Christian thoughts on repentance and communion
“And now says the Lord your God: Turn to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”
Joel. 2:12.
Whoever wants to save his soul will destroy it
(Matt. 16:25), i.e.
whoever desires to save his old, carnal, sinful man will lose his life: for true life consists in crucifying and putting to death the old man with his deeds and putting on the new man, renewed in the image of Him who created him
(Col. 3:9-10 ). Without the mortification of the old carnal man, there is no true life, no eternal bliss. The stronger and more painful the mortification of the old man, the more perfect his renewal and rebirth, the higher his purification, the more perfect his life, and the higher his bliss in the next century. Mortify yourself and you will come to life. Oh! I myself feel that when I am completely healthy and do not bother or exhaust myself with labor, then I die in spirit, then the Kingdom of God is not in me, then my flesh has possession of me and the devil with the flesh.
It is necessary for a Christian to fast in order to clarify the mind and excite and develop feelings and motivate the will to good activity. We overshadow and suppress these three human abilities most of all with overeating, drunkenness and the worries of everyday life.
(Luke 21:34), and through this we fall away from the source of life - God and fall into corruption and vanity, perverting and desecrating the image of God in ourselves.
Gluttony and voluptuousness nail us to the ground and cut off, so to speak, the wings of the soul. And look how high all the fasters and abstinents were! They soared in the skies like eagles; They, earth-born, lived with their minds and hearts in heaven and heard inexpressible verbs there, and there they learned divine wisdom. And how a person humiliates himself with gluttony, gluttony and drunkenness! He perverts his nature, created in the image of God, and becomes like dumb cattle and even becomes worse than him. Oh, woe to us from our addictions, from our lawless habits! They prevent us from loving God and our neighbors and fulfilling God’s Commandments; they root in us criminal carnal selfishness, the end of which is eternal destruction. So a drunkard, for the pleasure of the flesh and stupefaction of himself, does not spare a lot of money, but spares pennies for the beggars; a tobacco smoker throws tens and hundreds of rubles into the wind, and begrudges the beggars the pennies that could save his soul; those who love to dress luxuriously or are hunters of fashionable furniture and utensils spend huge amounts of money on clothes, furniture and utensils, and pass by beggars with coldness and contempt; those who love to eat well do not spare tens and hundreds of rubles for dinners, but they spare pennies for the poor. It is also necessary for a Christian to fast because with the incarnation of the Son of God, human nature is spiritualized, deified, and we hasten to the heavenly kingdom, which contains food and drink, but truth, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit
(Rom. 14:17);
meat to the belly, and the belly to waste: God will bring to naught both this and this
(1 Cor. 6:13). Eat and drink, i.e. to have an addiction to sensual pleasures is characteristic only of paganism, which, not knowing spiritual, heavenly pleasures, spends its entire life in the pleasure of the belly, in heavy eating and heavy drinking. That is why the Lord often denounces this destructive passion in the Gospel. And is it reasonable for a person to constantly live in gastric fumes, in gastric fumes rising inside from the incessant cooking of food and its fermentation? Is man just a walking kitchen or a self-propelled chimney, to which all those who smoke incessantly can rightly be likened? What pleasure is it to live in constant fumes, evaporation and smoke? What will our homes be like? Why would we contaminate the air with stench and breathe it, and most of all, darken and suppress the soul, kill its last spiritual strength?
As a person satisfies his sensuality, he becomes carnal and removes from himself the Most Holy Spirit of God, Who cannot dwell in people who lead a carnal life: for some reason there is communication between light and darkness
(2 Cor. 6:14)? This tear-worthy condition is experienced by many people and - alas! - they do not recognize that they do not have the Spirit of God in them, just as those who were blind from birth do not realize the great loss that they do not see the light. Such people do not have faith and love in their hearts and the spirit of prayer; they avoid communication with the Church. My God! there are so many dangers in life for me. I become my own greatest enemy when I satisfy my flesh too much.
If you eat and drink a lot greedily, you will be flesh, and if you fast and pray, you will be spirit. Do not get drunk with wine, but rather be filled with the Spirit
(Eph. 5:18; 1 Thess. 5:6–8).
Fast and pray, and you will accomplish great things. A well-fed person is not capable of great things. Have simplicity of faith and you will accomplish great things: for all things are possible to him who believes
(Mark 9:23). Have diligence and diligence, and you will accomplish great things.
Fasting is a good teacher:
he soon makes it clear to anyone who fasts that every person needs very little food and drink, and that in general we are greedy and eat and drink much more than what is proper, i.e. whatever our nature requires;
fasting helps or reveals all the infirmities of our soul, all its weaknesses, shortcomings, sins and passions, just as muddy, stagnant water that begins to clear itself reveals what reptiles are found in it or the quality of rubbish;
he shows us the necessity of running to God with all our hearts and seeking His mercy, help, and salvation;
fasting shows all the cunning, deceit, all the malice of the disembodied spirits with whom we previously, unknowingly, worked, whose cunning, when we are now illuminated by the light of God’s grace, is clearly revealed, and who now viciously persecute us for leaving their ways.
He who rejects fasting forgets what caused the fall of the first people (from intemperance) and what weapon against sin and the tempter the Savior showed us when he was tempted in the desert (fasting forty days and nights), he does not know or does not want to know that man falls away from God most often through intemperance, as was the case with the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah and with Noah’s contemporaries - for from intemperance every sin occurs in people; whoever rejects fasting takes away from himself and from others weapons against his many-passionate flesh and against the devil, who are strong against us especially through our intemperance, he is not a warrior of Christ, for he throws down his weapon and surrenders voluntarily into captivity of his voluptuous and sin-loving flesh; he, finally, is blind and does not see the relationship between the causes and consequences of affairs.
They say: it’s not important to eat meat during Lent, it’s not about food during Lent; It’s not an important thing to wear expensive, beautiful clothes, go to the theater, to parties, to masquerades, to have magnificent expensive dishes, furniture, an expensive carriage, dashing horses, to collect and save money, etc.; but why does our heart turn away from God, the Source of life, and why do we lose eternal life? Is it not because of gluttony, is it not because of precious clothes, like the evangelical rich man, is it not because of theaters and masquerades? Why do we become hard-hearted towards the poor and even towards our relatives? Is it not because of our addiction to sweets, to the belly in general, to clothing, to expensive dishes, furniture, carriage, money, etc.? Is it possible for God and Mammon to work?
(Matthew 6:24), to be a friend of the world and a friend of God, to work for Christ and Belial? Impossible. Why did Adam and Eve lose paradise and fall into sin and death? Is it not because of the food alone? Take a good look at why we do not care about the salvation of our souls, which cost the Son of God so dearly; Because of this, we add sins to sins, we constantly fall into resistance to God, into a vain life. Is it not because of an addiction to earthly things, and especially to earthly sweets? What makes our heart hard? because of which we become flesh and not spirit, perverting our moral nature, is it not because of addiction to food, drink, etc. earthly goods? How can we then say that eating meat during Lent is not important? This very thing that we say so is pride, vanity, disobedience, disobedience to God and moving away from Him.
Man is dear to the Lord, the whole world is submissive to him; The Son of God himself came down from heaven to earth to save him from eternal torment, to reconcile him with God. All kinds of fruits, various animal flesh were given to him as food, various drinks were given to him to delight his taste, but not for addiction, not for his only pleasure. A Christian has great, spiritual, divine pleasures; These are the pleasures of the flesh that must always be subordinated, moderated or completely stopped when they interfere with spiritual pleasures. This means that food and drink are prohibited not to sadden a person, not to restrict his freedom, as they say in the world, but in order to give him true pleasure, lasting, eternal, and that is why fast food and wine drinks are prohibited (during Lent) that man is very dear to God, and so that instead of God his heart does not cleave to the corruptible, which is unworthy of him. And a person damaged by sins conveniently cleaves to earthly pleasures, forgetting that his true pleasure, his true life is the eternal God, and not a pleasant irritation of the flesh.
Do not have any addiction not only to food and drink, to clothing, to a spacious and well-decorated home, to rich household utensils, but also to your health, even to your life, do not have the slightest addiction, surrendering your entire life to the will of the Lord, saying: For me, if I live, I have Christ, and if I die, I have gain.
(Phil. 1:21).
Hate your soul in this world, but you will keep it for eternity
(John 12:25).
Addiction to temporary life, to health leads to many deviations from the commandments of God, to indulgence of the flesh, to breaking fasts, to evading the conscientious performance of service duties, to despondency, impatience, and irritability. Never sleep in the evening before the evening rule, lest your heart become white from untimely sleep, and lest the enemy prohibit it with petrified insensibility in prayer. Be sober and watchful
(1 Peter 5:8).
Watch and pray so that you do not fall into misfortune
(Matthew 26:41).
Watch out, for you do not know the hour of the day, in the same day the Son of Man will come
(Matthew 25:13).
Be on the lookout: you don’t know when the Lord will come home, evening, or midnight, or at the sound of a loop, or morning: lest he come suddenly, he will find you sleeping.
And as I say to you, I say to everyone: watch (Mark 13:35, 37).
The root of all evil is a proud heart, or self-pity, self-sparing; from self-love or excessive and unlawful love for oneself stem all passions: coldness, insensibility and hard-heartedness towards God and neighbor, evil impatience or irritability, hatred, envy, stinginess, despondency, pride, doubt, lack of faith and unbelief, greed for food and drinking, or gluttony, covetousness, vanity, laziness, hypocrisy. Never feel sorry for yourself in anything, crucify yourself - your old man, nesting mainly in the flesh - and you will cut off all your passions. Endure with good-naturedness everything that happens that is unpleasant for the flesh, do not spare it, go opposite to it, and you will be a true follower of Christ. The whole wisdom of a Christian consists in prudently walking contrary to his flesh in everything in his life, for good does not live in me, that is, in my flesh.
(Rom. 7:18), says the apostle.
With satiety and drunkenness, the incorporeal enemy enters the human heart—everyone who is attentive can feel this. This is the reason why, with increasing drunkenness, the inclination to drunkenness increases so terribly (because the power of the enemy over a person increases), why such a force is noticeable among drunkards, attracting them involuntarily to satisfy a passion or internal desire for wine - these unfortunate people have an enemy in their hearts. How to cast out the demon of drunkenness? By prayer and fasting. The enemy enters because people indulge in a carnal lifestyle, gluttony and do not pray; it is natural that he can leave them for the opposite reasons: fasting and prayer.
Oh, how terrible it is to eat and drink for fun, to become satiated and drunk! A well-fed womb loses faith, fear of God and becomes insensitive to prayer, thanksgiving and glorification of God. A well-fed heart turns away from the Lord and becomes like a stone, hard and insensitive. That is why the Savior carefully warns us against overeating and drunkenness, lest the day of death suddenly come upon us
(Luke 21:34), because of the Lord’s anger against us, for frivolous and idle spending of time in food and drink.
Perfect pleasing to God consists in having perfect impartiality towards one’s body for Him; for example, when during prayer we, despite laziness and a strong disposition to sleep, force ourselves and do not give in to it, then we have dispassion for the body. The martyrs and ascetics had perfect impartiality.
When you feel that there is no peace in your heart due to addiction to something worldly, but instead irritability and anger are breathing in it, immediately stand guard over your heart and do not let the devil’s fire fill it. Pray with heartfelt prayer and strengthen your passionate, impatient heart with God’s power. Be firmly convinced that the evil kindling of the heart is the work of the enemy; and the enemy fights strongly in the heart through a full stomach. Experience.
Do not believe your flesh, which threatens you with failure during prayer: it lies. If you begin to pray, you will see that the flesh will become your obedient slave. Prayer will revive her too. Always remember that the flesh is deceitful.
Begin to fulfill the commandments concerning the small, and you will fulfill the commandments concerning the great: the small leads to the great everywhere. Begin to fulfill at least the commandment about fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, or the tenth commandment concerning evil thoughts and desires, and you will fulfill all the commandments; but he who is unfaithful in small ways and in many ways is unfaithful
(Luke 16:10).
By eating extensively, you become a carnal man, not having a spirit, or soulless flesh; and by fasting, you attract the Holy Spirit to yourself and become spiritual. Take cotton paper that has not been moistened with water, it is light and floats in the air in small quantities, but if you wet it with water, it will become heavy and immediately fall to the floor. So it is with the soul. Oh, how one must protect the soul through fasting!
The substance of the world is like nothing
(Ps. 38:6);
everywhere and in everything the Spirit of God, life-giving, supreme of all. When you pray to God, imagine that matter does not seem to exist and all creatures seem not to exist, and that there is only God, existing everywhere and one, for whom there is no place, who fills, embraces, builds and preserves everything with Himself. If you are impartial to the material and practice fasting and prayer, then the spirit in you will, as it were, absorb the flesh, and you will be spiritual, you will contemplate the Spirit-God in nature everywhere; - whereas, on the contrary, those who are addicted to earthly things, especially to food, to drink, to money, are bodily, without spirit
(Jude 1:19), and in everything they see only the flesh, without contemplating the spirit, and even rejecting the spiritual side items.
To repent means to feel in your heart the lie, madness, and guilt of your sins; it means to realize that you have offended your Creator, Lord, Father and Benefactor, who is infinitely Holy and infinitely abhors sin; with all your soul you want to correct and atone for them.
Don’t rush to food and drink, but rather hurry to the work of God, and while doing God’s work, do not think about food and drink. Remember firmly before Whom you stand, with Whom you talk, Whom you sing; be entirely in God, belong entirely to Him alone, pray with all your heart, sing with all your heart, serve for your neighbors as you would for yourself, cordially, wholeheartedly, without double hearts and thoughts. God! help me: I can’t do anything without You
(John 15:5).
Why does the Lord add day to day, year to year of our existence? So that we gradually wean away, throw away wickedness from our souls, each in his own way, and internalize blissful simplicity, so that, for example, we become like gentle lambs, like simple babies, so that we learn not to have the slightest attachment to earthly things, but like loving and loving children. simple ones would cleave with all their hearts to God alone and love Him with all their hearts, with all their souls, with all their strength and with all their thoughts, and their neighbor as themselves. Let us hasten with a heartfelt and tearful prayer to ask the Lord for simplicity of heart and be jealous, let us take care by all means to cast off the cunning of our souls, for example: evil suspicion, malice, malevolence, malice, pride, arrogance, self-praise, contempt, impatience, despondency, despair, resentment and irritability, fearfulness and cowardice, envy, stinginess, gluttony and satiety, mental and heartfelt fornication and actual fornication, love of money and in general a passion for acquisition, laziness, disobedience and the whole dark horde of sins. God! We cannot do anything without You. Bless us for this work and grant us victory over our enemies and our passions. - Wake up!
When you're hungry, don't go too heavy on food—you'll burden both your heart and your body. Without greed, eat quietly, with meditation, for the glory of God, remembering God the Nourisher, especially His incorruptible food, His Body and Blood, how He, for love’s sake, gave Himself to us for food and drink, and about St. The word of the gospel.
Pay the strictest and most active attention to this daily action of yours, to eating and drinking, because your spiritual, social and family activity depends very much on food and drink, on their quality and quantity. Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be burdened with gluttony and drunkenness.
(Luke 21:34); and tea and coffee also belong to drunkenness if they are consumed untimely and in excess. Oh woe to us, who are now saturated and often look at the gifts of God with disdain!
God! just as it is characteristic of the Proto-Image to attract, to assimilate images, to inhabit and live in them, so it should be characteristic of those who are in Your image to strive with all love, with all zeal for the Proto-Image, to cleave to It. But behold, our greedy and voluptuous, plump, inert flesh tears us away from You; we need: fasting, abstinence, and we are passionate about sweets. Strengthen us to abstinence!
And do not condemn my brother, for blessed are you forever and ever
. (Prayer of Ephraim the Syrian).
Amen.
Diaries of a Saint
When it comes to saints, we often think of them as some kind of higher beings who are alien to the temptations and weaknesses of an ordinary person. In the depths of our souls, we are inclined to explain all their exploits and achievements as universal: “Well, that’s why they are saints...” However, the entire history of the Church testifies to the exact opposite logic of people gaining holiness: that is why the ascetics became saints because they struggled with their temptations and weaknesses. And one of the most effective tools of this struggle was for them immediate repentance in the depths of their souls before God for every sinful thought, for every evil movement of the heart. You can fully realize this by reading the dying diaries of John of Kronstadt, a righteous man who was recognized as a saint by millions of Russian people during his lifetime; a miracle worker who healed the hopelessly sick and even raised the dead. It would seem that here is a genuine celestial being who has already acquired the Kingdom of Heaven on earth! And suddenly it turns out that almost until his death, the same sins and passions that each of us can see in ourselves took place in the soul of this amazing man. However, the Kronstadt shepherd treated them completely differently from us. Here are just a few entries from this diary for 1908. They hardly need any comment and talk about the practice of immediate repentance much more than any explanation.
How to become the master of your destiny
This is what a man saw in himself in his declining days, who for several decades in a row celebrated the Liturgy daily, led many charitable and social projects, answered dozens of letters every day, healed the sick, consoled the suffering, helped the poor... In the soul of the holy righteous John of Kronstadt exactly such things sprouted the same germs of evil that each of us has. But he carefully monitored the cleanliness of his planet and immediately uprooted them as soon as he noticed that the roots of the next “baobab” were beginning to crowd his heart. Thanks to the saint’s diary entries, we now know exactly what instrument he used. Immediate prayer of repentance addressed to God is the most effective remedy against the countless number of sins that each of us constantly commits in our inner world. And you don’t need to wait for the next confession for this. Saint Theophan the Recluse directly said: “Concerning small sinful movements of the heart, thoughts, etc. <...> the following rule: as soon as something unclean is noticed, it should immediately be cleansed by internal repentance before the face of the Lord. You can limit yourself to this, but if your conscience is unclean, uneasy, then later at evening prayer remember this with contrition and that’s the end of it. All such sins are cleansed by this act of internal repentance.”
Drawing by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
A fleeting movement of the heart, a thought flashing through the head - it would seem, what trifles! But from them, precisely from them and from nothing else, all our actions grow, which form our habits, character, destiny - our whole life. And if we accustom ourselves to such internal discipline of thought, if we immediately condemn every sinful sprout in our heart in a repentant appeal to God, then gradually both in the sphere of actions and in the field of habits we will discover much more order and purity.
Just as a terrible mountain collapse sometimes begins with a small pebble, so distorted human lives often began their downward trajectory with a barely noticeable sinful thought. And only the one who carefully monitors each such mental “pebble”, even if it was involuntarily torn off, but has not yet managed to cause a crushing avalanche of sin, can become the true master of his destiny. Because catching one rolling pebble is much easier than later rebuilding a city destroyed by a collapse.
The design uses drawings by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
