Motovilov N. A. Conversation with Seraphim of Sarov about the purpose of Christian life
Author: Motovilov Nikolay Alexandrovich
Introduction
Saint Seraphim was born in 1759 in Kursk into a merchant family. At the age of 10 he became very ill. During his illness, he saw the Mother of God in a dream, who promised to heal him. A few days later, a religious procession was held in Kursk with the local miraculous icon of the Mother of God. Due to bad weather, the religious procession took a short route past the Moshnins' house. After Seraphim’s mother touched the miraculous image, he began to quickly recover. At the age of 18, Seraphim firmly decided to become a monk. His mother blessed him with a large copper crucifix, which he wore all his life over his clothes. From the very first day at the monastery, exceptional abstinence in food and sleep formed a distinctive feature of his life. He ate once a day, and even that was not enough. On Wednesdays and Fridays I did not eat anything. Having asked for a blessing from his elder, he often began to retire into the forest for prayer and contemplation of God. Soon he became very ill again and for three years he was forced to spend most of his time lying down.
He was tonsured into the monastic order when he was 27 years old. He was given the name Seraphim, which in Hebrew means “fiery, burning.” Soon he was ordained as a hierodeacon. He justified his name with his extraordinary prayerful fervor. He spent all his time, with the exception of the shortest rest, in the temple. Among such prayerful and liturgical works of St. Seraphim was honored to see angels concelebrating and singing in the temple.
In 1793, St. Seraphim was ordained a hieromonk, after which for a year he served daily and received Holy Communion. Then Saint Seraphim began to retire into the “distant desert” - into the wilderness of the forest five miles from the Sarov monastery. Great was the perfection he achieved at this time. Wild animals: bears, hares, wolves, foxes and others came to the ascetic’s hut. The elder of the Diveyevo monastery, Matrona Pleshcheeva, personally saw how Saint Seraphim fed the bear that came to him from his own hands. “The face of the great old man seemed especially wonderful to me then. It was joyful and bright, like an angel’s,” she said.
According to a special vision of the Mother of God, at the end of his life, St. Seraphim took upon himself the feat of old age. He began to accept everyone who came to him for advice and guidance. Many thousands of people from the most diverse strata and conditions now began to visit the elder, who enriched them from his spiritual treasure, acquired through many years of exploits. Everyone met Rev. Seraphim meek, joyful, thoughtfully sincere. He greeted those who came with the words: “My joy.” He advised many: “Acquire a peaceful spirit, and thousands around you will be saved.” Whoever came to him, the elder bowed to the ground and, blessing everyone, kissed their hands. He did not need those who came to tell him about themselves, but he himself knew what was in someone’s soul. He also said: “Joy is not a sin. It drives away fatigue, and fatigue can cause despondency, and there is nothing worse than it.”
This chapter is taken from a conversation between St. Seraphim of Sarov and N. A. Motovilov. It has recently become widely known and is rightly considered the most precious pearl of the Orthodox teaching on salvation.
This manuscript was found in 1903 by S. A. Nilus in the papers of the late Motovilov, given to him by his widow Elena Ivanovna.
ON THE. Motovilov, a wealthy landowner, healed by Saint Seraphim from an incurable leg disease, spent his entire life near the great elder. It is to this “servant Seraphim,” as he called himself, that we owe much information about the life of the saint, and he turned out to be the only witness to the great triumph of Orthodoxy revealed by St. Seraphim in 1831 in the dense forests of Sarov and which has now become the property of the entire Church.
Invitation
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do will he do also, and greater works than these will he do...” (John 14:12)
“Once,” Motovilov writes in his notes: “it was in the Sarov Hermitage, soon after my healing, at the beginning of the winter of 1831, on Tuesday at the end of November, I stood during Vespers in the warm Cathedral of the Life-Giving Spring on the ordinary, as then It always happened in my place, right opposite the miraculous icon of the Mother of God. Then one of the sisters of the Diveyevo Mill community came up to me. At that time I still had no idea about the name and existence of this community, separate from another church community, also the Diveevo community. This sister told me:
“Are you the lame gentleman who was recently healed by our father, Father Seraphim?”
I answered that this is exactly who I am.
“Well, then,” she said, “go to the priest - he ordered to call you to him.” He is now in his cell in the monastery, and said that he will be waiting for you.
People who, at least once during the life of the great elder Seraphim, were in the Sarov desert and even only heard about him, can fully comprehend with what inexplicable joy my soul was filled with this unexpected call from him. Leaving the hearing of the Divine Service, I immediately ran to him, to his cell. Father Father Seraphim met me at the very door of his vestibule and said to me:
- I was waiting for your love for God! And just wait a little while I talk to my orphans. I have a lot to talk with you. Sit down here!
At these words, he pointed out to me a staircase with steps, probably made to cover the stove pipes and placed opposite his stove, with the mouth in the entryway, as in all the double cells in Sarov. I sat down on the bottom step, but he said to me:
- No, sit higher.
I moved to the second one, but he told me:
- No, your love for God! Please sit on the top step. And, having sat me down, he added:
- Well, sit here and wait until I, after talking with my orphans, come out to you.
Father brought two sisters into his cell, one of whom was a girl from the nobility, the sister of the Nizhny Novgorod landowner Mantorova, Elena Vasilievna, as the sisters who remained with me in the Senets told me about this when I asked.
For a long time I sat waiting for the great elder to open the doors for me. I think I sat there for two hours. Father Seraphim’s cell attendant, Pavel, came out to me from another cell closest to the entrance to this vestibule, and, despite my excuses; convinced me to visit his cell and began to give me various instructions on spiritual life, which in fact had the goal, at the instigation of the enemy, to weaken my love and faith in the merits of the great elder Seraphim before God.
I felt sad, and I said to him with sorrow:
“I was stupid, Father Paul, that, having obeyed your convictions, I entered your cell. Father Abbot, Nifont is a great servant of God, but even here I did not come to the Sarov Hermitage for him and I am coming, although I respect him very much for his shrine, but only for one priest, Fr. Seraphim, about whom I think that even in ancient times there were few such holy saints of God, gifted with the power of Elijah and Moses. Who are you that you impose yourself on me with your instructions, while I guess that you yourself don’t really know the way of God. Forgive me - I regret that I listened to you and came to your cell.
With that, I left him and sat down again on the top step of the staircase in the entryway of my father’s cell. Then I heard from the same Father Paul that the priest threateningly reprimanded him for this, telling him: “It’s not your business to talk with those who thirst for the poor Seraphim’s words and come to him in Sarov. And I myself, poor one, do not tell them my own things, but what the Lord deigned to reveal to me for edification. Don't mind your own business. Know yourself, but never dare to teach anyone: God did not give you this gift - after all, it is not given to people for nothing, but for their merits before the Lord our God and according to His special mercy and Divine care for people and His Holy Providence.” I write this here for the memory and edification of those who value the small speech and barely noticeable character trait of the great elder Seraphim.
When the elder talked with his orphans for about two hours, then the door opened and the priest, Fr. Seraphim, having seen the sisters off, said to me:
- I detained you for a long time, your love of God. Don't demand it. My orphans needed a lot, so I, poor one, consoled them. Come to the cell.
In this cell, his monastery one, he talked with me about various subjects related to the salvation of the soul and to worldly life, and ordered me and Father Gury of Sarov, the host, the next day, after early mass, to go to him in the nearby hermitage.
It was on Thursday. The day was cloudy. There was a quarter of the snow on the ground, and rather thick snow pellets were falling on top when Father Fr. Seraphim began a conversation with me on his nearby field, near the same nearby hermitage opposite the Sarovka River, near a mountain that comes close to its banks.
He placed me on the stump of a tree he had just cut down, and he squatted opposite me.
“The Lord revealed to me,” said the great elder, “that in your childhood you earnestly wanted to know what the purpose of our Christian life was, and you repeatedly asked many great spiritual persons about this...
I must say here that from the age of 12 this thought constantly bothered me, and I, indeed, approached many of the clergy with this question, but their answers did not satisfy me. The elder did not know this.
“But no one,” Father Seraphim continued, “told you definitively about this.” They told you: go to church, pray to God, keep God’s commandments, do good - that’s the goal of Christian life. And some were even indignant at you because you were busy with unpleasing curiosity and told you: don’t look for your higher selves. But they did not speak as they should have. So I, poor Seraphim, will now explain to you what this goal really is.
Prayer, fasting, vigil and all other Christian deeds, no matter how good they are in themselves, however, the goal of our Christian life is not in doing them alone, although they serve as necessary means for achieving it. The true goal of Christian life is to acquire the Holy Spirit of God. Fasting and vigil, and prayer, and almsgiving, and every good deed done for the sake of Christ are means for acquiring the Holy Spirit of God. Please note, father, that only for the sake of Christ does a good deed bring us the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Still, what is done not for the sake of Christ, although good, does not represent a reward in the life of the next century, and in this life it does not give the grace of God either. That is why the Lord Jesus Christ said: “Everyone who does not gather with Me scatters” (Matthew 12:30; Luke 11:23). A good deed cannot be called anything other than gathering, for although it is not done for the sake of Christ, it is nevertheless good. Scripture says: “Fear God in every nation, and do justice to please Him” (Acts 10:35). And as we see from the sequence of the Holy narrative, this one who does the truth is so pleasing to God that an angel of the Lord appeared to Cornelius, the centurion who feared God and did the truth, during his prayer and said: “Send to Joppa to Simon Usmar, there you will find Peter, and to that one speaks the words of the eternal life, in which you and your whole house will be saved” (Acts 10:5-6). So, the Lord uses all His Divine means to provide such a person with the opportunity for his good deeds not to lose his reward in the life of rebirth [1]. But for this we must begin here with right faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came into the world of sinners to save [2], and by acquiring for ourselves the grace of the Holy Spirit, who introduces the Kingdom of God into our hearts and paves the way for us to acquire the bliss of life in the next century. But this is where this pleasingness to God of good deeds, not done for the sake of Christ, is limited: our Creator provides the means for their implementation. It is up to the person to implement them or not. That is why the Lord said to the Jews: “Unless you had seen it, you had not sinned. Now you say, we see, and your sin remains on you” (John 9:41). If a person, like Cornelius, takes advantage of the pleasure of God in his deed, not done for the sake of Christ, and believes in His Son, then this kind of deed will be imputed to him, as if done for the sake of Christ and only for faith in Him. Otherwise, a person has no right to complain that his good did not go to work. This never happens only when doing any good for Christ’s sake, for good done for His sake not only intercedes for the crown of righteousness in the life of the next century, but also in this life fills a person with the grace of the Holy Spirit and, moreover, as it is said: “Beyond measure.” for God gives the Holy Spirit. For the Father loves the Son and gives everything into His hand” (John 3:34-35).
That's right, your love for God. So the acquisition of this Spirit of God is the true goal of our Christian life, and prayer, fasting, vigil, almsgiving and other virtues done for the sake of Christ are only means to acquiring the Spirit of God.
- What about acquisitions? - I asked Father Seraphim - I don’t understand something.
“Acquisition is the same as acquisition,” he answered me, “do you understand what acquiring money means?” So it is the same with the acquisition of the Spirit of God. After all, you, your love of God, understand what acquisition is in the worldly sense? The purpose of the worldly life of ordinary people is to acquire or make money, and for nobles, in addition, to receive honors, distinctions and other awards for state services. The acquisition of the Spirit of God is also capital, but only grace-filled and eternal, and it, like money, official and temporary capital, is acquired in the same ways, very similar to each other. God the Word, our Lord the God-man, Jesus Christ likens our life to a marketplace [3], and calls the work of our life on earth a purchase [4] and says to all of us: “Buy before I come. redeeming time, for the days are evil” (Luke 19:13, Eph. 5:16), that is, gain time to receive heavenly blessings through earthly goods. Earthly goods are virtues done for the sake of Christ, providing us with the grace of the All-Holy Spirit. In the parable of the wise and foolish virgins (See: Matt. 25:1-12), when the holy fools lacked oil, it is said: “Go and buy in the marketplace” (Matthew 25:9). But when they bought, the doors to the bridal chamber were already closed and they could not enter it. Some say that the lack of oil among holy virgins means a lack of good deeds during their lifetime. This understanding is not entirely correct. What kind of lack of good deeds do they have when, although they are holy fools, they are still called virgins? After all, virginity is the highest virtue, as a state equal to the angels and could serve as a substitute in itself for all other virtues. I, poor thing, think that they lacked precisely the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God. While practicing virtues, these virgins, out of their spiritual foolishness, believed that the only Christian thing was to do only virtues. We have done virtue, and thus we have done the work of God, but whether they received the grace of the Spirit of God, whether they achieved it, they did not care. About such and such ways of life, based only on the creation of virtues without careful testing, whether they bring and how much exactly they bring the grace of the Spirit of God, it is said in the books of the fathers: “There is another way, imagine being good in the beginning, but its ends are in the bottom is hell" [5].
Anthony the Great, in his letters to the monks, speaks about such virgins: “Many monks and virgins have no idea about the differences in the wills operating in man, and do not know that there are three wills at work in us: the first is the will of God, all-perfect and all-saving; the second is its own, human, that is, if not harmful, then not saving; and the third - demonic - is completely destructive.” And it is this third enemy will that teaches a person either not to do any virtues, or to do them out of vanity, or for the sake of good alone, and not for the sake of Christ. The second - our own will - teaches us to do everything to please our lusts, and even, as the enemy teaches, to do good for the sake of good, not paying attention to the grace that it acquires. The first - the will of God and all-saving - consists only in doing good only for the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, as an eternal treasure, inexhaustible and cannot be fully and worthily appreciated by anything.
It is this, this acquisition of the Holy Spirit, that is actually called the oil that the holy fools lacked. That is why they are called holy fools, because they forgot about the necessary fruit of virtue, about the grace of the Holy Spirit, without which no one can be saved, for: “By the Holy Spirit every soul is alive, and is exalted in purity, illuminated by the Trinitarian Unity of the sacred mystery” [6 ]. The Holy Spirit Himself dwells in our souls, and it is this very dwelling in our souls of Him, the Almighty, and the coexistence with our spirit of His Triple Unity and is granted to us only through the utmost acquisition on our part of the Holy Spirit, which prepares in our soul and the flesh is the throne of God's all-creative coexistence with our spirit, according to the immutable word of God: “I will dwell in them and become like God, and they will be my people” (2 Cor. 6:16). This is the oil in the lamps of the wise virgins, which could burn brightly and for a long time, and those virgins with these burning lamps could wait for the Bridegroom, who came at midnight, and enter with Him into the chamber of joy. The holy fools, seeing that their lamps were going out, although they went to the marketplace to buy oil, did not have time to return in time, for the doors were already closed.
The marketplace is our life; The doors of the bridal chamber are closed and do not allow the Bridegroom - human death. Wise and holy virgins are Christian souls. Oil is not works, but the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God received through them into our nature, transforming it (that is, nature) from this to this, that is, from corruption to incorruption, from spiritual death to spiritual life, from darkness to light, from den [ 7] of our being, where passions are bound, like cattle and beasts, - to the temple of the Divine, to the bright palace of eternal joy in Christ Jesus our Lord, Creator and Savior and Eternal Bridegroom of our souls. How great is God’s compassion for our misfortune, that is, inattention to His care for us, when God says: “Behold, I stand at the door and it’s no use!” (Rev. 3:20), meaning by doors the course of our life, not yet closed by death.
Oh, how I would like, your love for God, that in this life you would always be in the Spirit of God!
“Whatever I find, that is what I will judge,” says the Lord. Woe, great woe, if He finds us burdened with the cares and sorrows of life, for who will endure His wrath and who will stand against the face of His wrath! That is why it is said: “Watch and pray, so that you do not fall into misfortune” (Mark 14:38), that is, do not lose the Spirit of God; for vigil and prayer bring us His grace.
Of course, every virtue done for the sake of Christ gives the grace of the Holy Spirit, but prayer gives most of all, because it is always in our hands as a weapon for acquiring the grace of the Spirit. For example, you would like to go to church, but either there is no church, or the service has passed; you would like to give to a beggar, but there is no beggar, or there is nothing to give; you would like to maintain virginity, but you do not have the strength to fulfill this due to your constitution or due to the efforts of the enemy’s machinations, which you cannot resist due to human weakness; We would like to do some other virtue for the sake of Christ, but we also don’t have the strength, or we can’t find the opportunity. But this has nothing to do with prayer: everyone always has the opportunity to do it - rich and poor, noble and simple, strong and weak, healthy and sick, righteous and sinner.
How great is the power of prayer even of a sinful person, when it ascends with all his soul, judge by the following example of Holy Scripture [8]: when, at the request of a desperate mother who had lost her only begotten son, kidnapped by death, a harlot wife who got in her way and even more not cleansed from the sin that had just happened, touched by the desperate grief of her mother, she cried out to the Lord: “Not for the sake of the accursed sinner, but for the sake of tears for the sake of the mother, who grieves for her son and is firmly confident in Thy mercy and omnipotence, Christ God, raise up, O Lord, her son.” her!”... - and the Lord resurrected him.
So, your love for God, the power of prayer is great, and most of all it brings the Spirit of God, and it is most convenient for everyone to correct it. We will be blessed when the Lord God finds us vigilant, in the fullness of the gifts of His Holy Spirit. Then we can confidently hope to be caught up into the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4:17), who is coming with glory and much power (Matt. 24:30), to judge the living and the dead (2 Tim. 4:1, 1 Pet. 4:5) and render to each one according to his deeds (Matt. 16:27, Rom. 2:6, Rev. 22:12).
Now, your love for God, you deign to consider it a great happiness to talk with the poor Seraphim, being confident that he is not deprived of the grace of the Lord. What are we talking about the Lord Himself, the ever-failing Source of all goodness, both heavenly and earthly? But through prayer we are worthy to converse with Him Himself, the All-Good and Life-Giving God and our Savior. But even here we must pray only until God the Holy Spirit descends on us in the measures of His heavenly grace known to Him. And when He deigns to visit us, then we must stop praying. Why then pray to Him: “Come and dwell in us and cleanse us from all filth and save, O Blessed One, our souls” [9], when He has already come to us to save us who trust in Him and call on His Name holy in truth, that is, in order to humbly and lovingly meet Him, the Comforter, inside the temple of our souls, hungry and thirsty for His coming.
I will explain this to your love of God with an example: even though you would invite me to visit you, and at your call I would come to you and would like to talk with you. But you would still invite me: you are welcome, yes, please, please, they say, come to me. Then I would inevitably have to say: what is he? Are you out of your mind? I came to him, and he kept calling me. This is how it applies to the Lord God the Holy Spirit. That is why it is said: “Be silent and understand that I am God, I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted on the earth” (Ps. 45:11), that is, I will appear and will appear to everyone who believes in Me and whoever calls on Me and will talk with him, as I once talked with Adam in paradise, with Abraham and Jacob and with my other servants, with Moses, Job and the like.
Many interpret that this abolition applies only to worldly affairs, that is, that during a prayerful conversation with God one must abstain from worldly affairs. But I will tell you, according to God, that although it is necessary to abstain from them during prayer, but when, with the almighty power of faith and prayer, the Lord God the Holy Spirit deigns to visit us and comes to us in the fullness of His ineffable goodness, then it is also necessary to give up prayer be abolished. The soul speaks and is in rumor when it prays; and during the invasion of the Holy Spirit, one must be in complete silence, hear clearly and intelligibly all the verbs of the eternal life [10], which He then deigns to proclaim. At the same time, one must be in complete sobriety of both soul and spirit, and in chaste purity of the flesh. This is what happened at Mount Horeb, when the Israelites were told that they would not touch women for three days before the appearance of God on Sinai (See: Ex. 19:15), for our God is “a fire that consumes all unclean things” (Heb. .12:29), and nothing “from the filthiness of the flesh and spirit” can enter into fellowship with Him (2 Cor. 7:1).
Well, what, father, should we do with other virtues done for the sake of Christ, in order to acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit? After all, you only deign to talk to me about prayer.
- Acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit and all other virtues for Christ’s sake, trade them spiritually, trade those of them that give us greater profits. Collect the capital of the gracious excesses of God's grace, put them in God's eternal pawnshop from immaterial interest, and not four or six per hundred, but one hundred per spiritual ruble, and even that countless times more. For example: prayer and vigil give you more of God’s grace - watch and pray; Fasting gives a lot of the Spirit of God - fast; If alms give more, do alms, and thus reason about every virtue done for the sake of Christ.
So I’ll tell you about myself, poor Seraphim. I come from Kursk merchants. So, when I was not yet in the monastery, we used to trade in goods that gave us more profit. Do the same, father, and, just as in the business of trade, the strength lies not in just trading, but in getting more profit, so in the business of Christian life the strength does not lie in just praying or to do another good deed. Although the Apostle says: “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17), but, as you remember, he adds: “I would rather speak five words with my mind than thousands with my tongue (1 Cor. 14:19). And the Lord says: “Not everyone says to Me, Lord, Lord! will be saved, but do the will of My Father” (Matthew 7:21), that is, he who does the work of God and, moreover, with reverence, for “cursed is he who does the work of God carelessly” (Jer. 48:10). And the work of God is: “That you believe in God, and who sent Jesus Christ” (John 14:1, 17:3). If we judge correctly about the commandments of Christ and the Apostles, then our Christian work consists not in increasing the number of good deeds that serve the goal of our Christian life only as means, but also in deriving greater benefit from them, that is, in the greater [11] acquisition of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
So I would like, your love for God, that you yourself would acquire this ever-depleting source of God’s grace and always judge for yourself whether you are found in the Spirit of God or not; and if - in the Spirit of God, then blessed is God! – there is nothing to grieve about: at least now at the Last Judgment of Christ! For “whatever I find, that is what I will judge.” If not, then we need to figure out why and for what reason the Lord God the Holy Spirit deigned to leave us, and again seek and seek Him and not give up until the sought-after Lord God the Holy Spirit is found and will be with us again by His grace . We must attack our enemies who drive us away from Him until their ashes are scattered, as the prophet David said: “I will marry my enemies and destroy them, and I will not return. I pursue my enemies and destroy them, and I will not return until they die, I will insult them.” them, and they will not be able to stand, they will fall under my feet” (Ps. 17:38-39).
That's it, father. So, if you please, trade in spiritual virtue. Distribute the gifts of the grace of the Holy Spirit to those who need it, following the example of a lighted candle, which itself shines, burning with earthly fire, and lights other candles, without diminishing its own fire, to illuminate everyone in other places. And if this is so in relation to earthly fire, then what can we say about the fire of grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God? For, for example, earthly wealth, when it is distributed, becomes scarce, but the heavenly wealth of God's grace, the more it is distributed, the more it multiplies for the one who distributes it. So the Lord Himself deigned to say to the Samaritan woman: “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, and whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst, but the water that I will give him will be in him a spring flowing ever into his eternal belly” (John. 4:13-14).
Further…
[1] Rebirth - rebirth, new being, new life.
[2] From the prayer of St. John Chrysostom for Holy Communion. [3] Marketplace - trading area (Matt. 20:3), public assembly, gathering (Matt. 23:7; Luke 11:43; 20:46) [4] Purchase - bargaining, trade turnover, making a profit (Matt. .22:5; Luke 19:13-15) [5] Compare: “Those who think that they are the rulers of a husband will end up in the depths of hell” (Proverbs 16:25). Or in Russian: “There are paths that seem straight to a person, but their end is the path to death.” [6] From the antiphon of the 4th tone at Matins. [7] Nativity scene - a cave, moreover. [8] Life of the Monk Benedict (March 14): “A certain farmer, carrying his small son who died in his hand, approached the Monk, begging him to resurrect his son. The monk kneeled with the brethren in prayer and said to God: Lord, despise not my sins, but the faith of that man who is praying for the resurrection of his son, and give his soul to this body. Even though the saint’s prayer had not yet ended, his dead body began to show strength within itself. The saint took him by the hand, raised up the lad alive and well, and gave him to his father.” [9] From a prayer to the Holy Spirit. [10] Eternal life - eternal life. [11] Greater - bigger, better. The page was generated in 0.1 seconds!
Temple of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God on the street. Sofia Kovalevskaya
Published on the day of remembrance of St. Seraphim on January 15 (New Age)
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Imagine, in the middle of the sun, in the most brilliant brightness of its midday rays, the face of a person talking to you. You see the movement of his lips, the changing expression of his eyes, hear his voice, feel that someone is holding you by the shoulders with their hands, but not only do you not see these hands, you do not see either yourself or his figure, but only one dazzling light , stretching far, several fathoms around..."
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St. Seraphim of Sarov is one of the most revered saints in Russia. On January 15, according to the new style, the day of his repose is celebrated, and on August 1, his glorification as a saint and the discovery of his relics.
Hieromonk Seraphim spent many years in asceticism, and then, by the will of God, he took the path of a special - senile - service, receiving thousands of people... Thus, his own words were fulfilled on him: “Acquire a peaceful spirit, and thousands around you will be saved.”
Despite all the sorrows of his life, he lived so much in God that throughout the year he sincerely and lovingly said to the people who came to him: “My joy, Christ is risen!” While we usually have enough sincere Easter joy: for some - only until the day of the Holy Trinity, and for others - only during Bright Week...
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The conversation between St. Seraphim of Sarov and N.A. is well known. Motovilov “ On the purpose of Christian life” . Let us cite some of the teachings and words of St. Seraphim himself, spoken by him during this conversation:
“Everything... done not for the sake of Christ , although good , does not represent a reward for us in the life of the next century, and in this life it does not give us the grace of God either. That is why the Lord Jesus Christ said: “Whoever does not gather with Me scatters.”
St. Seraphim also said: “Prayer, fasting, vigil and all other Christian deeds, no matter how good they are in themselves, however, the goal of our Christian life is not in doing them alone,... they... serve as necessary means for achieving it. The true goal of our Christian life is to acquire the Holy Spirit .” “The goal of the worldly life of ordinary people is to acquire, or make money, and among nobles, in addition, to receive honors... Acquiring the Spirit of God is also capital, but only grace-filled and eternal.” Speaking about grace, Father Seraphim explained the 118th Psalm written by King David (verse 105): “If it were not for... the grace of the Holy Spirit... enlightened [Him] in the darkness of worries associated with... the title of [his] royal rank, then where would [he] get even a spark of light to illuminate his path along the road of life!
St. Seraphim continued: “Every virtue done for the sake of Christ gives the grace of the Holy Spirit, but most of all prayer ... there is always an opportunity for it for everyone - both the rich and the poor;... both the strong and the weak; both healthy and sick; both the righteous and the sinner."
“Acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit and all the other virtues of Christ, trade them spiritually, “trade” those of them that give you a greater profit ... Prayer and vigil give you more grace of God - watch and pray; Fasting gives much of the Spirit of God - fast; The more alms give, do alms.”
And he added: “Distribute the gifts of grace of the Holy Spirit to those who need it, following the example of a lit candle, which itself shines... and lights other candles, without diminishing its own fire... Earthly wealth, when it is distributed, becomes scarce, but the heavenly wealth of God's grace is distributed more and more , the more it multiplies for the one who distributes it.”
Father Seraphim also mentioned a person’s loss of grace: “What can be higher than anything in the world and what is more precious than the Gifts of the Holy Spirit sent down to us from above in the Sacrament of Baptism... The trouble is that, while we advance in age, we do not succeed in grace and in [ knowledge] of God... and on the contrary, being corrupted little by little, we are deprived of the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God... But... those people who, despite the bonds of sin that bound them and who do not allow them to commit new sins with their violence and excitement , come to Him, Our Savior, ... are forced to break their bonds - such people then truly appear before the face of God whiter than snow with His grace.” After all, “ The grace of the Holy Spirit, bestowed at baptism in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, despite the fall of man , despite the darkness around our soul, still shines in the heart ... with the Divine light of the priceless [redemptive] merits of Christ.”
... I would like, your love for God, [- said the Monk Seraphim to Motovilov, -] that ... you ... always judge for yourself whether you are found in the Spirit of God or not; and if - in the Spirit of God, then... even now - at the Last Judgment of Christ! For “what I find, in that I judge.” If not, then we need to figure out why and for what reason the Lord God the Holy Spirit deigned to leave us, and again seek and seek Him and not lag behind until the sought-after... Holy Spirit is found and will be with us again by His grace "
***
During a conversation with Motovilov, Rev. Seraphim not only spoke about acquiring the grace of the Holy Spirit, but also shared the fullness of grace that he himself had with Motovilov. In his memoirs, Motovilov has difficulty finding words to convey how this happened:
“Father Seraphim took me very tightly by the shoulders and said to me: We are both now... in the Spirit of God with you. Why don't you look at me? I answered: I can’t look, father, because... your face has become brighter than the sun , and my eyes are aching with pain.
Father Seraphim said: Do not be afraid, your love of God, and now you yourself have become as bright as I myself. You yourself are now in the fullness of the Spirit of God , otherwise you would not be able to see me like this... After these words, I looked into his face, and an even greater reverent horror fell upon me. Imagine, in the middle of the sun, in the most brilliant brightness of its midday rays, the face of a person talking to you. You see the movement of his lips, the changing expression of his eyes, hear his voice, feel that someone is holding you by the shoulders with their hands, but not only do you not see these hands, you do not see either yourself or his figure, but only one dazzling light , stretching far, several fathoms around.”
Thus, Saint Seraphim of Sarov made tangible and visible to Motovilov the fullness of God’s grace that he had within himself. The Monk Seraphim shone before Motovilov with that uncreated light of grace with which Christ Himself shone during His Transfiguration on Mount Tabor before the apostles. Who cried out, “It is good for us to be here” (Matthew 17:4).
And Motovilov exclaimed, turning to St. Seraphim: “I feel such silence and peace in my soul that I cannot express it in any words.” To which Father Seraphim answered him: “This... is the world about which the Lord told His disciples: “My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, I give to you.” What else do you feel, your love for God?...
- Extraordinary warmth. And Father Seraphim said:... Note,... after all, neither on you nor on me the snow melts and under us too. Therefore, this warmth is not in the air, but in ourselves... The hermits and hermits who were warmed by it were not afraid of the winter frost.”
***
This is the testimony of St. Seraphim of Sarov about the fullness of the grace of the Holy Spirit. We do not have such grace. But, by the grace of God, we also have moments when we feel a special grace for our spiritual state. At such moments, we, like St. Seraphim and Motovilov, do not notice whether we are warm or cold; we don’t notice how long we stand in prayer. We feel a special peace in our souls, clarity of mind and strength of spirit.
If such a state almost never happens to us, let us remember the instructions that St. Seraphim gives for acquiring the grace of the Holy Spirit: about multiplying good deeds, moreover, done precisely for the sake of Christ. And about the persistent search for the Holy Spirit, despite the “bonds” of one’s passions.
Full text of the conversation
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About the Church: an honest conversation
The conversation between St. Seraphim and Nikolai Aleksandrovich Motovilov (1809–1879) about the purpose of Christian life took place in November 1831 in the forest, not far from the Sarov monastery, and was recorded by Motovilov. The manuscript was discovered 70 years later in the papers of Nikolai Alexandrovich’s wife, Elena Ivanovna Motovilova. We are publishing the text of the conversation from the 1903 edition with some abbreviations. The apparent simplicity of the conversation is deceptive: the teachings are delivered by one of the greatest saints of the Russian Church, and the listener is a future ascetic of the faith, healed from an incurable illness through the prayer of Seraphim. It was N.A. Before his death, the Monk Seraphim bequeathed to Motovilov material concerns for his Diveyevo orphans, and for the founding of the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery for them. “Then Father Seraphim took me very tightly by the shoulders and said to me: “We are both now, father, in the Spirit of God with you!.. Why don’t you look at me? I answered: “I can’t look, father, because lightning is pouring from your eyes.” Your face has become brighter than the sun, and my eyes are aching with pain!.. Father Seraphim said: “Do not be afraid, your love of God!” And now you yourself have become as bright as I am. You yourself are now in the fullness of the Spirit of God, otherwise you would not be able to see me like this. And bowing his head to me, he quietly said to me in my ear: “Thank the Lord God for His ineffable mercy towards you.” You saw that I only mentally prayed to the Lord God in my heart and said within myself: “Lord! Honor him clearly and with his bodily eyes to see the descent of Your Spirit, with which You honor Your servants when You deign to appear in the light of Your magnificent glory!” And so, father, the Lord instantly fulfilled the humble request of the poor Seraphim... How can we not thank Him for this ineffable gift to both of us! This way, father, the Lord God does not always show His mercy to the great hermits. It was the grace of God that deigned to console your contrite heart, like a loving mother, through the intercession of the Mother of God Herself... Well, father, don’t look me in the eyes? Just look and do not be afraid - the Lord is with us! After these words, I looked into his face, and an even greater awe of horror attacked me. Imagine, in the middle of the sun, in the most brilliant brightness of its midday rays, the face of a person talking to you. You see the movement of his lips, the changing expression of his eyes, hear his voice, feel that someone is holding you by the shoulders, but not only do you not see these hands, you do not see yourself or his figure, but only one dazzling light and stretching far, several yards around, and illuminating with its bright brilliance both the snow veil covering the clearing, and the snow pellets showering from above both me and the great old man... - What do you feel now? – Father Seraphim asked me. - Extraordinarily good! - I said. - How good is that? What exactly? I answered: “I feel such silence and peace in my soul that I cannot express it in any words!” “This, your love for God,” said Father Seraphim, “is the peace about which the Lord told His disciples: “My peace I give to you, not as the world gives, I give to you.” Even though you were quicker from the world, the world loved its own, but because you were chosen from the world, for this reason the world hates you. Either way, dare, for Az will conquer the world.” It is to these people, hated by this world, but chosen by the Lord, that the Lord gives the peace that you now feel within yourself; “peace,” according to the apostolic word, “above all understanding.” This is what the apostle calls it, because no word can express the spiritual well-being that it produces in those people into whose hearts the Lord God introduces it. Christ the Savior calls it peace from His own generosity, and not from this world, for no temporary earthly well-being can give it to the human heart: it is given from above by the Lord God Himself, and that is why it is called the peace of God... What else do you feel? – Father Seraphim asked me. - Extraordinary sweetness! - I said. And he continued: This is the sweetness about which the Holy Scripture speaks: “Thy house shall be drunk with the fatness, and I will give the stream of Thy sweetness to drink.” Now this sweetness fills our hearts and spreads through all our veins with indescribable delight. From this sweetness our hearts seem to melt, and we are both filled with such bliss that cannot be expressed in any language... What else do you feel? - Extraordinary joy in all my heart! And Father Seraphim continued: “When the Spirit of God descends on a person and overshadows him with the fullness of His influx, then the human soul is filled with indescribable joy, for the Spirit of God joyfully creates everything that He touches.” This is the same joy about which the Lord speaks in His Gospel: “When a woman gives birth, she has sorrow, because her year is come: but when the child gives birth, he who does not remember the sorrow for the joy that a man was born into the world. You will be in the world of sorrow, but when I see you, your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” But no matter how comforting this joy that you now feel in your heart is, it is still insignificant in comparison with that about which the Lord Himself, through the mouth of His Apostle, said that that joy “neither eye has seen, nor ear heard, not a good breath has entered into the heart of man, such as God has prepared for those who love Him.” The prerequisites for this joy are given to us now, and if they make our souls feel so sweet, good and cheerful, then what can we say about the joy that is prepared for us in heaven who cry here on earth?! So you, father, have cried quite a bit in your life on earth, and look at the joy with which the Lord consoles you even in your life here. Now it’s up to us, father, to make sure that, applying labor after labor, we ascend from strength to strength and reach the measure of the age of the fulfillment of Christ... What else do you feel, your love for God? I said: “Extraordinary warmth!” - How, father, warmth? Why, we are sitting in the forest. Now winter is outside, and there is snow under our feet, and there is more than an inch of snow on us, and cereals are falling from above... how warm can it be here?! I answered: “And the kind that happens in a bathhouse, when they turn it on the heater and when a column of steam comes out of it...” “And the smell,” he asked me, “is it the same as from the bathhouse?” “No,” I answered, “there is nothing on earth like this fragrance... And Father Seraphim, smiling pleasantly, said: “And I myself, father, know this exactly the same as you, but I’m purposely asking you - is it so?” do you feel it? The absolute truth, your love for God. No pleasant earthly fragrance can be compared with the fragrance that we now feel, because we are now surrounded by the fragrance of the Holy Spirit of God. What earthly thing can be like it!.. Notice, your love for God, you told me that it’s warm all around us, like in a bathhouse, but look, the snow doesn’t melt either on you or on me, and underneath us too . Therefore, this warmth is not in the air, but in ourselves. It is precisely this same warmth about which the Holy Spirit, through the words of prayer, makes us cry out to the Lord: “warm me with the warmth of the Holy Spirit!” Warmed by it, the hermits and hermits were not afraid of the winter filth, being dressed, as in warm fur coats, in grace-filled clothing, woven from the Holy Spirit. This is how it should actually be, because the grace of God must dwell within us, in our hearts, for the Lord said: “The kingdom of God is within you.” By the Kingdom of God, the Lord meant the grace of the Holy Spirit. This kingdom of God is now within you, and the grace of the Holy Spirit shines from without and warms us, and, filling the air around us with a variety of fragrances, delights our senses with heavenly delight, filling our hearts with unspeakable joy. Our current situation is the same one about which the Apostle said: “The kingdom of God is food and drink, but truth and peace in the Holy Spirit.” Our faith consists “not in presumptuous [1] words of earthly wisdom, but in the manifestation of power and spirit.” This is the state we are in now. It is about this state that the Lord said: “There are none from those who stand here, who have not tasted death, until they see the kingdom of God coming in power”... Will you remember the present manifestation of the indescribable mercy of God that has visited us? “I don’t know, father,” I said, “whether the Lord will honor me forever to remember this mercy of God as vividly and clearly as I now feel.” “And I remember,” Father Seraphim answered me, “that the Lord will help you to keep this in your memory forever, for otherwise His goodness would not have so instantly bowed to my humble prayer and would not have so quickly preceded to listen to the poor Seraphim, especially since It was not given to you alone to understand this, but through you for the whole world, so that you yourself, having established yourself in the work of God, could be useful to others... Right faith in Him and His Only Begotten Son is sought from God. For this, the grace of the Holy Spirit is given abundantly from above. The Lord is looking for a heart filled with love for God and neighbor - this is the throne on which He loves to sit and on which He appears in the fullness of His heavenly glory. “Son, give Me your heart! - He says, “and I myself will add everything else to you,” for the Kingdom of God can be contained in the human heart. The Lord commands His disciples: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. For your Heavenly Father knows that you require all these things.” The Lord God does not reproach us for using earthly blessings, for He Himself says that according to our position in earthly life, we demand all of these, that is, everything that calms our human life on earth and makes our path to the heavenly fatherland convenient and easier... And The Holy Church prays that this will be granted to us by the Lord God; and although sorrows, misfortunes and various needs are inseparable from our life on earth, the Lord God did not want and does not want us to be in only sorrows and misfortunes, which is why he commands us through the apostles to bear each other’s burdens and thereby fulfill the law Christov. The Lord Jesus personally gives us the commandment that we love each other and, being comforted by this mutual love, make it easier for ourselves on the sad and difficult path of our journey to the heavenly fatherland. Why did He come down from heaven to us, if not in order to, having taken upon Himself our poverty, to enrich us with the wealth of His goodness and His ineffable bounties. After all, He did not come to be served, but may Himself serve others and may He give His soul for the deliverance of many. So do you, your love for God, and, having seen the mercy of God clearly shown to you, communicate this to everyone who desires salvation. “For the harvest is plentiful,” says the Lord, “but the laborers are few.” So the Lord God led us out to work and gave us the gifts of His grace, so that, reaping the benefits of the salvation of our neighbors through the greatest number of those brought by us into the Kingdom of God, we would bring Him fruit - some thirty, some sixty, and some a hundred. Let us guard ourselves, father, so as not to be condemned with that crafty and lazy slave who buried his talent in the ground, but let us try to imitate those good and faithful servants of the Lord who brought to their Master one instead of two - four, another instead of five - ten. There is no need to doubt the mercy of the Lord God: you yourself, your love for God, see how the words of the Lord, spoken through the Prophet, came true on us: “I am God from afar, but God is near and at your mouth is your salvation”... “The Lord is near to all who call He is in truth, and He has no vision of faces, for the Father loves the Son and gives everything in His hand,” if only we ourselves loved Him, our heavenly Father, truly, in a filial way. The Lord listens equally to a monk and a layman, a simple Christian, as long as both are Orthodox, and both love God from the depths of their souls, and both have faith in Him, even “like the grain of a pea,” and both will move mountains. “One moves thousands, but two move darkness.” The Lord Himself says: “All things are possible to him who believes,” and Father Saint Paul loudly exclaims: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Isn’t it even more marvelous than this, our Lord Jesus Christ says about those who believe in Him: “Believe in Me, not just the works that I have done, but even greater works than these that I will do, because I go to My Father and pray to Him for you, that your joy may be filled. Hitherto you have not asked for anything in My name, now ask and receive”... So, your love for God, whatever you ask from the Lord God, accept everything, as long as it is for the glory of God or for the benefit of your neighbor, because He also attributes the benefit of his neighbor to His glory, which is why He says: “Everything that you did to one of the least of these, you did to Me.” So do not have any doubt that the Lord God will not fulfill your requests, as long as they relate either to the glory of God or to the benefit and edification of others. But even if for your own needs, or benefit, or benefit, you needed something, and even the Lord God would deign to send it to you just as quickly and benevolently, if only the extreme need and necessity insisted on it, for the Lord loves to those who love Him: the Lord is good to everyone, but He is generous and gives to those who do not call on His name, and His bounty in all His works; but He will do the will of those who fear Him and He will hear their prayer, and He will fulfill all their advice; The Lord will fulfill all your requests. However, beware, your love of God, so as not to ask the Lord for what you do not have an extreme need for. The Lord will not deny you this for your Orthodox faith in Christ the Savior, for the Lord will not give up the rod of the righteous to the lot of sinners and will do the will of His servant strictly, but He will exact from him why he disturbed Him without any particular need, asked Him for something without which he could very conveniently get by with.
And throughout this conversation, from the very time Father Seraphim’s face became illuminated, this vision did not cease... I myself saw the indescribable brilliance of light emanating from him, with my own eyes, which I am ready to confirm with an oath.” The full text can be read at the link: www.pravoslavie.ru/1433.html
And all these three parts of our nature were created from the dust of the earth, and Adam was not created dead, but an active living being, like other animate creatures living on earth. But this is the power that if the Lord God had not then breathed into his face the breath of life, that is, the grace of the Lord the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and is sent into the world for the sake of the Son, then Adam, no matter how completely superior to all other God’s creatures, how the crown of God’s creations on earth, but still would have remained without the Holy Spirit within him, elevating him to a god-like dignity, and would have been like all other created things, although his flesh, soul, and spirit belonged to each according to their kind, but Those who do not have the Holy Spirit within themselves.
When the Lord God breathed, as it was then said, into the face of Adam the breath of life - from the Lord God the Father, from the Lord God the Son, the Word of God from time immemorial, and from the Lord God the Holy Spirit - collectively from all the persons of the Holy Trinity, breathing and all containing its ends in His hand, and giving life to all of God’s creation, then, according to the expression of Moses, Adam became a living soul, that is, completely similar to God in everything and such as He, immortal forever and ever, and before that He was created not subject to the action of any of the elements created by God, that neither water could drown it, nor fire could burn it, nor the earth could devour it in its abysses, nor the air could be damaged in any way, now to the detriment of us existing, by its action, and everything was subjugated to him as the favorite of God, as the king and owner of creation, and everyone admired him as the all-perfect crown of God’s creations, surpassing all the creatures on earth, and on the waters, and in the air.
And from this breath of life, breathed into the face of Adam from the all-creative lips of the All-Creator and Almighty God, Adam became so wise that there has never been, since the beginning of time, and there will hardly be a man on earth wiser and more knowledgeable than him; for when the Lord commanded him to name the names of all creation, he gave each creature such names that signify all the power and all the properties of every creature that it has by the gift of God.
And it was by this all-surpassing gift of God’s grace, bestowed upon him, that Adam and the Lord walking in paradise could see and understand, and comprehend all the verbs of His sacred and secret all-creative conversation with him, and the conversation of the holy angels, and the language of all animals, and birds, and creeping things that live on the earth, and everything that is now hidden from us, as from fallen and sinners, but was clear to him before the fall. The Lord God gave the same wisdom, and strength, and all other good and holy qualities to Eve, no longer from the dust of the earth, but from Adam’s side.
And so that they could always maintain in themselves all the immortal, grace-filled properties of the breath of life, God planted the tree of life in the middle of paradise, in the fruits of which He completely contained the entire essence and fullness of all the gifts of this Divine inspiration, so that Adam and Eve themselves (even if they had not sinned) , then all their offspring) could, always taking advantage of eating from the fruits of the tree of life, maintain not only the eternally life-giving grace of God within themselves, but also the immortal, eternally youthful fullness of the powers of the flesh and soul, and spirit, and the everlasting agelessness of their infinitely immortal all-blessed state, even incomprehensible to our imagination at the present time. When, by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, contrary to the commandment of God, they learned the difference between good and evil and were subjected to all the disasters that followed for breaking the commandment of God, they were deprived of this priceless gift of God, so that until the coming into the world of the God-man Jesus Christ
