach—until the next morning. And in the morning there is another sacrifice to your belly ready in the shape of a dainty breakfast. You get up, pray, of course not with your whole heart—since with our whole heart we can only eat and drink, walk, read novels, go to theatres, dance at evening parties, dress elegantly—and thus you pray, out of habit, carelessly, to save appearances, only as a form, without the essence of the prayer, without lively faith, without power, without any fervour in your petitions, praises, and thanks to the Lord God for His uncountable mercies, and then you hurry again to food and drink. At last, when you have eaten and drunk so much that now, scarcely able to move, you are ready to begin work, if it really is work, and not rather inactivity —such, for instance, as trading with some worldly vanities, accompanied by an abundance of swearing, lying, and cheating. In such or a similar way, with many and many of us, our present life passes away, and our days consume in vanity, whilst we care little for that which is the most important matter on earth—the salvation of our soul. Thus our life is spent mainly in the worship of two brittle idols—health and the belly—and then dress; so much so that many, by worshipping fashion, sacrifice even their health and food, thus going to the other extreme. Furthermore, people worship money, this great god, the Jupiter of our age; for the sake of this idol many sacrifice their health, spending sleepless nights for its sake, swearing falsely for it, violating the laws of friendship for it, becoming cold to their relatives through it, all with the one purpose of accumulating as much money as they possibly can. There are money-lovers who, if it were possible, would turn everything into money, and would live by it, like Judas Iscariot, who wished to turn into money even the precious ointment with which the pious woman who loved her Lord with her whole soul anointed His feet, and then wiped them with her hair. Christian! it is not for your health, belly, dress, and money that you must care; you must strive after love for God and your neighbour, for these are God's two greatest commandments. " He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him."

"All things are possible to him that believeth," because he who believes is one spirit with the Lord. If everything is possible to the believer who lives on earth, though he is°not quite perfect, then still more is it so to him who dwells in heaven in close union with God, and who is most perfect. To the saints God is everything, so that the saints are truly gods. "I [God Himself, Whose word is truth] have said: Ye are gods."

Watch every movement of your heart; consider whether it is pleasing to the Holy Trinity, or if it is not, on the contrary, the will of your old passionate man.

The work of the Lord's hands—the visible and invisible world—testifies to the existence of the Lord of His wisdom mercy, omnipotence. This is why we often hear sung in church the words: "O, all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord." How, then, can some deny the Lord, not seeing Him in His works?

Believe and always steadfastly remember that in whatever place you appear with the Lord's cross—either at a thanksgiving service or upon any other occasion—it always sanctifies the air and all who touch it.

Believe also that during the time of all prayers, thanksgivings, church services, and above all during the Liturgy, the Lord most speedily bestows His blessings in accordance with your prayer, or that of other priests, upon all those who pray sincerely, and pardons them by His Divine Royal mercy. If ye then "being evil know how to give good things unto your children, how much more shall your Father, which is in Heaven, give good things to them that ask Him."

The priests praying on earth for men are the sign and testimony of the heavenly Church praying for us in Heaven, and of the Mediator Christ God Himself. The Saints are kinder than we think, and more speedily than we think they come to our help, in accordance with our prayer.

Unwillingly, faint-heartedly, with murmurings and blasphemy against the Lord, we bear the cruel afflictions of our heart, not seeing the profit which should be derived from patiently and submissively bearing them. We do not wish to see that our heart has waxed gross and has become infected by various passions; that it is proud, adulterous, malicious, and cunning, and cleaves to earthly things; and that it cannot be cleansed and made humble, and become good and submissive to God otherwise than by cruel fiery afflictions and great oppression.

Strengthen me, my God; fortify me, my God; help me, my God! "Save now, I beseech Thee, O Lord; O Lord, I beseech Thee, send now prosperity."

You care for the opinion of men, for human glory; set yourself actively to heal this infirmity of your heart. Think and be anxious only for the glory of God. Consider human dishonour as nothing. When you ought to honour a poor or uneducated and rough father, or mother, or relation, or friend, or acquaintance before distinguished and educated men of this world, or to defend any truth in an assembly that scoffs at it, then have in view God alone and His commandments, also your parents, or the relation, friend, or acquaintance, and God's truth, and be steadfast in your respect for them, without cowardice and shame, without being in the least shamed by those present or by your questioners.

Concerning trust in God's providence. " Can a woman" (a mother) " forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb ? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee," says the Lord. And who could be more tender and careful than a mother of her children? What woman will forget to feed the children of her womb ? But let us even admit that mothers who forsake their children may be found; "But I," says the Lord, "am not like such carnal mothers, and will not forget nor forsake you." What trust, what hope, the Lord Himself inspires in us by these words, in His Providence con- tinually caring for us and never forsaking any one of us! You are sometimes anxious about what you shall eat and drink, and how you shall be clothed; you greatly afflict your heart if you part grudgingly, sorrowfully with your money, when it is necessary to give to another, although you have plenty left, and you thus show that you put your trust and hope in earthly dross. But why are you anxious? Why do you cling to dross? Cling to the heavenly Father; He will not forget you, and will not forsake you. Let the dross forsake you; you will only feel easier without it; for the more money you have, the greater the quantity of this dross that adheres to your heart, the more will your heart which is not earthly be afflicted. There is a saying amongst men that money is no hindrance, however much of it we may have. This is untrue. It greatly hinders our soul from rising upwards, or from meditating upon our heavenly country, and the more we have of it the more it drags our soul down to earth, inciting us to occupy ourselves with various earthly devices, such as buildings, rich furniture in our houses, rich clothes, luxurious viands and drinks, and thus depriving our soul of holy zeal and precious time, during which it ought to be earning future bliss for itself.

The human soul dwells in its body as in a small world. As in olden time, for the iniquities spread over the earth, the Lord, from the midst of the world itself, sent punishment upon men, and the waters, which previously stood in their appointed places, came out from them and flooded the whole earth, so, likewise, for the punishment of each individual man for his sins, He sends punishment from within the man himself, commanding the streams of blood or water (haemorrhage, dropsy) to rush out from their appointed places and to flood the little world of the human body. The Master's punishment is ready for us at every moment; our own body and soul conceal in themselves a multitude of chastisements for those who transgress the commandments of God, the Creator and Judge of all. Thus God punishes us for our sins through ourselves; to chastisements of this kind afflictions and sicknesses also belong. " Wherewithal a man sinneth, by the same also shall he be punished."

When you pray to the Lord, look with your spiritual eyes into yourself, into your soul. The Lord is there, in your thoughts, and in the right movements of your heart, as He is also outside you and in every place. "The Word" (the Lord) " is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart"—that is, not in Heaven only, nor in the deep.

Idle talk, or amusement with trifles in the society of guests, deprives the heart of faith, of the fear of God, and of love for God. Guests are a scourge for a pious heart. Of course, it is understood that I refer to guests who only occupy themselves with trifles. Serious, religiously-minded guests are very different.

Satiety drives away faith and the fear of God from the heart. A satiated man does not feel the presence of God in his heart; heartfelt, fervent prayer is far from him.

You have built yourself a house, or renovated your rooms, with the view of living more comfortably and spaciously, cleaner, lighter, and more cheerfully; you have become rich, or at any rate, well-to-do; all the surroundings of your life are beautiful, and fill your soul with joy. It would seem that it only remains for you to live in peace and rejoice. But no; as soon as you begin to enjoy the fruits of your earthly cares, a hitherto unforeseen source of sorrow reveals itself in your soul, and this sorrow strikes you powerfully, suddenly depriving you of your peace of heart and of the comfort you so longed for. You cease to be interested in anything; nothing seems to exist for you—you feel overburdened by grievous sorrow and deadly anguish. What does this mean? What malicious, envious power falls upon us as soon as we begin to live for our own gratification? Why does our soul begin to grieve and be afflicted at the very time when, in our opinion, it should rejoice? Listen to me, disciple of Christ. You thought to live upon earth in peace and pleasure, when the earthly path must be a most sorrowful and narrow one; you thought to find tranquillity and pleasure in corruptible things and not in Christ, Who alone is the rest and eternal blessedness of our souls; and the Lord—not wishing that we should live here in peace and plenty, and thus forget the one thing needful, the salvation of our soul and our heavenly country, but desiring that we should seek our rest and blessedness in Him alone—allows the Devil, God's enemy and yours, to tempt you, to strike your soul with sorrow and affliction at the time when all your surroundings invite you to joy, comfort, and rest. You thus learn by experience that every earthly enjoyment means vanity and vexation of spirit, and that without God, in spite of all comforts tending to an outwardly happy life, we are but poor, miserable creatures; that to have Christ in our hearts is to possess a rich, beautiful, bright dwelling-place, every adornment, peace, and comfort; and thus bear your sorrow patiently, and steadfastly learn, with your whole heart, the lesson which the Lord teaches you through your affliction. Do not grow faint-hearted and do not despair in God's mercy. " A little affliction and then joy shall shine again. For the Lord is most merciful, and remembers that we are dust, that the days of a man are as grass, that he only flourishes like the flower of the field, which when the wind goeth over it is gone." "And the Lord will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able, but with the temptation will give us abundance of power, so that we may be able to bear it."

Believe heartily that everything that is touched by the life-giving Spirit of God, Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, can be quickened and spiritualised (for instance, He can spiritualise earth, wheat, bread, wood, and stone). Thus He creates from the bread and wine the most pure Body and most pure Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, ever existing with the Father and the Holy Ghost. As the Spirit is single, not complex, all-perfect, He, like thought, enters into a man, or into anything He pleases, in an instant, and even more rapidly. And there is no thing or atom too small for Him: for Him both the infinitely great and the infinitely small in creation, are equally null.

During the life of the Christian there are hours of inconsolable sorrow and sickness, when it seems that the Lord has completely abandoned and forsaken him, for there is not the least feeling of God's presence in the soul. Such hours are the hours of the temptation of the faith, hope, love, and patience of the Christian. "But better times shall soon come for him, and He shall send Jesus Christ, Which before was preached unto you." Soon the Lord will again rejoice him, so let him not fall under temptation.

On great festivals our envious enemy, the Devil, offends, afflicts, and casts us into extreme despondency, either by means of some bodily sickness, vexation and oppression of the spirit, or by means of his spiritual fiery arrows, or by striking us with extreme insensibility and coldness. It will soon become clear to you that the enemy was using his craft against you, and that the cause of your affliction and sickness was not a natural, gloomy state of mind.

The more the outward prosperity of a pious man increases the more furiously Satan rages against him, and fights against him by temptations (wiles), as he did against Job. Therefore, you who love God, when the prosperity of your house increases you must expect to meet with violent attacks from Satan; he will fall upon one or the other member of your family and torment him.