St. John of Kronstadt · 5 of 49

Part I · Part 5

The peace and plenteousness of life in the heart after communion is the greatest, the most inestimable gift of our Lord Jesus Christ, surpassing all the gifts relating to the body which are received at the same time. Without peace of the soul--when the heart is straitened and tormented--the man cannot avail himself of any blessings, either material or spiritual; at that time the delights that come from the feeling of truth, goodness, and beauty do not exist for him, because the very centre of his life--the heart, or the inner man himself--is crushed and slain.

Unite your soul to God by means of hearty faith and you will be able to accomplish everything. Do powerful, invisible, ever-watchful enemies wage war against you? You will conquer them. Are these enemies visible, outward? You will conquer them also. Do passions rend you? You will overcome them. Are you crushed with sorrows? You will get over them. Have you fallen into despondency? You will obtain courage. With faith you will be able to conquer everything, and even the Kingdom of Heaven will be yours. Faith is the greatest blessing of the earthly life; it unites the man to God, and makes him strong and victorious through Him. "He that is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit."

God in His goodness has granted to us, undeserving as we are, to see the sun and its light, and allows us to enjoy it. He will grant to us also to enjoy His own inaccessible light. Let the light of the sun be a pledge to us of this, but especially the tranquil light of the holy glory of the Heavenly Father, His only Son, given to us, and the spirit of love bestowed upon our hearts.

What do I see when I look upon God's world? I see everywhere the extraordinary breadth, the sportiveness of life; in the animal kingdom, amongst quadrupeds, reptiles, insects, birds, and fishes. Now, it may be asked, why should there be this narrowness and sorrowful way of life for man, especially for the man who is zealous and pious? God has everywhere plenteously diffused life, abundance, and gladness, and all creatures, with the exception of men, glorify the Creator by their abundance, their life, and sportive joy. Why, then, is there this discordance between me and the general life? Am I not the creature of the same Creator? The solution of this question is simple. Our life is poisoned, either through our own fault by sin, or by the incorporeal enemy, and especially and chiefly by him in regard to those who have given themselves up to a life of piety. The life of the man--of the true Christian--is in the future, in after ages; there every joy and full blessedness will be opened to him. But here he is only an exile, and is under punishment; here sometimes the whole of nature takes up arms against man for his sins, not to speak of the enemy from time immemorial, who "as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."

Therefore I am not disturbed by the fact that there are joy and abundance everywhere throughout the world, while in myself alone there is often no gladness, so that I look morosely upon the gladness and freedom of God's creatures. I have within me an executioner for my sins--he is ever with me, and strikes me. But there will be joys for me also, only not here, but in the other world.

Looking upon God's world, I see everywhere God's extraordinary bountifulness in the gifts of nature: the surface of the earth is like the richest table, prepared with abundance and variety by the most loving and generous of hosts. The depths of the waters also serve to feed the man. What shall be said of the animals, quadrupeds, and birds? And what bountifulness is manifested in providing food and clothes for man! The Lord's mercies are innumerable. Look at all the earth supplies in summer and in autumn! Every Christian, especially the priest, ought to imitate God's bountifulness. Let your table be open to everybody, like the table of the Lord. The avaricious is God's enemy.

The tree firmly fixed in the earth by its roots grows and brings forth fruit. The soul of a man firmly fixed in God by faith and love, as by spiritual roots, also lives, grows spiritually, and brings forth the fruits of virtue pleasing to God, through which the soul lives now and shall live in the future world. The tree, when uprooted from the ground, ceases to live by the life which it received from the heart through the roots. Similarly, the soul of the man which has lost faith and love to God and does not dwell in God, in Whom alone it can live, spiritually dies. What the earth is to the plants God is to the soul.

In order not to be in daily bondage to the passions and the Devil, you must set yourself an object to aim at, have this object constantly in view, and endeavour to attain it, conquering all obstacles by the name of the Lord. What is this object? The Kingdom of God, the Divine palace of glory, prepared for believers from the creation of the world. But as this object can only be attained by certain means, it also is necessary to have such means at one's disposal. And what are these means? Faith, hope, and love, especially the last. Believe, hope, and love, especially love, disregarding all obstacles; love God above everything and your neighbour as yourself. If you have not sufficient strength to preserve in your heart these inestimable treasures, fall down oftener at the feet of the God of Love. "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" --for He Who has promised is true. Walking, sitting, lying down, conversing, or working, at every time, pray with your whole heart that faith and love may be given to you. You have not yet asked for them as you should ask--fervently and instantly, with the firm purpose of obtaining them. Say now, "I will begin to do so henceforth."

When on your way to God you meet obstacles raised up by the Devil: doubt and unbelief of heart, also a thorough ill-feeling, sometimes towards persons worthy of absolute respect and love, as well as other passions. Do not be disturbed by them, but know that it is but the smoke of the enemy, which will be dispersed at a sign from our Lord Jesus Christ.

What should be our chief care in the education of the young? We must chiefly endeavour that the eyes of their understanding should be enlightened. Do you not notice that our heart acts first in our life and in nearly all our knowledge? The heart sees certain truths (ideas) before the mind knows them. When knowledge is acquired, it happens thus: the heart sees at once, indivisibly, instantaneously; afterwards this single action of the sight of the heart is transmitted to the intellect and subdivided in the intellect into parts or sections, preceding and subsequent; the sight of the heart is analysed in the intellect. The idea belongs to the heart and not to the intellect; that is, to the inner man, and not to the outer one. Therefore, to have the eyes of their understanding enlightened is a very important matter in acquiring all knowledge, but especially in that of the truths of faith and of the laws of morality.

The future life is the perfect purity of the heart, which is now only gradually purified, and which is at present more often shut and darkened by sin and by the Devil's breathing into it, and only at times, under the influence of God's grace, brightens and sees God, being united to Him most truly during prayer and in the Sacrament of the Holy Communion.

How should we keep the festivals? We must celebrate in them either the event (with a view of investigating the greatness of the event, its object, and the fruits it brought to those who believe) or the person; as, for instance, our Lord, the Mother of God, the angels and saints (with the view of investigating the relation of that person to God and to mankind and his beneficial influence upon God's Church in general). It is necessary to investigate the history of the event or of the person whose festival we solemnise, to approach it or him with, our whole heart, to absorb them, so to say, into ourselves; otherwise the festival will be incomplete, and not pleasing to God. The festivals ought to influence our life, to vivify and kindle our faith in future blessings, and maintain in us a pious and gentle disposition. Yet they are mostly spent in sin and folly and met with unbelieving, cold hearts, often wholly unprepared to feel the great mercies which God has vouchsafed to us through the particular event or person whose festival is celebrated.

It may happen that there is much wickedness in your soul. But let it be known to God alone, Who knows everything that is secret and concealed, and do not show all your uncleanness to others; do not corrupt them by the breath of the wickedness concealed within you. Tell God your grief, that your soul is full of wickedness, and that your life is near to hell, but to other people show a bright and pleasant countenance. What have they to do with your madness? Or declare your soul's sickness to your confessor or to a true friend, so that they may teach you, guide you, and restrain you.

Gazing upon heaven, contemplate in its heights the Lord Jesus, for it was from there that He appeared to the pro-martyr Stephen and to Saul, and pray to Him to save you. These appearances of His do not show that He only then opened the heavens and looked down upon these saints through the heavens thus opened, but they show that He is always looking down from the heavens upon us all and sees our actions, words, thoughts, and intentions, as you must have been convinced on many occasions from your own experience when you lifted up your eyes to the heavens and received miraculous and great help from Him; it only means that, in the above-mentioned cases, He revealed Himself and manifested Himself in the heavens.

To sin is both detrimental and foolish; for the sinner despises himself and either turns away from human society or seeks the society of others like him, because his inner condition and the worm gnawing at his heart make any respectable society oppressive to him, as it does not correspond with the character of his own life. The sinner feels straitened in God's wide world, because the world is the work of the Most Holy and Righteous God; and the sinner who does not obey God's laws, the laws of love and peace, is an outcast from God's creation, for whom there is no place in the world. The reason why he feels so straitened is that he is pursued by God, by his own conscience, and by all creation.

Who is it that suffers through doubting, unbelieving, blasphemous thoughts: the object of which the man doubts, in which he does not believe and which he blasphemes, or the man himself, who doubts, does not believe, and blasphemes? The latter. He grows afraid with that fear of which the Psalmist speaks: "There were they brought in great fear even where no fear was." He is tortured by his doubt, unbelief, and blasphemy; whilst the object of his agony remains firm, immovable, and has evidently the better of him, because it makes him change his mind for the sake of his own tranquillity, and does not allow him to grow quite calm until he has repented of his former false opinions and has accepted more favourable and truer ones. Therefore it is foolish to waver and be disturbed, and still more so to become fainthearted and fall into despondency, when during prayer, or at any other time, doubting, unbelieving, blasphemous thoughts occur to you. They are all only enticements of Satan.

Malice, or any other passion that has taken root in your heart, has a tendency—in accordance with the infallible law of evil—to discharge itself outwardly. This is why it is usually said of an evil or angry man that he has vented his anger upon another person or upon another object. It is the worst of evil that it does not remain in the heart, but tries to diffuse itself outwardly. From this it is already evident that the author of evil is great himself, and has a wide domain over which he reigns. "The whole world lieth in wickedness." Like a vapour or gases that have accumulated in a great quantity in a shut-up place strive to rush out, so also the passions, like the breathing of the spirit of evil, having filled the heart, strive to rush out of one man to pour themselves into others, and corrupt, by their ill-odour, the souls of others.

God has granted us existence--the greatest gift of His goodness, and after we had fallen away from Him, from life into death, He gave us for our regeneration, to bring us back to life, His Son. How small in proportion are all the other gifts which we ask of Him in prayer, and how easy it is for Him to give them to us at the first word of true faith, if they are really necessary for us! Therefore it is perfectly unpardonable in us if we still doubt that we shall obtain what we ask of God in prayer. The Lord said plainly: "Ask, and it shall be given you."

Here in this world of vanities, in this adulterous and sinful world, our souls and bodies are continually and often imperceptibly corrupted "by moth and rust, and thieves [mental ones] break through and steal" the treasures of the soul, that is: "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." What is, then, the true remedy against the continual, sinful corruption of these mental thieves? The prayer of repentance and of faith. It revives and vivifies our souls, corrupted by seductive carnal desires, and drives away the mental thieves; it is a scourge for them, whilst for us it is the source of power, life, and salvation. Glory to God for this! Prayer protects and delivers us from sin. It is good for us to live with the prayer of faith in our hearts, for during prayer we live with the Lord, Who has promised all good things to those who ask Him: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." Glory to Thee, Lord, for Thy most true words. Lord! grant to all those who ask of Thee, through my unworthy means, the various blessings, the petitions of their hearts. Amen—so be it!

If you wish that God should speedily give you hearty faith in prayer, strive with all your heart to speak and to do everything in regard to other people sincerely, and never be deceitful in your dealings with them. If you are straightforward and truthful with others, then God will give you straightforwardness and sincere faith also in reference to Himself. Him who is not straightforward in his dealings with other men God does not accept easily when he prays, making him feel that he is insincere with other men, and therefore cannot be perfectly sincere with God.

Man subjected to passions, what is it that you want? Life, you say. About what do you busy yourself? Life. But are you leading the true life? Both reason and experience oblige you to say that you are not. Then what constitutes your life? Reason and experience again tell me faith, hope, and love. The life of the soul is God. A living faith in Him and love to other men like unto myself—these are the peace and breadth of my heart; for without them I am the martyr of sin, the slave, the prisoner of passions, and my life is spent in affliction and constraint.

Even here I rest in Christ and with Christ; how, then, can I do otherwise than believe that eternal rest in Him awaits me after death, and after the struggle against earthly enemies? Here without Christ I feel oppressed and in pain; how can I do otherwise than believe that it will be still more grievous to be without Christ there, when He will finally cast me away from before His face! Thus the present state of our souls foreshadows the future. The future will be a continuation of the present inward condition, only in a modified form as to its degree: for the righteous it will be turned into the fulness of eternal glory; for sinners, into the fulness of everlasting torment.

"It is good for me to draw near to God," said David, who had tasted the sweetness of prayer and praising God. Other men confirm this, and I a sinner also. Observe, even here on earth, to draw near to God is a good and blessed thing (while we are yet in the sinful flesh, which has much that is agreeable and disagreeable in itself). Therefore, what blessedness it will be to be united to God there, in heaven! And the blessedness of union with God here on earth is a specimen and pledge of the blessedness of union with God after death, in eternity. You see, then, how good, merciful, and true the Creator is! In order to assure you of the future blessedness proceeding from union with Him, He allows you to experience the beginning of this blessedness here on earth when you approach Him sincerely. Yes; even here my invisible soul rests in the invisible God; therefore it will still more perfectly rest in Him when it is separated from the body.

The spirit is powerful, mighty, and therefore it easily bears a heavy substance; whilst the flesh is inert, feeble, and is therefore easily overwhelmed by its own natural substance. This is why God by the word of His power upholds all things. Similarly the spirit of a man blessed with grace, by God's help, easily conquers his own flesh, and even the flesh of others (as we see in the saints), easily masters during prayer the meaning of the words, filling them with his spirit; whilst the carnal man is in constant subjection to his flesh, is oppressed by the words of the prayer, which he is unable to endue with the spirit, being flesh himself, or is unable to penetrate into its pure, holy spirit with his own impure, carnal spirit.

Man is constantly perishing through sin, and therefore he requires a constant daily Saviour. This Saviour is Jesus Christ, the Son of God; only call upon Him inwardly with living, clear-seeing faith in your salvation, and He will save you. Thus has He miraculously saved me an innumerable number of times; this salvation was as manifest as, for instance, the visit of any deliverer to a prison from which he frees the prisoner. It is necessary for a priest to experience himself the power of faith, the sweetness of prayer, and the remission of sins, and also to experience cases when prayer is unsuccessful, as well as spiritual afflictions, and the consolations of grace; so that in his prayer to God for the faithful he may say thus, "Give unto them the same blessings as those which Thou always givest to my unworthy self;" and so that he may be able to pray about everything from his own experience.

"He is near to his heart" is said of two persons of unequal rank, one of whom protects the other. And the one who has been honoured by the protection of the higher person, and by being near to his heart, knows this, and is reciprocally near him in his own heart. It is thus between God and those who serve Him with a pure heart: God is always near to their heart, and they are near God's heart. It should also be the same during the prayer of every Christian: when praying we must absolutely be near to God in our heart. All that is good and sincere in our intercourse with our fellow-men should be transferred to God.

Remember that you are always walking in the presence of the sweetest Lord Jesus. Say to yourself oftener: "I wish so to live that my life may gladden my Beloved, crucified for my sake on the Cross. Above all, I will take for the companion and friend of my life my Holy Beloved, Who instils everything into my heart, making me thirst for the salvation of all, rejoicing with those who rejoice, and weeping with those who weep." This will especially comfort my Comforter, Christ.

Parents and teachers! Beware and be most careful not to let your children be capricious; otherwise they will soon forget to value your love; their hearts will be corrupted with wickedness; they will soon lose holy, true, glowing love from their hearts, and, on reaching maturity, they will complain bitterly that in their youth you spoilt them too much and encouraged them in their caprices. Capriciousness is the germ of the corruption of the heart, the rust of the heart, the moth of love, the seed of evil, and an abomination to the Lord.

In the Church especially is accomplished the mystery of the cleansing from sins. Reverence, therefore, the place where your soul is cleansed from all impurities, where you are reconciled to God, where you receive the true life of the spirit. How many times the Lord has here granted me the cleansing from my sins, without which I could not have enjoyed God's gifts--the greatest of life's gifts, the gifts of peace and joy, and earthly blessings besides! Glory to Thee, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. "He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."

Nothing is more changeable than matter; it changes into millions of forms, by natural means according to the laws of the Creator: not to speak of the wonderful changes, for instance, of fire into dew, of water into blood, of water into wine, of the rod into the serpent; even man sometimes changes matter into a thousand different forms. What can therefore be said of God, Who has created everything? The nature of matter is its changeableness. God does not act thus, and does not desire to act thus with a reasonable spirit: the nature of the spirit is its unchangeableness. But to strive to become perfect in good works is the act of a reasonable created spirit. It is the triumph of the spirit over matter that the spirit changes it into thousands of forms. Notice, for instance, how this spirit changes matter in the vegetable kingdom, how endlessly varying are the forms of plants, all growing out of the same soil, with the help of the same light of the sun, the same air, and the same water. And the bodies of animals, how varied they are! Thus the nature of matter is changeableness; upon this condition the world was created in all its variety. Glory to the only eternally, unchangeable God, the All-powerful Creator! Had matter been unchangeable, then God would not have been All-powerful. Glory to the spiritual nature! May it ever conquer the material nature! Ask God to give you unchangeableness in all that is good.

Why is it that we always remember the offences of men, are angry and bear malice against the offenders, whilst the most wicked, the most hurtful and continual offences of the Devil we very soon forget, even though we have been thus offended by him a thousand times a day, while we bear in remembrance the offences of men sometimes for longer than a day? This is the enticement of the Devil! He knows how to deceive us cleverly: whilst offending us himself, he ever screens himself behind our own self-love, as though wishing to gratify us in the beginning by means of the development of a certain passion, though afterwards he always destroys, and bitterness comes to us from him for our foolish, unreasonable self-love. The offences of other people against us he always magnifies a hundredfold, representing them in a false light; and here again he screens himself behind our own self-love, as though he were jealous of our welfare, which other people are seeking to destroy by their offences.

Two forces, in direct opposition to each other, influence us: one good, the other evil; one life-giving and the other deadly. As both are spiritual forces, both are invisible. The good power, through my free and sincere prayer, always drives away the evil power, which is strong only through the evil concealed within me. In order not to be subjected to the continual harassments of the evil spirit, we must constantly have in our hearts this prayer to Jesus Christ: "Jesus, Son of God, have mercy upon me!" Against the invisible one (the Devil) the Invisible God, against the mighty the Mightier.

If men--weak, short-lived, mortal creatures—do so many great and wonderful acts by means of the powers and capabilities they are blessed with; if sometimes many millions of people obey the single word of one man, then what cannot the great Author of all human life do—what will not obey His word? Remember the words of the centurion: "I also," said he, "am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers: and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it." Further- more, if many animals are also gifted with skill to do various wonderful things which cannot even be done by a man—the animals which we trample under foot, which are insignificant and weak—then what is there that cannot be done by the Creator of everything and everybody, Who has bountifully endued all with all skill, all capabilities and powers? If the soulless grass, "which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven," is formed by His word into such delicate and beautiful shapes; if every substance we see is obedient to His word, and changes into incommensurably endless variety at His sign (by means of the five elements only); who then, seeing all this, will require greater pledges of His omnipotence? Wonderful are Thy works, O Lord, at each step and at every moment of life! Heaven and earth are full of the glory of Thy wisdom, of the glory of Thy mercy, and the glory of Thy omnipotence! Thou art not only Thyself the most wise Creator, and constantly manifestest Thyself as such, but Thou also givest the capacity of creating to Thy creatures, so that they create at Thy word, through the powers which Thou hast given them, wonderful and useful things. O, in what splendour Thou hast arrayed Thyself! How we have abased ourselves and our nature of sin!--but how dear and great we are in the sight of God! For our sakes He did not spare His own Son, but clothed Him with our flesh, gave Him our nature, for our salvation. He has prepared for us, from the creation of the world, an everlasting kingdom, and our conversion rejoices good angels. And yet what do we do? We do not even wish to know this, and abase ourselves lower and lower; we slay our souls by various vices and earthly passions. It is sad, inexpressibly sad, to look upon man—a creature created according to God's image—and sad especially to look upon the Christian, found worthy of such a high calling, so much esteemed and so loaded with benefits by God.

Forced prayer develops hypocrisy, renders a man incapable of any occupation requiring meditation and makes him slothful in everything, even in fulfilling his duties. This should persuade all who pray in this manner to correct their mode of praying. We must pray gladly, with energy, from the whole heart. Do not pray to God only when you are obliged to, either in sorrow or in need, for "God loveth a cheerful giver."

In all the temples of the bodies of pious Christians--which are not made with human hands--there is a mental light, the soul, and that light is derived from God the Wise Sun, Who is visible in the world in the same way as the soul is in the body.

I notice how God, the mental Sun, enters and shines in my soul, for then I feel happy, warm, and bright; but when He goes away He leaves the soul in darkness and suffering. As in material nature the darkness is caused by the departure or setting of the sun, so likewise in the spiritual nature the darkness is caused by the departure of the mental Sun from the soul, and by its being covered with the darkness of the accursed one. As in material nature there is always some remainder of light after sunset, by reason of the incomparable size of the sun, so also in the soul there is some remainder of light, even after the departure of the mental Sun, by reason of His omnipresence and by reason of the comparative weakness of the prince of darkness, who, without God's permission, is unable to completely darken the soul. But we must beware also, as the Lord has said, "lest darkness come upon us" completely.