Instructions and advice from the elder
Elder Ambrose's foresight was combined with another most valuable gift, especially for a shepherd - prudence. The elder often gave instructions in a half-joking form, but this did not diminish the deep meaning of his speeches. People involuntarily thought about the figurative expressions of Father Ambrose and remembered this lesson for a long time. Often at general receptions the question was heard: “How to live?” The elder answered complacently: “We must live on earth as a wheel turns, just one point touches the ground, and the rest tends upward; and even if we lie down, we can’t get up.”
“God gives grace to the humble”
One nun was severely reprimanded by the abbess for involuntary disobedience. She was hurt and offended, but, suppressing her pride, she fell silent and only asked for forgiveness. Returning to her cell, she noticed that her soul was light and joyful. In the evening of the same day, she reported everything that had happened to Father Ambrose. The elder said: “This incident is providential, remember it. The Lord wanted to show you how sweet the fruit of humility is, so that, having felt it, you would always force yourself to humility, first to the external, and then to the internal. When a person forces himself to humble himself, the Lord comforts him internally, and this is the grace that God gives to the humble. Self-justification only seems to make it easier, but in fact it brings darkness and confusion to the soul.”
About self-conceit
Father Ambrose tirelessly warned his spiritual children about the dangers of conceit and pride. The priest told one of the visitors, who had a vain thought, a parable: “One hermit was chosen as a bishop; he refused for a long time, but they insisted. Then he thought: I didn’t know that I was worthy, surely I have something good. At this time, an angel appeared to him and said: “Ryadniche (ordinary monk), why are you ascending, people there have sinned and they need punishment, that’s why they chose him, because they couldn’t find someone worse than you.” The elder said: “Memory, envy, hatred and similar passions lie within and are born and grow from the inner root of pride. No matter how you cut off the branches from the outside, as long as this root is raw and fresh and no means are used to cut the internal branches of this root, through which the harmful moisture penetrates and produces external shoots, the labor will be in vain. The ax to destroy the root of self-love is faith, humility, obedience and cutting off one’s desires and understandings.”
About the fight against sins
“Why do people sin?” - the elder sometimes asked a question and answered it himself: “Either because they don’t know what to do and what to avoid, or, if they know, they forget, or are lazy, or become despondent... These are three giants - despondency or laziness, oblivion and ignorance—from which the entire human race is bound by insoluble bonds. And then comes negligence with all its host of evil passions.”
On the patience of sorrows and insults
To those who complained about sorrows, the elder said: “If the sun always shines, then everything in the field will wither; That's why it needs rain. If everything rains, then everything will trample; That's why you need wind to blow through. And if there is not enough wind, then a storm is also needed for everything to blow through. All this is useful to a person in due time, because he is changeable.”
“When people annoy you, never ask why or why.” This is nowhere in Scripture. It says the opposite: they will hit you on your right cheek, turn your left also; and this is what it means: if they beat you for the truth, then do not complain and give the left one, that is, remember your wrong deeds, and you will see that you are worthy of punishment.”
Human weakness
When someone told the priest “I can’t” (to endure or do something), he often told about one merchant who kept saying: “I can’t, I can’t - I’m weak.” And once he had to travel across Siberia; he was wrapped in two fur coats and dozed off at night; he opened his eyes and suddenly saw - like a radiance in front of him, everything seemed to be flashing by wolves; looks - they really are wolves. How he will jump up... yes, forgetting about the weight of his fur coats - straight onto the tree!
About the dangers of praise
“When people praise you, you should not pay attention to it, not respond or argue. Let them praise, but only realize within yourself whether you are worthy of praise or not. If you contradict, then hypocrisy will result; after all, you still have a subtle feeling of pleasure from praise; and even those whom you contradict will not believe you, so when they praise you, don’t say anything, lower your eyes, and be silent.”
About repentance
The elder said about repentance: “What a time has come now! It used to happen that if someone sincerely repents of their sins, they will already change their sinful life to a good one; and now it often happens like this: a person will tell all his sins in detail in confession, and then again take up his own.”
“It is not the food that matters, but the commandment”
One opponent of fasting said to the priest: “Does it matter to God what kind of food?” To this the elder replied: “It is not the food that matters, but the commandment; Adam was expelled from paradise not for eating, but for eating, only for eating what was forbidden. Why is it that even now on Thursday or Tuesday you can eat whatever you want and are not punished for it, but on Wednesday and Friday you are punished because you do not obey the commandments. What is especially important here is that obedience is developed through obedience.”
About the water supply system
A wealthy Oryol landowner comes to the priest and, among other things, announces that he wants to install a water supply system in his vast apple orchards. Father is already completely covered by this water supply. “People say,” he begins with his usual words in such cases, “people say that this is the best way,” and describes in detail the construction of the water supply system. The landowner, upon returning, begins to read literature on this topic and learns that the priest described the latest inventions in this technique. The landowner is back in Optina. “Well, what about the plumbing?” - asks the priest. Apples are spoiling everywhere, but the landowner has a rich harvest of apples.
“Turkeys are her whole life.”
One day, the old man was stopped by a woman who had been hired by the landowner to go after the turkeys, but for some reason her turkeys were dead, and the landlady wanted to pay her off. “Father! - she turned to him with tears, - I don’t have the strength: I can’t finish eating them myself - I’m closer than my eyes, but they hurt. The lady wants to drive me away. Have pity on me, darling." Those present laughed at her. And the elder asked her with sympathy how she fed them, and gave her advice on how to support them differently, blessed her and sent her away. To those who laughed at her, he noticed that her whole life was in these turkeys. Afterwards it became known that the woman’s turkeys no longer died.
How to live
"How to live?" — the elder heard this very important question from all sides. As usual, he answered in a joking tone: “To live, don’t bother, don’t judge anyone, don’t annoy anyone, and my respect to everyone.” This tone of the elder’s speech often brought a smile to the lips of frivolous listeners. But if you seriously delve into this instruction, then everyone will see a deep meaning in it. - “Don’t push”, i.e. so that the heart is not carried away by the inevitable sorrows and failures for a person, but is directed to the One Source of eternal sweetness - God; through which a person puts up with sorrows or “resigns himself”, and thereby calms down. - “Don’t judge”, “don’t annoy”. The most common condemnations and annoyances among people are the offspring of destructive pride. They alone are enough to bring a person’s soul down to the bottom of hell; but outwardly, for the most part, they are not considered a sin. - “My respect to everyone” - points to the commandment of the Apostle: “warn one another in respect” (Rom. 12:10). Reducing all these thoughts to one general one, we see that in the above saying the Elder preached mainly humility - this is the basis of spiritual life, the source of all virtues, without which it is impossible to be saved.
Sad Comforter
Prudence and insight were combined in Elder Ambrose with an amazing, purely maternal tenderness of heart, thanks to which he was able to alleviate the heaviest grief and console the most sorrowful soul.
For forgiveness and advice
This is an eyewitness account of how the elder arranged the fate of one already desperate young woman. She was the daughter of a famous merchant, educated but modest. The girl became interested in the young professor and was already expecting a child, but his father refused to marry her. The angry merchant kicked his daughter out of the house with nothing. One must imagine that at that time the attitude towards such situations was the most severe, and a girl who found herself in such a situation covered herself with shame for the rest of her life. She crossed over to a neighboring town, handed the child over to some bourgeois woman, promising to pay for his upbringing, and went to Optina Pustyn to Elder Ambrose “for forgiveness and advice.” Having reached Optina, she, in the crowd of visitors waiting for the elder, prepared for a difficult, shameful confession. Imagine her bewilderment and embarrassment when, bypassing everyone, Father Ambrose called her from afar, and as soon as she approached the elder, he kindly and sympathetically asked her where she had left the baby she had given birth to. She told everything in tears. Then he told her to immediately take the child, return to her father’s city, “and God will send money for food.” She did just that. The boy grew up to be extremely capable, studied well, the woman, with the blessing of the elder, began to paint icons, which is how she earned her living, leading a pious life, in works and prayers, often visiting Father Ambrose, who treated her son with special love and attention. Over time, the woman’s father softened and began to financially support his daughter and grandson.
“Your telegram was cut short”
One resident of Kozelsk, three years after the elder’s death, in 1894, told the following about herself: “I had a son, he served at the telegraph office, delivering telegrams. Father knew both him and me. My son often brought him telegrams, and I went for a blessing. But then my son fell ill with consumption and died. I came to him - we all went to him with our grief. He patted me on the head and said: “Your telegram was cut short!” “It’s broken,” I say, “father!” - and cried. And my soul felt so light from his caress, as if a stone had been lifted. We lived with him as with our own father. Now there are no such elders anymore. And maybe God will send more!”
“Who is crying so bitterly here?”
One young girl with a good education, striving for a better life, but exhausted by her internal duality, doubts, the emptiness of life and the interests of her environment, unconsciously, under the influence of stories about the elder, went to see him in Optina, without any specific goal in mind. The elder was holding an all-night vigil in his cell. There were a lot of people. Standing with everyone, the girl felt some inexplicable excitement. A gracious warmth filled her heart. Looking at the large image of the Mother of God “It is worthy to eat,” she suddenly felt as if the affection of the Queen of Heaven Herself and, without noticing it herself, began to cry bitterly. Suddenly an old man comes out of his cell and, with a face full of compassionate love and sympathy, asks: “Who is crying so bitterly here?” They answered him: “No one, father, is crying.” “No,” the elder repeated, “someone is crying here.” The girl was deeply amazed. From that moment on, her fate was sealed. She asked the elder to accept her into the monastery in Shamordino. Soon her mother arrived to “snatch her daughter from this terrible monastic world.” With sorrow and reproaches she went to the priest. The elder offered her a chair. Several minutes of conversation passed, and the distressed mother involuntarily, not understanding what was happening to her, got up from the chair and knelt down next to the old man, the conversation continued, but the girl’s mother was already in a completely different state. Soon her mother, who also entered the monastery, joined the nun daughter.
“I’m here on your cross!”
The first thirty nuns of the Shamorda community were women who lived in Optina under Klyuchareva. Even when the monastery grew, they continued to remain a separate group. It was they who became the heirs of Ambrosia’s mother.
And their spiritual father was so attached to this place, he didn’t want to leave it so much that it happened that as soon as he got ready to go to Optina, he would immediately get sick. 1891 was the last year in the elder’s earthly life. He spent the whole summer in Shamordin, rushing to finish and arrange everything there. Kaluga Bishop Vitaly was ready to take him from this women’s monastery by force. But he didn’t have time: he arrived in Shamordino just at the moment when Elder Ambrose was being buried.
Optina Pustyn/Alexey Zadonsky/wikimedia. org/CC BY-SA 4.0
They buried him in Optina Hermitage, next to other elders. And the flow of pilgrims to their graves did not dry up until 1918, when the Kaluga authorities decided to close all 16 monasteries in the province. On January 23, 1918, Optina Pustyn was closed. It was returned to the Church only in 1987, on the eve of the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus'. And on June 3, 1988, on the day of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God, the first liturgy took place in the tiny gate church of the Holy Gates.
And in the same year, at the Local Council, the Monk Ambrose was canonized. But after all the trials of the 20th century, with the help of archaeologists, it took another 10 years to discover the place of his burial - the relics of St. Ambrose of Optina were discovered on July 10, 1998.
About how much we care about the soul
The Gospel says: “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his life” (Mark 8:36). That's how precious the human soul is! She is more valuable than the whole world, with all its treasures and benefits. But it’s scary to think how little we understand the dignity of our soul. All our thoughts turn to the body, this dwelling place of worms, this fallen coffin, from morning to evening, but to the immortal soul, to the most precious and beloved creation of God, to the image of His glory and greatness, barely one thought turns all week. The most flourishing years of our life are devoted to the service of the body, and only the last minutes of decrepit old age are devoted to the eternal salvation of the soul. The body daily revels, as at a rich man’s feast, with full cups and sumptuous dishes, but the soul barely collects the crumbs of the divine word on the threshold of the house of God. The insignificant body is washed, dressed, cleaned, adorned with all the treasures of nature and art, but the dear soul, the bride of Jesus Christ, the heir of heaven, wanders with exhausted steps, clothed in the clothes of a wretched wanderer, without alms.
The body does not tolerate a single spot on the face, any uncleanness on the hands, no patch on the clothes, and the soul from head to toe, covered with filth, does nothing but move from one sinful mire to another, and with its annual, but often hypocritical confession , only multiplies the patches on his clothes, and does not renew them. The well-being of the body requires various kinds of fun and pleasure; it often exhausts entire families, for which people are sometimes ready to do all sorts of labor, and the poor soul barely has one hour on Sundays to serve the Divine Liturgy, barely a few minutes for morning and evening prayers, forcibly collects one handful of copper coins for alms, and she is pleased when she expresses the remembrance of death with a cold sigh. For health and preservation of the body, they change the air and home, call on the most skillful and distant doctors, abstain from food and drink, take the most bitter medicines, allow themselves to be burned and cut, but for the health of the soul, to avoid temptations, to avoid sinful infection, do not take not a single step, but remain in the same air, in the same unkind society, in the same vicious house, and do not look for any doctor of souls, or choose a doctor unfamiliar and inexperienced, and hide from him what is already known and heaven and hell, and what they themselves boast about in their societies. When the body dies, then one hears sorrow and despair, but when the soul dies from mortal sin, then they often don’t think about it.
So we do not know the dignity of our soul, and, like Adam and Eve, we give our soul for a red-looking fruit.
Why don't we at least cry like Adam and Eve? For the most part, we are concerned with acquiring goods, only, unfortunately, they are often earthly and temporary, and not heavenly. We forget that earthly blessings are fleeting and unstoppable, while heavenly blessings are eternal, infinite and inalienable.
All-merciful Lord! Help us to despise everything that is fleeting, and to take care of the only need for the salvation of our souls.
About suffering
“God does not create the cross for man, that is, cleansing mental and physical suffering. And no matter how heavy the cross that a person bears in life may be, the tree from which it is made always grows on the soil of his heart.”
“When a person, the Elder said, walks the straight path, there is no cross for him. But when he retreats from him and begins to rush first in one direction, then in the other, then different circumstances appear that push him again onto the straight path. These shocks constitute a cross for a person. They are, of course, different, depending on who needs which one.”
“There is a mental cross, sometimes a person is confused by sinful thoughts, but a person is not guilty of them if he does not deign to them. The Elder spoke as an example: “One ascetic was overwhelmed by unclean thoughts for a long time. When the Lord who appeared to her drove them away from her, she cried out to Him: “Where have you been before, O sweet Jesus?” The Lord answered: “I was in your heart.” She said: “How could this be? After all, my heart was filled with unclean thoughts.” And the Lord said to her: “Therefore, understand that I was in your heart, that you had no disposition towards unclean thoughts, but tried more to get rid of them, but, not being able, you were sick about it, and this prepared a place for me in your heart.” yours."
“Sometimes innocent suffering is sent to a person so that, following the example of Christ, he suffers for others. The Savior Himself first suffered for people. His apostles also suffered for the Church and for the people. To have perfect love means to suffer for your neighbors.”
About disbelief
“I once told Father,” writes his spiritual daughter, “about one family that I feel very sorry for all of them, they don’t believe in anything, neither in God nor in the future life. It’s a pity precisely because it may not be their fault; they were raised in such disbelief, or there were other reasons. Father shook his head and said angrily: “There is no excuse for atheists. After all, the Gospel is preached to everyone, to everyone, even to the pagans; Finally, by nature, we are all from birth endowed with the feeling of knowing God, therefore, it is our own fault. Are you asking if it is possible to pray for such people? Of course, you can pray for everyone.”
Some, the Elder also said, renounced faith in God out of imitation of others and out of false shame. And here’s a case: one of them didn’t believe in God. And when, during the war in the Caucasus, he had to fight, in the midst of the battle, when bullets were flying past him, he bent down, hugged his horse and read all the time: “Most Holy Theotokos, save us.” And then, when, remembering this, his comrades laughed at him, he renounced his words. Then Father added: “Yes, hypocrisy is worse than unbelief.”
About salvation
While a Christian lives on earth, his salvation, according to the word of St. Peter of Damascus, is between fear and hope, and people are still looking for complete satisfaction on earth, and, moreover, from place and from people, while the Lord himself says in the Gospel: “The world is sorrowful you will." These words clearly show that no matter where a Christian lives, he cannot live without some kind of sorrow. There is only one peace - in fulfilling the commandments of the Gospel, as it is said in the psalms: “There is much peace for those who love Your law, and there is no offense for them.” If something or someone tempts or confuses us, then it clearly shows that we do not quite correctly relate to the law of God’s commandments, of which the main commandment is “not to judge or condemn anyone.” Each one will be glorified or ashamed by his own deeds at the terrible judgment of God. And even in the Old Testament it was prescribed to pay attention to yourself and your own salvation and correction of your own soul. This is what we should be most concerned about.
Nowhere does the Lord want to force a person involuntarily, but everywhere he submits to our good will, and by their own free will people are either good or evil. Therefore, in vain we will accuse that those living with us and those around us interfere and hinder our salvation or spiritual perfection. Samuel lived and was raised by Elijah the priest, with his depraved sons, and preserved himself, and was a great prophet. Eve also transgressed God’s commandment in paradise. But even his three-year life in the presence of the Savior Himself did not make Judas any better, when he saw so many miracles, constantly heard the Gospel sermon, but became even worse, selling his Teacher and the Savior of the world for thirty pieces of silver.
Our mental and spiritual unsatisfactoriness comes from ourselves, from our inability and from an incorrectly formed opinion, which we do not want to part with. And it is this that brings upon us confusion, doubt, and various bewilderments; and all this torments and burdens us and leads us to a desolate state. It would be good if we could understand the simple patristic word: “If we humble ourselves, then in every place we will find peace, without bypassing with our minds many other places where the same, if not worse, may happen to us.”
About love
Love covers everything. And if someone does good to their neighbors out of the desire of their heart, and not driven only by duty or self-interest, then the devil cannot interfere with such a person.
Love, of course, is higher than everything. If you find that there is no love in you, but you want to have it, then do deeds of love, although at first without love. The Lord will see your desire and effort and put love in your heart. “Whoever has a bad heart should not despair, because with the help of God a person can correct his heart. You just need to carefully monitor yourself and not miss the opportunity to be useful to your neighbors, often open up to the elder and give alms within your power. This, of course, cannot be done suddenly, but the Lord is patient. He only ends a person’s life when he sees him ready for the transition to eternity or when he sees no hope for his correction.
