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Part 1. About monasticism
Conversation in the St. Petersburg Trinity Lavra Metochion on the 2nd Sunday of Great Lent, February 22, 1909.
Few people may know that on this second Sunday of Great Lent, the Holy Church celebrates the memory of St. Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki, or Thessalonica.
The greatest ascetic, faster and worker, he is worthily and fully glorified in time during the days of asceticism, fasting, and spiritual labors. The greatest and most zealous defender of the teachings of Orthodoxy on the necessity for a Christian of a lifetime of ascetic achievement and ascetic life; the greatest and ardent defender of so-called asceticism - the necessity and obligation of constant self-education, self-denial, self-restraint, renunciation of the pleasures and pleasures of the world, the greatest defender of monasticism from all accusations and slander against it, with which even in his day they wanted to humiliate, denigrate, disgrace this vow of the pious souls, - may Saint Gregory Palamas be worthy and completely appropriate for the time and place (in this monastery church) now as our leader and teacher in the church teaching word.
It was not only in his time that there were fierce attacks on the teaching of the Church about heroism and asceticism as the essence and basis of the spiritual life of a Christian. Open the so-called leading newspapers, read modern books, listen to our new seekers of religious truth and religious renewal, and you will certainly hear mockery of asceticism and monasticism. Why, they say, all these fasts, standing in church, tears of self-accusation, contrition for sins?! Why these commandments, and requirements, and advice to limit yourself in everything, to refuse the joys of life?! Does Lenten food really save us and does God really need our deeds? All this, they say, was invented by the monks who accepted their teachings from Byzantium. They will tell you that Christianity is a religion of light, fun and joy, and monasticism dresses everything in sadness and black clothing; that Christianity is a religion of life and talks about life, while monasticism keeps talking about death, about death alone. They will tell you that it is not necessary, and that Christ does not require any feat, that asceticism and asceticism are not indicated in the Gospel, that you need to work in the family and public life, and not outside the walls of the monastery. From this you will be led to conclude that monasticism is something unnatural and unnatural, for God gave man peace, family, life for enjoyment, and monasticism requires a severe renunciation of all these benefits. Moreover, they will convince you that the feat of monasticism is a consequence of selfishness, caring only about oneself, about one’s personal salvation, and not about one’s neighbors or the world, that this feat is harmful, in any case, it does not bring benefit to anyone and does not benefit anyone. needed. Who, they ask, benefits from the fact that I denied myself this or that pleasure, or that I ate cabbage and potatoes instead of meat?
Alas, listen to many who call themselves Orthodox and believers, even zealous visitors to the temple of God, and you will also hear from many of them reviews and judgments, either completely identical to those just given, or in any case expressing an open and deep dislike for the teachings of Orthodoxy about asceticism and, in particular, to monasticism and monastic feat. I am convinced that among you, brethren, there are many who have heard all these arguments, and many of you have repeated them yourself.
All this is due to the long communication of Russian people with foreigners and the influence of the German faith, in which, we mean Protestantism, the doctrine of fasting, deeds, vows, and monasticism was really thrown out. Now this German faith is so zealously imposed on us by sectarians - various Baptists, Pashkovites, Stundists, Molokans. And they, like Protestants, completely reject all asceticism, flatter people’s sensuality and thereby lure them into their networks.
Saint Gregory Palamas, before his elevation to the rank of Archbishop of Thessalonica, lived and labored for a long time on Athos; He experienced the monastic feat, saw and knew a lot of ascetics. Possessing, in addition, an extensive education in his time, especially thoroughly knowing the Holy Scriptures, possessing a rare depth of mind and a fiery word, he appeared as a victorious defender of the monastic title and life, heard by the entire world of that time. Even taken prisoner by Muslim enemies, both from captivity and in chains he continued the holy work of victorious defense of pious asceticism.
For such great merits, the Church honors him with praise and dedicated a special day of glorification to him during Lent. This alone should confirm us in the deepest respect that the Holy Church commands us in relation to asceticism and monasticism. This respect is so great that the highest clergy of the Church, as people from whom, naturally and rightly, the highest feat is required, must necessarily have the monastic title. However, for other ministers of the Church, freedom from the monastic rank is given only out of condescension and out of necessity. That is why, the stronger the attacks on the Church, the deeper the moral decline of society, the more fiercely the unbelief rages, the more and more malicious and downright rabid are the attacks on monasticism. And the more the enemies want to quickly overthrow the Church, the more they want, first of all, to reduce the number of monks and monasteries in it, to block everyone’s path to asceticism, to degrade monasticism and its feat in the eyes of everyone. The children of the murderer-devil know that with the fall of monasticism and Orthodoxy, everything Orthodox will fall: faith, life, feat, humility, worship, obedience to church authority... They know this - and with the greater and more crafty malice they take up arms against monasticism.
So, first of all, they say that asceticism in general, monasticism in particular and in particular, is a requirement from a person of something unnatural and even unnatural. Let us agree for a time with such judgments; Let's take his word for it. The feat of monasticism, you say, is unnatural, but what does this mean: the monasteries are overcrowded; How many people want to take monastic vows? Not everyone, of course, knows that, for example, during the reign of our late Tsar, the God-loving sovereign Emperor Alexander III, in twelve years the number of nuns alone in women's monasteries increased by twenty thousand in Orthodox Russia. What does this mean: is this a natural feat or an unnatural one? One has only to open up even a small monastery anywhere, and inhabitants immediately appear in it.
Where were the monasteries founded? From time immemorial they arose in forests, deserts, harsh and unsightly environments, with a “cruel” and difficult life. And yet they did not remain empty. If you look at hoary antiquity, you will see that the Egyptian deserts were like a kingdom of monks, who numbered literally tens of thousands there. If you look at Athos, you will also be amazed at the fact that the whole of Athos is exclusively occupied by dozens of monasteries in which thousands of monks live.
If you take the history of our Orthodox Russian people, you will be amazed to see that hundreds of monasteries arose in ancient times in the Far North, in complete desolation, among wild foreigners, that wild and harsh lands - Arkhangelsk, Olonetsky, Vologda, Vyatka, countries - Moscow , Yaroslavl, Poshekhonskaya monasteries shone like stars, that monks and ascetics walked with their feet into the forests and wilds of this at that time deserted North and everywhere left monasteries, monasteries, shrines and their relics, that the Russian country was truly sanctified by the feet of saints and whitened by the bones of saints. And now look, Transcaucasia, despite all the dangers of life, is filled with monasteries; distant Siberia trusts in the monasteries, calls for monastics, in the Far East itself, on the deserted shores of the Ussuri, the Nikolo-Ussuri holy monastery, the holy offspring of the local Valaam, arises and is already blooming with the piety of monks.
Monasticism put the stamp of holiness on the Russian people's soul and made it akin to feat, accessible to holy needs and attractions to God and heaven. Monasticism left the stamp of order, peace, purity on the Russian family, making it the “home church” of our people, and on the entire way of life of the Russian village and the Russian village, it gave Russian life, as it were, the order and mood of the monastery: obedience to elders, lack of anger, patience their share, trust in the mercy and will of God, indifference to earthly and material goods and conveniences.
Could an “unnatural” feat, its unnatural demands, really yield such results? Maybe they will say that they enter monasticism by force? But the first condition and the first question to the person being tonsured is the question of whether he comes to his vows by free will and not by force? And further: in monasteries the difficulty lies not in the fact that there is no one to tonsure, but, on the contrary, in those who, out of the many who wish, can be honored with tonsure. And if there are or have been cases of coercion, then, of course, there are incomparably fewer of them than cases of coercion into marriage. But then, with the same right and justification, one can declare and call marriage and family life an unnatural phenomenon. And if all asceticism is called unnatural, then with the same reason we must consider all Christian virtues unnatural, for they all require asceticism and restraint: patience, humility, chastity, meekness, forgiveness.
They say: religious life was and is being developed in the parish; and parishes can do what monasteries did. Notice another indisputable and amazing law of life, confirmed by the entire history of the Church and still confirmed: in those communities and churches, in those nations where monasticism flourished and is flourishing, where we see an intense desire for monastic feat, at that very time it flourished and is flourishing and parish life. And, on the contrary, where there was and is no monasticism, the life of the parish fell and is falling.
Monasteries are like reserve reservoirs of living water of religious inspiration; they nourish and moisten the parched deserts of the spirit of worldly life, they give life-giving and saving moisture to thirsty souls. Look at the tribes that, due to the lack of the spirit of asceticism in them, did not give monasteries and monks - some Abkhazians, Ossetians of the Caucasus, some foreigners of Siberia: these are pitiful tribes; Not only is there no parish life among them, but in general religious life is barely noticeable. Look at the ancient peoples, once glorious in the history of faith and piety. If monasticism has fallen among them, it is a sure sign: spiritual, religious life and the life of the parish in general have certainly fallen there. Such are today's Nestorians, Copts, Armenians, such are some Orthodox peoples, whom we will not name for the sake of love: their Orthodoxy, without monasticism and asceticism, is only in one name.
And glory and thanksgiving to the Lord for the fact that our Orthodox Russian people love and honor holy asceticism - looking for monasteries, looking for shrines, eager to venerate holy places, making votive pious pilgrimages. Among the difficult trials of life in recent years, among this raging sea of unbelief, immorality and vices, at the sight of the furious onslaught of all sorts of godless teachings, at the sight of the rising malice of all kinds of schisms and sects, when the heart contracts with grief and horror, when despair for a bright future is ready to creep into the soul our dear, infinitely dear native people, among heavy thoughts, among sorrowful presentiments - you alone, unspeakable and incomprehensible, the holy and radiant love of the Russian people for asceticism - for monasticism and monasteries, for prayer and feat - you alone shine for us with joyful hope for renewal and the revival of life, for the great future awaiting our homeland. For it, this renewal and revival, lies in the power of the life of the spirit, and not in those external reforms of the state and social system, on which so many hopes are now pinned: the best medicine will not help a corpse... For it is in that fear of sin, as a fundamental evil, which the Savior commands in the Gospel reading now heard about the healing of the paralytic: the Lord did not heal his body, but his soul, and before he commanded him: “take up ... the bed and walk,” He uttered the blessed word: “child, your sins are forgiven you” ( Mark 2:9, 5). For it, the beginning of life, renewal and rebirth, is in the striving for eternity, in that feeling and anticipation of another invisible eternal world, without which human life is not worthy of the name human, in that striving that resounds in all chosen souls, which gripped the prophet David , repeated now by the holy Apostle in his word heard today: “In the beginning, O Lord, You founded the earth, and the works of Your hand are the heavens. They will perish, but You abided, and they will all be worn out like a robe, and like their garments, and they will be changed: But You are the same, and Your years will not fail” (Heb. 1:10-13). Then, in the light of the eternal, everything temporal and earthly is full of meaning and full of real life, for it receives its proper place and its true meaning. Such fear of sin, such remembrance of eternity is what monasteries and ascetics have always preached to the Russian people.
And if the spirit of the people is alive, and if it has not become grounded in its thoughts, and if it has not become completely fussy and is no longer facing its death, then the desire for achievement for the sake of the highest and eternal principles and tasks of the spirit is alive in it. Then prohibit the feat, destroy the monasteries, destroy the monasteries, prohibit fasting, prayer, walking to holy places: you will achieve nothing. Truth will shine from the sky and come down from the earth. The truth is great and will prevail. People of faith, people of spirit will find ways and means to demonstrate the innate desire for achievement and asceticism before God, to fulfill the Savior’s commandment: “Whoever wants to come after Me, let him deny himself” (Mark 8:34).
So what happens? This attraction is not unnatural, on the contrary, it is the deepest and most natural; It is not violence against the spirit, on the contrary, denying it and persecuting it is the greatest violence against a living soul, and its suppression in the full sense is both unnatural and contrary to the word of Christ. Here in the West, the beginning of the feat is distorted in Catholicism and completely rejected in carnal Protestantism, so dear to our Russian sectarians and worshipers of the flesh. What happened? One of the strongest minds of our time, unfortunately himself, one might say, not a Christian at all, with his mind alone comprehended the secret of the power of each religion and, pointing it out in asceticism, says: “From this point of view, Catholicism is a huge abuse of Christianity, and Protestantism is his complete denial." Listen to the melancholy of the Protestant believers; Look how they clung to the ascetics, even from afar, how they gravitated towards Father John of Kronstadt; look at how they are trying with all their might in America, in England, in Germany to organize something similar to our monasteries: and you will be convinced of the power of that principle of feat and self-denial that St. Gregory Palamas defended and justified with his life.
In Protestantism, vows of monastic achievement are not required for senior clergy. But whoever knows the history and life of this drying branch, torn from the tree of the Church, will involuntarily be amazed by the comparison that immediately catches the eye: over the past four hundred years since the appearance of Protestantism in Orthodoxy, so many saints have appeared among the bishops, among the ascetics, so many people to whom believers they always followed prayer, a word of consolation and edification, opening their soul and conscience to them, giving their life, their will to their leadership, meanwhile there was literally nothing like that in Protestantism. Where are the saints? Where are the shepherds of souls? Where are the people who attract the conscience of their neighbors? Who has heard of them? What are all these German super-intendents1, pastors, presbyters, whom visiting overseas preachers now want to impose on the Russian people in sectarianism? All these are soulless rulers, dead preachers of dead words, but not living bearers of living words speaking and answering the questioning conscience. Indicate there persons like St. Sergius, or Seraphim of Sarov, or the Recluse Theophan, Father Ambrose2, or Father John3, indicate the gracious rulers of souls and consciences! They do not exist where there is no feat, and cannot exist.
It is precisely this circumstance that deprives spiritual life in Protestantism and sects of naturalness and freedom, the very thing that they value so much and what they apparently strive for.
There are people who are naturally inclined to remain quietly outside the noise of the world, incapable of everyday struggle, alien to family life, inclined towards prayer and contemplation of the affairs of God. They go to monasticism. Is it natural to turn them away from heroism? There are people who are broken by life, shipwrecked in the voyage of life; The life of the world is not sweet to them, they have lost their taste and inclination for it, they feel lonely there, their hands have given up, their hearts have sank, their courage has gone out. They go to a monastery and there they find peace of mind and vigor of strength, inspiration for achievement, meaning and fullness of life. Is it natural and consistent with the requirement of love to close the path to such a feat for them?
There are people who are completely devoted to God and the Church, to high religious service. They want to completely and completely devote themselves to serving God, they live only by a religious idea, they serve only the Church. Is it natural for them to prohibit such integral and undivided service? The Mother of God, John the Baptist, John the Theologian, the Apostle Paul - could they be forced into marriage and family? The Savior Himself, the most perfect Man, who accepted everything human from birth and infancy to hunger, suffering and death, however, did not have a family, for His family was the entire human race. And this was not a violation of the laws of nature.
And do warriors go to battle with their wives? And are there not many circumstances in life in which, for the sake of serving duty, it would be downright unnatural to bind oneself to worldly duties? Why is it necessary to forcibly impose a different law in religious service to the Highest Principle?
Here, on the contrary, the rule often prevails: whoever can, must accomplish the feat; “He who is able to contain, let him contain” (Matt. 19:12). And for the one who can accommodate, obviously, the feat is natural.
They also object to asceticism: ascetics are egoists; they care only about their own salvation and not about the salvation of others. Oh, leave, evil judge, leave the ascetics to serve God, just as they do not interfere with you serving your neighbors; at least, at least don’t stop them from doing what their conscience desires, that is, don’t judge the ascetics... They, like Christ and the apostles once had, have their own family, their own brotherhood, their own sacred squad; they also care about each other, with the difference that if in a family they take care of their blood and follow the law of nature, then the monasteries accept, love and calm strangers, whom they had not known or seen until that time. This is an even higher school of love than family and the circle of close relatives.
Ascetics, they say, finally, are useless and unnecessary people, if not harmful, they are often parasites who live on the victims of others... Yes, if benefit is measured by material benefits, then this is true. But whoever values prayer before God for a sinful world, who values the creative significance of a good example of purity, abstinence, patience, the fulfillment of a voluntarily assumed duty, humility and readiness to help one’s neighbor, a constant spiritual and prayerful mood, will not utter such a cruel and harsh word.
And that the ascetics live on the victims of others, then, as we have noticed many times, this is said exclusively by those judges who themselves did not give a single penny for them. Those who sacrificed and sacrifice are usually silent and do not judge. In this case, it is better not to tell the judges, it is better to remain silent.
This is how modern accusations against ascetics fall, just as the words of St. Gregory Palamas, attacks on the monks of his time, fell under the blows. And the saint of God judged wisely; he correctly pointed out the great benefits of monasticism.
In the history of the Church of Christ, always, in the days of persecution and danger of faith from enemies and heretics, monasticism has produced fearless and courageous fighters for the Church. Unbound by anything, they could freely sacrifice themselves in the fight against their persecutors and, indeed, often sacrificed their lives. What does the future hold for us? There are no signs that it brings benefit and peace to the Church. On the contrary, there are many signs that the Church will face severe trials, that the Orthodox Faith will receive blows, reproaches, and deprivation of rights from its own children, that persecution will begin against it. And again, great service will be rendered to her by ascetics, people who gave her their all and devoted all their strength. They are collecting, storing, and now storing up forces that will go to the fight for the shrines of the faith. An army, of course, is only needed during war; wars are rare... But the state that does not prepare an army in days of peace is insane. So is monasticism.
But besides what has been said, removing asceticism from the area of faith and the Church is the same as removing inspiration, the fire of jealousy and passion from every activity. The higher the matter, the more such inspiration should be in it: poetry is unthinkable without this power, science is dead, inventions are impossible, the word is lifeless, social life will wither, every struggle will fade away and every victory will fly away. Take away asceticism from religion, and not only the power that animates this area will leave the world, no, the source of any other inspiration will go away, no matter in what area it appears - and the world will immediately become so dead, cold and homeless! Feat is a flower, it is the spring of religious life, and without a flower there is no fruit.
Only by worship and service to the flesh, or conscious hostility to the Church, a conscious desire to harm it, or, finally, malicious envy of the love of the people that is poured out on monasteries, can one explain the modern campaign against monasticism and asceticism. Carnal people are disgusted by one type of monasticism, for it prevents them from drowning out the voice of conscience, reminds them that they are prodigal and bestial. They cannot even understand such a feat: carnal man does not accept what is from the Spirit of God and cannot understand; this is foolishness for him (see 1 Cor. 1:18). As for the enemies of the Church, it is clear to them that monasticism and the people’s love for it is the indestructible support and stronghold of the Church they hate, this is something that no sect has that dreams of replacing Orthodoxy and is deprived of the power to satisfy the innate thirst for achievement in man. Is it finally worth even talking about envious people? They usually say that there are many bad people among the monks. So be it. But the people love, and look for, and find not bad monks, but good ones. But these monks, they further say, are hypocrites and with their hypocrisy they deceive simple-minded pilgrims. Let us also say to this that when a pilgrim sees that a monk whom he considered good turned out to be bad, he will look and find a good one.
Well, you ask, why this talk about monasticism? And is it really possible for all of us to achieve this feat?
We are talking about monasticism - for the sake of the memory of its defender, Saint Gregory Palamas. We are talking about monasticism - for the sake of the honor of the monks who labor here - and the fact that it is not they themselves who speak about it, but the priest who speaks, who is not a monk himself, is all the more significant. We are talking about monasticism so that we can respect this great, holy, most necessary feat in the Church, and on the other hand, so that we understand that asceticism is the very essence of the moral life of a Christian. And if a monk is ordered by the rules not to degrade worldly life and not to despise marriage, as blessed by God, then all the more there is no reason or excuse for us to despise the monastic feat. Not everyone, of course, can undertake such a feat: “he who is able to contain it, let him contain it” (Matthew 19:12). But everyone must respect those who have received them and support them with love, prayer and sympathy. Monasticism is only the head, completion and combination of all Christian asceticism. But all Christians are required to have the inspiration of faith, the feat of fasting, the mortification of passions, humility, and self-denial; Everyone must know and remember that life is not at all a cheerful feast, a carefree stay, endless joy, no, it is a feat of labor and redeeming suffering.
Without achievement there is no life, without struggle there is no merit, without labor there is no fruit, without victory there is no crown! Amen.
