Saint righteous John Kronstadtsky (1829 – 1908) is one of the most significant saints of Russia in recent times. During his earthly ministry it was enough to write a letter to Fr. John or send a telegram so that he would pray, and the miracle of healing would take place. And now, after his blessed death, many miracles continue to occur. A great gift was the reward of Fr. John for his exploits - prayerful works, fasting and selfless deeds of love for God and neighbors. Despite his unusual busyness, Righteous Father John found time to keep a spiritual diary, writing down daily his thoughts that came to him during prayer. These thoughts made up a wonderful book - “My Life in Christ.” This book is a true spiritual treasure and can be placed on a par with the inspired works of the ancient fathers of the Church and ascetics of Christian piety.

On our website you can download the book “My Life in Christ” by Saint Righteous John of Kronstadt for free and without registration in fb2, rtf, epub, pdf, txt format, read the book online or buy the book in the online store.

I do not preface my publication with a preface: let it speak for itself. Everything contained in it is nothing other than the grace-filled illumination of the soul, which I received from the all-enlightening Spirit of God in moments of deep attention and self-examination, especially during prayer. Whenever I could, I wrote down my blessed thoughts and feelings, and from these notes over many years a book has now been compiled. The contents of the book are quite varied, as readers will see if there are any. Let them judge the contents of my publication.

Archpriest AND. Sergeev

All things are for Your pleasure andwise and active.

Prayer before the Gospel at the Liturgy

1. You have abundantly revealed to me, O Lord, Your truth and Your righteousness. Through educating me through the sciences, You revealed to me the wealth of faith and nature and human reason. I have heard Your word - the word of love, passing even before separationsoul and spirit ours (Heb. 4:12); studied the laws of the human mind and its philosophy, structure and beauty of speech; penetrated partly into the secrets of nature, into its laws, into the abyss of the universe and the laws of circulation; I know the population globe, learned about individual peoples, about famous persons, about their deeds that took their course in the world; I partially learned the great science of self-knowledge and drawing closer to You - in a word, I learned a lot, a lot, so that exceeding the human mind so farzana mi essence(Sir. 3, 23); and I still learn a lot. I have a lot of books with varied content, I read and re-read them, but I still haven’t gotten enough. My spirit still thirsts for knowledge; my whole heart is not satisfied, not full, and from all the knowledge acquired by the mind, it cannot receive complete bliss. When will it be satisfied? Satiated, never appear before Thy glory(Ps. 16, 15). Until then I won't get enough. Drink from the sowing water (from worldly knowledge), He will thirst again: but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst; but the water that I will give him, there will be in him a fountain of water flowing into an everlasting belly, said the Savior (John 4:13-14).

2. How do the saints see us and our needs and hear our prayers? Let's make a comparison. May you be transported to the sun and united with the sun. The sun illuminates with its rays the whole earth, every grain of sand on the earth. In these rays you also see the earth; but you are so small in relation to the sun that you constitute only one ray, and these rays are in

there is an infinite amount of it. By its identity with the sun, this ray closely participates in the sun’s illumination of the entire world. So the holy soul, uniting with God, as with the spiritual sun, sees through the medium of its spiritual sun, illuminating the entire universe, all people and the needs of those who pray.

3. Have you learned to look upon the Lord before you? I'll take it out - as the omnipresent Mind, as the living and active Word, as the life-giving Spirit? Holy Scripture is the realm of Mind, Word and Spirit, God of the Trinity, in which He manifests himself clearly: glagoals, even as I told you, the essence of the spirit and the belly, - said the Lord (John 6:63); the writings of the holy fathers are again an expression of the Thought, Word and Spirit of the hypostases, with a greater participation of the human spirit itself; the writings of ordinary secular people are a manifestation of the fallen human spirit, filled with sinful attachments, habits, and passions. In the Word of God we see face to face God and ourselves, as we are. Recognize yourself in it, people, and always walk in the presence of God.

4. Man, you see for yourself, does not die in his word; He is immortal in it and speaks after death. I will die, but even after death I will speak. There is so much of this immortal word among people, which was left behind by those who died a long time ago and which sometimes lives on the lips of an entire people! How tenacious is the word, even a human one! Moreover, the Word of God: it will survive all centuries and will always be alive and active.

5. Since God is a creative, living and life-giving Thought, those who, with the thoughts of their spirit, deviate from this hypostatic Thought and are concerned only with material, perishable objects, thereby materializing their spirit; Especially sinful are those who, during worship or home prayer They completely deviate in their thoughts and wander in different places outside the temple. They extremely insult the Divinity, in Whom our thoughts should be fixed.

6. What does fasting and repentance lead to? What is the labor for? Leads to cleansing of sins, peace of mind, union with God, sonship, and boldness before the Lord. There is something to fast about and confess with all your heart. The reward will be invaluable for conscientious work. How many of us have a feeling of filial love for God? How many of us boldly and without condemnation dare to call on Heavenly God the Father and say: Our Father!.. Is it not, on the contrary, that such a filial voice is not heard in our hearts at all, muffled by the vanity of this world or attachment to its objects and pleasures? Is not the Heavenly Father far from our hearts? Shouldn’t we, who have moved away from Him to a land far away, imagine Him as God’s avenger? - Yes, because of our sins we are all worthy of His righteous wrath and punishment, and it’s amazing how He is so patient with us, how He does not cut us down like fruitless fig trees? Let us hasten to appease Him with repentance and tears. Let us enter into ourselves, examine our unclean heart with all severity and see what a multitude of impurities block the access of Divine grace to it, we realize that we are spiritually dead.

7. The loving Lord is here: how can I allow even a shadow of malice into my heart? May all malice completely die within me, may my heart be anointed with the fragrance of kindness. May the love of God conquer you, evil Satan, who incites us, who are evil-minded, to evil. Anger is extremely deadly for the soul and body: it scorches, crushes, torments. Let no one bound by evil dare to approach the throne of the God of love.

8. When praying, we must certainly take control of our heart and turn it to the Lord. It must not be cold, crafty, untrue, or double-minded. Otherwise, what is the use of our prayer, of our fasting? Is it good to hear an angry voice from the Lord: these lips of men draw near to meThey honor Me with their lips and their lips, but their heart is far from Me.(Matt. 15:8). So, let us not stand in church with spiritual relaxation, but let each one burn in his spirit, working for the Lord. And people do not value very much the services that we do coldly, out of habit. And God wants our heart. Give Mi, son, your heart(Proverbs 23:26) because the heart is the most important thing in a person, his life; more - our heart is man himself. Therefore, whoever does not pray or does not serve God with his heart is the same as not praying at all, because then his body prays, which in itself, without a soul, is the same as the earth. Remember that when you stand in prayer, you stand before God, who has the mind of all. Therefore, your prayer should be, so to speak, the whole spirit, the whole mind.

9. The saints of God live even after death. I often hear in church how the Mother of God sings Her wonderful song, passing through the heart, which She composed in the house of Her aunt Elizabeth after the Annunciation of the Archangel. Here I hear the song of Moses, the song of Zechariah - the father of the Baptist, Anna - the mother of the prophet Samuel, the song of the three youths, the song of Mariam. And how many New Testament holy singers delight the ears of the entire Church of God to this day! What about worship? What about the Sacraments? What about the rituals? Whose spirit moves there and touches our hearts? The Lord God and the saints of God. Here's proof of immortality human soul. How is it: people died - and after death they control our lives; They died - and they still speak, teaching, edifying and touching us!

10. Just as breathing is necessary for the body and without breathing a person cannot live, so without the breath of the Spirit of God the soul cannot live true life. What air is to the body, the Spirit of God is to the soul. The air is somewhat like the Spirit of God. Spirit, wherewants, breathes...(John 3:8).

11.When you are faced with a temptation to sin, then vividly imagine that sin greatly angers the Lord, Who hates lawlessness. For God does not want iniquityecu (Ps. 5:5). And in order for you to better understand this, imagine a truthful, strict father who loves his family, who tries by all means to make his children well-behaved and honest, in order to reward them for their good behavior with his great riches, which he prepared for them with great difficulty, and who between Thus he sees, to his regret, that the children do not love him because of their father’s love, do not pay attention to the legacy prepared by their father’s love, live dissolutely, and rush rapidly towards destruction. And every sin, mind you, is death for the soul (see James 1:15ff.), because it kills the soul, because it makes us slaves of the murderous devil, and the more we work for sin, the more difficult our conversion is, the more certain is our destruction. Fear all sin with all your heart.

12. When your heart wanders into the thoughts of evil and the evil one, as they say, begins to wash away your heart so that it is completely moved from the stone of faith, then say to yourself internally: I know my spiritual poverty, my insignificance without faith; say: I am so weak that I only live in the name of Christ, and I am at peace, and I am glad, I am expanding in my heart, but without Him I am dead spiritually, I am worried, I am embarrassed in heart; Without the Cross of the Lord, I would long ago have been a victim of the most severe sorrow and despair. Christ keeps me in life; The cross is my peace and consolation.

13. We can think because there is an infinite thought, just as we breathe because there is an infinity of air space. This is why bright thoughts about any subject are called inspiration. Our thought constantly flows precisely under the condition of the existence of the boundless thinking Spirit. This is why the apostles say: we We are not content on our own, thinking that it is from ourselves, but our contentment is from God(2 Cor. 3:5). This is why the Savior says: Don’t worry about what you say or what you say, for fear it will be given to you in the very hour that you say(Matt. 10:19). You see, both the thought and even the word itself (inspiration) come to us from outside. This, however, is in a state of grace and in times of need. But even in our ordinary situation, all bright thoughts come from the Guardian Angel and from the Spirit of God, while, on the contrary, unclean, dark thoughts come from our damaged being and from the devil, who is always close to us. How should a Christian behave? God Myself there is act in us(Phil. 2:13). In general, everywhere in the world we see the kingdom of thought: both in the entire composition of the visible world, so, in particular, on earth, in the circulation and life of the globe - in the distribution of the elements of light, air, water, earth, fire (in secrecy), then how other elements are diffused in all animals - in birds, fish, reptiles, beasts and humans, in their wise and purposeful structure, in their abilities, morals or habits, in plants, in their structure, in nutrition, etc. - in a word, We see the kingdom of thought everywhere, even in soulless stone and grain of sand.

14. Priests of the Lord! Be able, with the consolation of faith, to turn the bed of sadness of a Christian sufferer into a bed of joy, be able to turn him from the most unhappy person, in his opinion, into the happiest man in the world, assure him that, having been punished in a small way, he will be greatly benefited (see Wisdom 3:5) after death - and you will be friends of humanity, comforting angels, organs of the Comforter Spirit.

15. If we do not kindle the warmth of faith in our hearts, then through negligence our faith may completely extinguish, and Christianity with all its Sacraments may, as it were, completely die out for us. The enemy is only trying to extinguish faith in the heart and bring all the truths of Christianity into oblivion. That is why we see people who are Christians in name only, but who are perfect pagans in deeds.

16. Do not think that our faith is not life-giving for us, shepherds, that we serve God hypocritically. No, we are the first to benefit most from the mercies of God and we know from experience that for us the Lord with His Sacraments, that His Most Pure Mother and His saints. For example, when we partook of the life-giving Mysteries of the Body and Blood of the Lord, we often, often experienced their life-giving nature, the heavenly gifts of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit; We know that the merciful royal gaze of the last of his subjects does not please as much as the gracious gaze of our heavenly Master, as His Mysteries do. And we would be extremely ungrateful before the Lord and hardened in heart if we did not tell about this glory of the life-giving Mysteries to all the beloved of God, if we did not glorify His miracles that happen in our hearts every day. Divine Liturgy! We also often experience the invincible, incomprehensible, Divine power of the honest and life-giving Cross of the Lord, and by its power we drive away from our hearts passions, despondency, cowardice, fear and all the machinations of demons. He is our friend and benefactor. We say this sincerely, with the consciousness of all the truth and power of our words.

17. You want to comprehend the incomprehensible; But can you understand how internal, soul-killing sorrows befall you, and find means—outside the Lord—how to drive them away? Find out with your heart how to free yourself from sorrows, how to make your heart calm, and then, if necessary, philosophize about the incomprehensible. As much as you can, not even a small peso, what aboutwill you care about the others? (Yak. 12,26).

18. Think more often: whose wisdom is manifested in the structure of your body, constantly supports it in being and functioning? Who prescribed the laws of your thought, and does it still follow them among all people? Who inscribed the law of conscience on the hearts of all people, and to this day it rewards good and punishes evil in all people? God Almighty, All-Wise and All-Good! Your hand is constantly on me, a sinner, and there is not a moment when Your goodness leaves me. Grant me to always kiss Your right hand with living faith. Why should I go far to seek traces of Your goodness, Your wisdom and Your omnipotence? Ah, these traces are so clearly visible in me! I, I am a miracle of God's goodness, wisdom and omnipotence. I - in a small form - am the whole world; my soul is a representative of the invisible world, my body is a representative of the visible world.

19. Brothers! What is the purpose of our life on earth? So that, after our trial by earthly sorrows and disasters and after gradual improvement in virtue with the help of grace-filled gifts taught in the Sacraments, we may rest upon death in God - the peace of our spirit. That is why we sing about the dead: “Rest, O Lord, the soul of Thy servant.” We wish the deceased peace as the end of all desires and pray to God for this. Isn’t it therefore foolish to grieve a lot over the dead? Come to Meecu you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, says the Lord (Matthew 11:28). Here are our dead, who have fallen asleep through Christian death, come to this voice of the Lord and rest in peace. Why mourn?

20. People who try to lead a spiritual life experience the subtlest and most difficult war through their thoughts every moment of their life. - spiritual warfare; You need to be a bright eye every moment in order to notice the thoughts flowing into the soul from the evil one and reflect them; Such people should always have their hearts burning with faith, humility, and love; otherwise, the wickedness of the devil will easily take up residence in him, behind the wickedness is lack of faith or unbelief, and then all kinds of evil, which you can’t soon wash away with even tears. Therefore, do not allow your heart to be cold, especially during prayer, avoid cold indifference in every possible way. It often happens that there is prayer on the lips, but in the heart there is crafty lack of faith or disbelief; with the lips it is as if a person is close to the Lord, but with the heart he is far away. And during prayer, the evil one uses all measures to cool and deceive our heart in the most imperceptible way for us. Pray and be strong, strengthen your heart.

Happy Saint John - one of the great ascetics Orthodox Church new time. He was known to everyone, from ordinary laymen to aristocrats. This book includes the main part of Father John’s spiritual diary, which he kept for decades. Deep thoughts about the spiritual life of man, about his weaknesses and strengths, about the difficulties and joys of gaining faith are reflected on the pages of this diary. Before the revolution of 1917, “My Life in Christ” was published in Russia more than 10 times and was translated into English and German.

St. John of Kronstadt

MY LIFE IN CHRIST

or

Minutes of spiritual sobriety and contemplation, reverent feelings, spiritual correction and peace in God

I do not preface my publication with a preface: let it speak for itself. Everything contained in it is nothing other than the grace-filled illumination of the soul, which I received from the all-enlightening Spirit of God in moments of deep self-attention and self-examination, especially during prayer. Whenever I could, I wrote down my blessed thoughts and feelings, and from these records of many years, books have now been compiled. The contents of the books are very diverse, as readers will see. Let them judge the contents of my publication.

The spiritual one claims everything, but he himself claims not one thing.

Archpriest I. Sergiev.

Volume 1

1–100

You have abundantly revealed to me, O Lord, Your truth and Your righteousness. Through educating me through the sciences, You revealed to me all the riches of faith and nature and human reason. I have heard Your word - the word of love,

passing until the separation of soul and spirit

our [Heb. 4. 12]; studied the laws of the human mind and its philosophy, structure and beauty of speech; penetrated partly into the secrets of nature, into its laws, into the abyss of the universe and the laws of circulation; I know the population of the globe, I know about individual peoples, about famous persons, about their deeds that have taken their course in the world; I partially learned the great science of self-knowledge and approaching You; in a word - I learned a lot, a lot - so

the greatest of the human mind is shown

[Sirach. 3, 23]; and I still learn a lot. I have a lot of books with varied contents, I read and re-read them; but still not satisfied. My spirit still thirsts for knowledge; my whole heart is not satisfied, not full, and from all the knowledge acquired by the mind, it cannot receive complete bliss. When will it be satisfied? - Get enough

never appear before Thy glory

[Ps. 16, 15]. Until then I won't get enough.

Drink from the sowing water

(from worldly knowledge),

He will get thirsty again: but if he drinks from the water that I will give him, he will not thirst forever; but the water that I will give him, there will be in him a fountain of water flowing into an eternal belly

[John 4, 13, 14], said the Savior.

How do the saints see us and our needs and hear our prayers? Let's make a comparison. May you be transported to the sun and united with the sun. The sun illuminates with its rays the whole earth, every grain of sand on the earth. In these rays you also see the earth; but you are so small in relation to the sun that you constitute only one ray, and there are infinitely many of these rays in it. By its identity with the sun, this ray closely participates in the sun’s illumination of the entire world. So the holy soul, uniting with God, as with the spiritual sun, sees through the medium of its spiritual sun, illuminating the entire universe, all people and the needs of those who pray.

Have you learned to see the Lord before you?

How is the Mind omnipresent, how is the Word living and active, how is the life-giving Spirit? Holy Scripture is the realm of the Mind, Word and Spirit - God of the Trinity: in it He manifests himself clearly:

101–200

A man who dreams of a perishable life and does not think about an endless, heavenly life! Consider: what is your temporary life? This is the constant supply of firewood (I mean food) so that the fire of our life burns and does not become scarce, so that our house (I mean the body) is warm and so that the constantly transient life of our body is restored by nourishing principles from the organisms of other living creatures that are deprived of life for the life of our body. Indeed, what an insignificant web is your life, man: every day you strengthen its stand inside it twice for its strength (that is, you reinforce yourself twice with food and drink) and every night you lock your soul in your body once, closing all the senses of the body , like the shutters of a house, so that the soul does not live outside the body, but in the body, and warms and revives it. What a web your life is and how easy it is to break it! Humble yourself and revere the endless life!

Truth is the basis and diversity of everything that is created, and in your affairs (internal and external) let truth be the basis of everything, especially the basis of prayer; Let your whole life, all your deeds, all your thoughts and desires be strung on truth, as a foundation.

Take the labor of spending at least one day according to God’s commandments, and you will see for yourself, you will experience with your heart how well it is to fulfill the will of God (and God’s will in relation to us is our life, our eternal bliss). Love the Lord with all your heart, even as you love your parents and benefactors; evaluate by your strength His love and benefits to you (go over them with your mind in your heart: how He gave you existence and with it all the blessings, how He endlessly tolerates your sins for you, how He forgives them infinitely for the sake of your sincere repentance for the power of the suffering on the cross and the death of His only begotten Son, what bliss He promised you in eternity if you are faithful to Him), blessings that are infinitely great and numerous. Next, love every person as yourself, that is, do not wish for him anything that you do not wish for yourself; think and feel for him as you think and feel for yourself; do not want to see in him anything that you do not want to see in yourself; let your memory not retain the evil done to you by others, as you wish that the evil done by you be forgotten by others; do not intentionally imagine anything criminal or unclean in yourself or in others, imagine others as well-intentioned as yourself; in general, if you don’t clearly see that they are ill-intentioned, do for them what you do for yourself, or at least don’t do for them what you don’t do for yourself - and you will see what will happen in your heart, what silence, what bliss! Before heaven you will be in heaven, before heaven in heaven you will be in heaven on earth.

201–300

Do not succumb to gloomy, angry dispositions of the heart towards your neighbor, but master them and eradicate them with the power of faith, in the light of a sound mind - and you will be complacent.

I walk with my kindness

[Ps. 25, 1]. Such locations often appear deep in the heart. He who has not learned to master them will often be gloomy, thoughtful, and heavy with himself and others. When they come, force yourself to be cheerful, cheerful, and innocent jokes: and they will dissipate like smoke. - Experience.

It is a strange and wild phenomenon in our nature, damaged by sin, to sometimes hate those who do good and repay them with dislike for our good deeds! Oh, how tight, how poor is our heart with love and mercy! How proud it is! The enemy laughs at us greatly; he wants to destroy the fruits of our good deeds. But you love the more the more you do good to whom, knowing that the one who receives mercy from you also serves as a guarantee of your mercy from God.

When asking the Lord, or the Most Pure Mother of God, or the Angels, or the saints, you need to have the kind of faith that the Capernaum centurion had [Lk. 7, 6 et seq.]. He believed that just as his soldiers obeyed and fulfilled his words, so much the more, according to the almighty word of the All-Good Lord, his request would be fulfilled. If the creatures, with their limited power, fulfilled what he asked them to do, then will not the Lord Himself, with His omnipotent power, fulfill the requests of His servants, who turn to Him with faith and hope! Will not our petitions, submitted with faith, hope and love, be fulfilled by His faithful servants, strong in grace and intercession to God - the Most Pure Mother of God, Angels and holy men! Truly, I believe with the centurion that if I ask as I should and for what I should of any saint: give this and he will give, come to my aid and he will come, do this and he will do it. Here's how simple and strong faith must have!

Every false thought carries within itself proof of its falsity. This proof is its mortality for the heart;

carnal wisdom death is

[Rome. 8, 6]. Equally, every true thought contains within itself the proof of its truth. This proof is its life-giving effect on the heart;

301–400

For a true believer in God, every earthly substance and all visible worlds seems to disappear, for him there is not even one mental line of space without God; everywhere he contemplates a single, infinite Being - God. He imagines that with every breath of air he breathes God; The Lord is everywhere and everything for him, and creatures seem to not exist, and he himself willingly disappears mentally in order to give a place within himself to the One Existing God, who is all active in him.

Sometimes you just enjoy the Lord, and soon after that the enemy, either himself or through people, will inflict extreme sorrow on you. This is the lot of those who work in this life for the Lord. For example, you rested and rejoiced at the Chalice of the Lord, and sometimes immediately after the service a fiery temptation meets you, and with it sorrow; Even at the Chalice itself, the enemy plays tricks on you and confuses you with various thoughts, and if you don’t want to, fight, and you would like to rest with the Lord for a long, long time, but your enemies won’t let you. As long as passions continue to operate in us, as long as the old man in us lives and does not die, until then we will have to grieve a lot from various temptations in life, from the struggle of the old man with the new.

These reassuring words of the Lord give great encouragement and consolation and great hope to those praying:

ask and it will be given to you...

What man is there from you, whose son, if he asks for bread, will give him a stone to eat?

.. [Matt. 7, 7, 9]. If others ask me for something and I, although evil due to the depravity of nature, but heed the requests of others, their words move my heart to mercy and help, and my hand to giving, then will not my words, my sincere request move the Most Humane Womb Lord to have mercy and help me, although a sinner, but still His creation, the work of His hands? If earthly fathers are good, then how much more so is the Heavenly Father? If I am good, isn’t God, the Source of goodness, even more good?

If you are wicked, you know how to give good things to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him?

[Matt. 7, 11]. Confirm your faith and hope in God through the earthly relationships of fathers to children. After all, we are all children of the Heavenly Father, the One, in truth, Father of all creatures.

401–500

The alms of the person who does not give it willingly are insignificant, because material alms are not his, but God’s gift, and only his heart’s disposition belongs to him. Therefore, many alms will turn out to be almost vain because they were given grudgingly, with regret, with disrespect for the person of one’s neighbor. Like hosts, many will turn out to be vain due to their hypocritical, vain treatment of their guests. With heartfelt affection, let us offer our sacrifices on the altar of love for our neighbor:

goodwill God loves the giver

The enemy acts murderously on human hearts, by the way, through external nature, as on Job: with winds, water and fire; Sometimes houses burn down due to the machinations of the enemy; ships and houses are drowned by water; winds collapse buildings; or the enemy in damp weather, under the cover of humidity and gases, treacherously in our insides, burdening, constricting and striking them with an insensitive cold towards everything true and holy. Oh, how varied are the machinations of the prince of the power of the air, and how difficult it is sometimes to recognize them!

A corrupt person wants to constantly eat, drink, constantly comfort his sight, his hearing, his sense of smell, his touch; carnal people satisfy themselves with exquisite food and drink, shows, music, smoking, magnificent buildings, external splendor. But the decoration of sacred objects, since it leads to God, is not only not sinful, but holy and edifying, as well as sacred singing, the fragrance of the censer, the splendor and splendor of the decorations of the temple and all its utensils. All this - since it is intended to serve the glory of God and the arousal of pious feelings - is not sinful and holy. But there, in the world, everything serves the carnal, corrupt person and removes him from God. The corrupted heart seeks unclean carnal sensations - and they satisfy it; the corrupted mind seeks knowledge corresponding to its corruption - and it is satisfied; corrupted imagination and memory look for images that correspond to themselves - and they are satisfied. This is all the old man, the works of the old man. But we are Christians

All things are for Your pleasure and

wise and active.

(Prayer before the Gospel at the Liturgy).

EXTRACT FROM THE DIARY

PROTOPRIEST

Ioann Ilyich Sergiev

VOLUME TWO

Records 815-864 865-914 915-964

965-1014 1015-1064 1065-1114

1115-1164 1165-1214 1215-1264

1265-1314 1315-1364 1365-1414

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St. Petersburg

St. John of Kronstadt. My life in Christ.

May the living water of the Holy Spirit fill my heart and let it flow

rivers of water live from my heart for the glory of God and salvation

people of God.

FOR THE GLORY of the triune God. Amen.

815 Lord! I am a miracle of Your goodness, wisdom,

omnipotence, since You brought from non-existence into

being, since I am preserved by You hitherto in being,

because I have, by goodness, generosity and philanthropy

Your only begotten Son, to inherit eternal life,

if I am faithful to You, I will remain so terrible

the sacred act of sacrificing oneself

By Your Son I have been raised from a terrible fall, redeemed

from eternal destruction. I praise Your goodness, Your

infinite power, Your wisdom! But do it

wonders of Your goodness, omnipotence and wisdom

over me, damned and with their own fates, save me,

Thy unworthy servant, and bring him into Thy Kingdom

eternal, make me worthy of ageless life, day

non-evening.

816 My heart must cleave to the one God: for me

It is good to cleave to God [Isa. 72, 28], and it -

what blindness and perversion! - sticks to

the sweets of this age: food, drink, carnal pleasures,

money, to this dust, to clothes, to this decay, to

to colors that disappear, to patterns, to cuts that seduce

eyes, to luxuriously decorated chambers, etc. Strange affair!

I, a Christian, a heavenly man, am occupied with everything

earthly and little - heavenly. I have been translated in Christ

heaven, and meanwhile with all my heart I cling tightly to

earth and, apparently, would never want to be on

heaven, but it is better to always remain on earth, although earthly,

with its pleasure, it burdens and torments me, although I

I see that everything earthly is unreliable, perishable, will soon pass,

although I know and feel that nothing earthly can

satisfy my spirit, pacify and sweeten my heart,

constantly restless and upset by the vanity of the earth.

How long will I, a heavenly man, be earthly? How long

I will be flesh, a child of God, who is not of blood nor of

lusts of the flesh, but was born of God [John. 1, 13] in

St. baptism, until I rush all the way to God?

God! draw my heart to You by Your Spirit

Saints. God! turn my heart away from earthly vanities.

God! I can’t do anything without You.

817 We love everything shiny on earth: gold, silver,

precious stones, crystal, shiny clothes, -

Why don’t we love the future glory, to which the Lord

calls us? why don't we strive for enlightenment?

like the sun? The righteous, it is said, will be enlightened

like the sun in the kingdom of their Father [Matt. 13, 43]. Because of

by sin they perverted the nature of their soul and instead of heaven

cleave to the earth, instead of incorruption to corruption,

fell in love with earthly shine, temporary, perishable and

charming. But why do we have this strong love To

shine? Because our soul was created for light

heavenly and in the beginning there was all the light, all the radiance; to her

Light is innate, the feeling and desire for light is innate.

Direct this desire to seek heavenly light!

818 When you see a beautiful maiden or woman, or

beautiful young man, immediately ascend to the supreme one,

Most Holy Beauty, the culprit of all earthly beauty and

heavenly, i.e. to God; glorify Him for being from

the earth makes such beauty; marvel at the man

the beauty of the image of God, shining even in the damaged

our condition, imagine the beauty of the saints

of God, holy angels, Mother of God, embellished

divine glory; imagine unspeakable kindness

the face of God, which we will see, and do not be deceived by earthly things

beauty, this flesh and blood. Sweet is lust, but

sinful, corruptive and disgusting to God. Don't cling

with a heart for a girl or female beauty, and to one

The Lord God, who created all beauty for His own sake, and

speak; I should cleave to God, the only God,

there is good [Ps. 72, 28], and not to carnal beauty

transient.

819 Dejection that happens to us from failure in some way

work, especially priestly work, which we do for

others, and the shame on the face comes from our enemy

incorporeal, who seeks everywhere to devour us, like a lion

growling, and forces us to every failure, to every

sin. Therefore, in order to be trouble-free in business,

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Prmts. Eudokia (c. 160–170).

St. Martyria of Zelenetsky (1603). Mchch. Nestor and Trivimius (III). Mts. Antonina (III–IV). Mchch. Marcella and Antonia. St. Domnina of Syria (c. 450–460).

Sschmchch. Vasily Nikitsky, Peter Lyubimov, Ioann Streltsov, Veniamin Famintsev, Mikhail Bukrinsky presbyters, martyr. Antonia Korzha, prmcc. Anna Makandin, Daria Zaitseva, Evdokia Arkhipova, Olga Zhiltsova, Alexandra Dyachkova, Matrona Makandin, martyr. Vasily Arkhipova, MC. Nadezhda Abbakumova (1938); sschmch. Alexandra Ilyenkov presbyter (1942); sschmch. Vasily Konstantinov-Grishin presbyter (1943).

At the 6th hour: Isa. II, 11–21. For eternity: Gen. II, 4–19. Proverbs III, 1–18.

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Venerable Martyrius of Zelenetsky

Venerable Martyrius of Zelenetsky , in the world of Mina, came from the city of Velikiye Luki. His parents, Cosmas and Stefanida, died when he was not yet ten years old. Raised him spiritual father, the priest of the city Annunciation Church, and the boy became more and more attached to God with his soul.

Having been widowed, his mentor accepted monasticism with the name Bogolep in the Velikiye Luki Trinity-Sergius Monastery. Mina often visited him at the monastery, and then he himself took monastic vows there with the name Martyrius. For seven years, teacher and student worked tirelessly for the Lord in the same cell, competing with each other in feats of labor and prayer. The monk Martyriy carried out the obediences of a cellarer, treasurer and sexton.

At this time, the Mother of God for the first time showed Her special care for the Monk Martyria. At noon he dozed off in the bell tower and saw the image of the Most Holy Theotokos Hodegetria on a pillar of fire. The monk reverently kissed it, hot from the pillar of fire, and when he woke up, he still felt this heat on his forehead.

By spiritual council St. Martyrius, the seriously ill monk Avramiy went to venerate the miraculous Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God and received healing. The monk was imbued with ardent faith in the intercession of the Mother of God. He began to pray to the Queen of Heaven to show him where to hide in order to complete the feat of perfect silence, to which his soul aspired. The monk secretly withdrew to a deserted place 60 miles from Velikiye Luki. As the monk himself writes in his notes, “in that desert I took great fears from demons, but I prayed to God, and the demons were put to shame.” In a letter to Elder Bogolep, the monk asked for a blessing to live in the desert, but the confessor advised Martyrius to return to the hostel, where he was useful to the brethren. Not daring to disobey and not knowing what to do, Saint Martyrius went to Smolensk to worship miraculous icon Mother of God Hodegetria and the Wonderworker Abraham (August 21). In Smolensk, the Saints Abraham and Ephraim appeared to the saint in a dream and reassured him with the announcement that the Lord had appointed him to live in the desert, “where God will bless and the Most Holy Theotokos will guide.”

Then the monk went to the Tikhvin monastery, hoping that there the Mother of God would finally resolve his perplexity. And indeed, the monk Abramy, who, in gratitude to the Mother of God for the healing, remained forever in that monastery, told him about the hidden desert, over which he had a vision of the shining Cross of the Lord. Having received the blessing of the elder this time, the Monk Martyrius took with him two small icons of the same size - the Life-Giving Trinity and the Most Holy Theotokos of Tikhvin - and went to the desert, called the Green, for it rose as a beautiful green island among a wooded swamp.

The life of the saint in this desert was cruel and painful, but neither cold, nor deprivation, nor wild animals, nor the machinations of the enemy could shake his determination to endure the trials to the end. He erected a chapel in glorification and thanksgiving to the Lord and the Most Pure Mother of God, in which he was again honored to see in a dream the image of the Mother of God, this time floating on the sea. Archangel Gabriel appeared to the right of the icon and invited the monk to venerate the image. After hesitation, the Monk Martyrius entered the water, but the image began to sink into the sea. Then the monk prayed, and the wave immediately carried him and the icon to the shore.

The desert was sanctified by the life of the hermit, and many began to come to it, not only to be edified by the word and example of the monk, but also to live with him. The increasing brotherhood of disciples prompted the monk to build a church in the Name of the Life-Giving Trinity, where he placed his prayer icons. As a testimony to the grace of God that rested at the monastery of the Monk Martyrius, the monk Gury was honored to see over church cross Cross shining in the sky.

This was the beginning of the Trinity Zelenetsky Monastery - the “Green Martyrian Hermitage”. The Lord blessed the work of the monk, and the grace of God apparently shone on him. The fame of his insight and gift of healing spread far. Many eminent Novgorodians began to send offerings to the monastery. At the expense of the pious boyar Fyodor Syrkov, a warm church was built, consecrated in honor of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos in memory of that first church in Velikiye Luki, from where he began his path to God as a boy.

The monk continued to receive grace-filled reinforcements from the Most Pure Mother of God. One day, in a subtle dream, the Mother of God Herself appeared to him in his cell, on a bench, in a large corner where the icons stood. “I looked, without looking away, at Her holy face, at her eyes, filled with tears, ready to fall on Her most pure face. I got up from sleep and was terrified. I lit a candle from the lamp to see if the Most Pure Virgin was sitting still, where I saw Her in a dream. I approached the image of Hodegetria and became convinced that the Mother of God truly appeared to me in the same image as She is depicted on my icon,” the monk recalled.

Soon after this (about 1570), the Monk Martyry received the priesthood in Novgorod from the archbishop (Alexander or Leonid). It is known that in 1582 he was already abbot.

Later, the Lord gave the Green Desert an even richer benefactor. In 1595, in Tver, Saint Martyrius healed the dying son of the former Kasimov king Simeon Bekbulagovich, praying before his icons of the Life-Giving Trinity and the Tikhvin Mother of God and placing the image of the Most Holy Theotokos on the sick man’s chest. With the donations of the grateful Simeon, churches were built in honor of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God and St. John Chrysostom - Heavenly patron healed Tsarevich John.

In 1595, Tsar Theodore Ioannovich gave the monastery letter of commendation, approving the monastery founded by the monk.

Having reached a very old age and preparing for death, the Monk Martyrius dug a grave for himself, placed a coffin made with his own hands in it, and cried a lot there. Feeling the imminent departure, the monk called the brethren and begged his children in the Lord to have unshakable hope in the Most Holy Life-giving Trinity and place his entire trust in the Mother of God, just as he always trusted in Her. Having partaken of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, he gave a blessing to the brethren and with the words: “Peace to all Orthodox,” he rested in spiritual joy in the Lord on March 1, 1603.

The monk was buried in a grave he himself had dug near the Church of Our Lady, and then his holy relics rested under cover in the church Holy Trinity, under the basement church in honor of St. John the Evangelist. The former monk of the Zelenetsky Monastery, Metropolitan of Kazan and Novgorod Korniliy (+ 1698), composed a service and wrote the life of the Monk Martyrius, using the personal notes and will of the saint.

Troparion to St. Martyrius of Zelenetsky

From your youth, O blessed God, you loved Christ,/ you left your fatherland/ and, evading all worldly rebellions,/ you reached the quiet haven of the most honorable monastery of the Mother of God;/ having taken away the impassable the desert, / shown by the cruciform dawn, / it is desirable that you have found it, / and, dwelling in it,/ you gathered the monastics,/ and these with your teachings, like a ladder ascending to Heaven,/ you laboriously strove to lead you to God,/ you prayed to Him, the God-Mudder Martyria,// the gift Great mercy to our souls.

Translation: From your youth, blissful in God, having loved Christ, you left the Fatherland and, having retired from all the bustle of the world, you found yourself in the quiet refuge of the venerable monastery of the Mother of God, from there you saw the impenetrable desert, indicated by the cross-shaped dawn, found it suitable, and having settled in it, gathered the monastics and With your teaching, like a ladder ascending to Heaven, in tireless work you tried to bring them to God. Pray to Him, God-wise Martyrius, to grant our souls great mercy.

Kontakion to St. Martyrius of Zelenetsky

You desired to evade the Fatherland, Reverend, and all worldly rebellion,/ and, having settled in the desert,/ there in the blissful silence you showed a cruel life,/ and the children of obedience and humility in him You have grown./ For this reason, the boldness of acquiring the Holy Trinity, / also pray, O blessed God, for us, your children, whom you have gathered, / and for all the faithful, let us call you: Rejoice, Father Martyrie, lover of the silence of the desert.

Translation: You wished to leave the Fatherland, reverend, and all worldly vanity, and settled in the desert, there, in blissful silence, difficult life He showed and raised children of obedience and humility [monks] in it. Because of this, I gained the boldness [courage, decisive aspiration] to pray to the Holy Trinity for us, your children whom you have gathered, and for all believers, we call on you: Rejoice, Father Martyrius, lover of desert silence.

Prayer to St. Martyrius of Zelenetsky

Oh, good shepherd, our mentor, Reverend Father Martyrie! Hear our prayer brought to you now. We know that you are with us in spirit. You, reverend, as having boldness towards the Lady, Jesus Christ, our God, and towards the Most Honorable Mother of God, be an intercessor and a warm prayer book for this monastery, even if you have rewarded us, unworthy slaves, living in it, even if you are an enlightener and chief, helper and intercessor to your God-gathered brotherhood, so that through your intercession and prayers we will remain unharmed in this place; We are not cursed by demons and evil people, and we will remain free from all troubles and misfortunes. To all who come from everywhere to your holy monastery and pray to you with faith and worship the race of your relics, to get rid of all sorrow, illness and misfortune, please hasten with mercy, grant For the Orthodox, give peace, silence, prosperity and an abundance of earthly fruits; and for all of us, be a warm representative to the Lord and a helper to our souls, even if we forgive our sins and through your prayers, holy ones, we will be delivered from eternal torment and be worthy of the kingdom with all saints, let us send glory, thanksgiving and worship to the one God, glorified in the Trinity, the Father and to the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Reading the Gospel with the Church

March 14th. Lent. We study the Holy Gospel history. Meeting of the Virgin Mary and Elizabeth

Hello, dear brothers and sisters.

We continue to study the Sacred gospel history. In the last program we talked about the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary. Our program today will talk about the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth, which the Evangelist Luke describes.

1.39. And Mary arose in those days, and went with haste into the hill country, to the city of Judah,

1.40. and she entered into the house of Zechariah, and greeted Elizabeth.

1.41. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby in her womb leaped; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit,

1.43. And where does it come from for me that the Mother of my Lord came to me?

1.45. And blessed is she who believed, because what was spoken to her by the Lord will be fulfilled.

1.46. And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord,

1.47. and my spirit rejoiced in God my Savior,

1.48. that He looked upon the humility of His Servant, for from now on all generations will please Me;

1.49. that the Mighty One has done great things for Me, and holy is His name;

1.50. and His mercy throughout all generations is upon those who fear Him;

1.51. He showed the strength of His arm; He scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;

1.52. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the humble;

1.53. He filled the hungry with good things, and sent away the rich with nothing;

1.54. He received His servant Israel, remembering mercy,

1.55. as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his seed forever.

1.56. Mary stayed with her for about three months and returned to her home.

(Luke 1:39–56)

This passage, filled with joy, reveals one of the most amazing moments in gospel history. If before this descriptions of the two women ran parallel, now they are connected. Mary, having learned from the angel about her relative’s pregnancy, hurries to her. The word "rising" from the Greek means "haste." And there are two reasons for this haste. First of all, Mary happily hurries to congratulate Elizabeth on her miracle of conceiving a son, and also confirms the words of the angel, for Elizabeth’s pregnancy served in his mouth as proof of the good news of the birth of the Son of God from Mary.

It is difficult to imagine that a woman in those days could travel alone, especially over such a long distance, from Galilee to Judea, which took three or four days, but Evangelist Luke is only interested in Mary, and he, apparently, omits any details.

From the text of the Gospel of Luke we learn that Zechariah and Elizabeth lived in one of the cities in the mountainous part of Judea, but a more precise location is not indicated, although, according to legend, this village was located in Ein Karem on the site of the Gornensky convent.

Mary's visit to Elizabeth is a wonderful portrayal of two women: an older woman who, after much despair, finally became pregnant, and a young woman who became pregnant much earlier than she expected. There could be some internal conflict: Mary could feel pride, Elizabeth could feel resentment. But nothing like that happens. On the contrary, we become aware interesting details: John, three months before his birth, jumps for joy in the womb of Elizabeth upon hearing the voice of the Virgin Mary. An amazing meeting of Christ and His forerunner takes place even before the moment of their birth.

Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:41). With this expression in Holy Scripture denotes the gift of a prophetic word. It was revealed to Elizabeth that she saw not only her young relative, but she was granted with her own eyes to see the mother of the Messiah - Christ Himself, still hidden in the womb of the Virgin Mary.

Before us is another miracle: if Elizabeth’s pregnancy was visible (since it was already the sixth month), then she herself could not have guessed what happened to Mary if it had not been revealed to her by the Holy Spirit. It is in this Spirit that Elizabeth pronounces her prophetic blessing: Blessed are You among women, and blessed is the fruit of Your womb! (Luke 1:42).

A more accurate translation of this phrase should sound like “the most blessed among women,” because it cannot be said that Mary was among other women who received blessings from God, such as Sarah, Rebecca or Elizabeth herself... Mary was given something that none of them would receive women - the honor of becoming the Mother of the Son of God.

Elizabeth ends her prophetic blessing with the words: And blessed is she who believed, because what was spoken to her by the Lord will be fulfilled (Luke 1:45). Blessed, that is, happy, and happy because she believed. In the book of Genesis (Genesis 15:6) we read that Abraham's faith in the birth of the son promised by God was counted to him as righteousness. For the Apostle Paul, such faith revealed trust in God, who wanted to save people. It was precisely this faith, which manifested itself in complete trust in God, that made Mary blessed.

Mary responded to Elizabeth's prophetic blessing with a hymn dedicated to God. This song of the Virgin Mary has become one of the main hymns of the Church. It is sung at almost every service, both in the twilight of monastery churches and in majestic cathedrals.

The entire hymn of the Virgin Mary is woven from words and sayings drawn from various biblical texts, especially the psalms. Before us is a wonderful example of poetry, imbued with ardent faith, reverence and chaste restraint.

Mary magnifies the Lord in spiritual joy, and the reason for this joy is that He looked upon the humility of His Servant (Luke 1:48). In these words, Mary expresses her awareness of her smallness and insignificance in comparison with the powerful God. She thanks for His unconditional mercy, which is given not for merit, but according to great love and the kindness of God.

for from now on all generations will call Me blessed (Luke 1:48). After the birth of Asher, the son of Jacob, which is described in the 30th chapter of the book of Genesis, Leah exclaimed: the women will call me blessed (Genesis 30:13). How similar these two phrases are, but the difference is that the Virgin Mary will be blessed not only by women, but by all generations, that is, all generations of people.

that the Mighty One has done great things for Me, and holy is His name (Luke 1:49) - by “greatness” is meant the birth of the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior of the world.

and His mercy throughout all generations is upon those who fear Him (Luke 1:50) - this verse repeats almost verbatim the 17th verse of Psalm 102: But the mercy of the Lord from everlasting to everlasting is upon those who fear Him, where by “those who fear God” is meant those who honor the will of God.

He showed the strength of His muscle (Luke 1:51) - “muscle”, or in other translations – “arm”, means the power of God.

He scattered the arrogant in the thoughts of their hearts (Luke 1:51), that is, he put to flight those who opposed the will of God, throwing all their insidious plans into confusion.

He brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the humble (Luke 1:52). God is more powerful than earthly rulers, who most often consciously or unconsciously resist God, relying on their power and strength. Perhaps this is what the Virgin Mary is talking about when she calls them “arrogant” in the previous verse.

He filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty-handed (Luke 1:53), literally: He satisfied the hungry, and sent the rich away empty-handed. This phrase is very similar to Sermon on the Mount Savior.

He received His servant Israel, remembering mercy (Luke 1:54). By Israel we should understand people faithful to God, those who follow the born Christ and to whom He will come to the aid, freeing them from sinful slavery and showing mercy.

as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his seed forever (Luke 1:55), in other words: remembering the mercy promised to our forefathers, to Abraham and his descendants forever. Probably, here too we should understand the “descendants of Abraham” as spiritual heirs of his tradition, more than descendants in the flesh.

Today's passage ends, dear brothers and sisters, with the indication of the Evangelist Luke that Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months. That is, until the moment when Elizabeth gave birth to her son. Perhaps Mary witnessed both the circumcision and the naming of the future Baptist, but Luke is silent about this, as well as about Mary’s further relationship with Elizabeth after Mary returned to her home in Nazareth.

Hieromonk Pimen (Shevchenko),
monk of the Holy Trinity Alexander Nevsky Lavra

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OLD BUT NOT ALONE WITH CHRIST: Word for the Presentation of the Lord

WITH Imeon and Anna - two old people - did not see themselves as lonely, because they lived by God and for God. We do not know what life sorrows and old age ailments they had, but for a person, loving God, grateful to God, such trials and temptations will never replace the most important thing - the joy of the Meeting of Christ....

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Preparation for the Sacrament of Holy Baptism

IN section " Preparation for Baptism" site "Sunday school: on-line courses " Archpriest Andrei Fedosov, head of the department of education and catechesis of the Kinel Diocese, information has been collected that will be useful to those who are going to receive Baptism themselves, or want to baptize their child or become a godparent.

R This section consists of five cataclysmic conversations in which the content of Orthodox dogma within the framework of the Creed is revealed, the sequence and meaning of the rites performed at Baptism are explained, and answers to common questions related to this Sacrament are given. Each conversation is accompanied additional materials, links to sources, recommended literature and Internet resources.

ABOUT course conversations are presented in the form of texts, audio files and videos.

Course topics:

• Conversation No. 1 Preliminary concepts
• Conversation No. 2 Sacred Bible story
• Conversation No. 3 Church of Christ
• Conversation No. 4 Christian morality
• Conversation No. 5 The Sacrament of Holy Baptism

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