Part I, section 19 of 20

Let us put away from us our spiritual short-sightedness, and let us cease concentrating all our attention upon temporal, earthly things; let us foresee with our mental vision the future, everlasting life, and rise in our hearts to our heavenly country. Indeed, it is wonderful short-sightedness for the immortal soul only to look upon the present, visible things, generally relating to the senses, and flattering our carnal nature, and not contemplate the life of the world to come—the blessings which "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man," but which the Most Merciful and the Most Wise " God hath prepared for them that love Him." Of what do we not deprive ourselves through this voluntary short-sightedness! Like flies we adhere to earthly sweets, and do not wish to rise up, to tear ourselves away from them. Blessed is he who despises the joys of this world; there shall be no end to his bliss.

As in the earthly life there are poor and rich, so also in the spiritual life", in the spiritual order, there are also poor and rich. As the poor ask charity of the rich and well-to-do, and cannot live without their help, so also in the spiritual order the poor must have recourse to the spiritually rich. We are the spiritually poor, whilst the saints, or those who shine even in this present life by their faith and piety, are the spiritually rich. It is to them that we needy ones must have recourse. We must beg for their prayers that they may help us to become simple as infants; that they may teach us spiritual wisdom, how to conquer sins, how to love God and our neighbour. And therefore pray for me, saints of God—prophets, apostles, martyrs, prelates, venerable and righteous men—that I may become like unto you!

When you pray to the Lord, represent to yourself vividly to whom you are praying. You are praying to the unoriginated, endless King of all creatures, to the All-holy, All-merciful, Almighty, Most-wise, Omnipreseat, All-righteous God, Whom millions of millions of angels of various orders revere, Whom the armies of martyrs, the companies of prophets and apostles, the assemblies of prelates, venerable and righteous men praise. When you pray to the Holy Virgin, Our Lady, also represent to yourself Her unprecedented holiness, Her greatness, mercy, wisdom, Her helpfulness to all, and the humble worship rendered unto Her by the assemblies of angels and men.

We must constantly bear in remembrance and strive to live in accordance with the mystery of our redemption by Christ, His sufferings, His death on the cross, and His resurrection and ascension, and His second coming; we must honour above all the holiness of the Mother of God as the living ark and temple of the Godhead, and ask Her, after the Lord Himself, for cleansing and holiness, and steadfastness in faith and love.

Avoid flattery, audacity, and taking the law into your own hands. Our soul has a passion for doing this when others do something differently to what we would like them to, or do not do what we would like them to. Bear with this; think how it would be if others revenged themselves upon you immediately after you had done something not in accordance with their will, or after you had not fulfilled that which you might and ought to have done. " As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise;" or keep to the rule: "We forgive them that trespass against us." Man is duty personified. We must here remember that our heart is extremely capricious, evil, and foolish. Sometimes we take a violent dislike to a person without any cause or reason, and nourish malice in our heart against him, and are ready to offend him without any cause. We must despise the natural and unjust malice of the heart, and pray to God to drive away from our heart this stench of the abyss of hell. Let us remember what we were commanded: " These things I command you that ye love one another."

The life of the heart is love, whilst malice and enmity against our brother are its death. The Lord keeps us on the earth in order that love for God and our neighbour may wholly penetrate our heart. This is what He expects from us all. This is, indeed, the purpose of the world's standing.

My daily greatest misfortune is my sins, wounding and gnawing at my heart. But against this misfortune there is also a daily greatest Deliverer and Saviour, Jesus Christ. He daily benefits me, invisibly, bountifully. Poor sinners! Learn to know this Saviour as I know Him, by His grace, by His gifts.

You are angry with your neighbour, your brother, and say of him: " He is such and such—a miser, malicious, proud," or that he has done this and that, and so on. What is that to you? He sins against God, and not against you. God is his Judge, not you: unto God he shall answer for himself, not to you. Know yourself, how sinful you are yourself, what a beam you have in your own eye; how difficult it is for you to master and get the better of your own sins; how afflicted you yourself are by them; how they have ensnared you—how you wish for indulgence from others towards your own infirmities. And your brother is a man like you; therefore you must be indulgent to him as to a sinful man, similar in everything to yourself, as infirm as you; love him, then, as yourself, listening to the Lord saying: "These things I command you, that ye love one another"; and as you pray for yourself, that the Lord may help you to root out your own cruel and incurable passions, so pray also for your brother, that the Lord may free him from the flattery and corruption of his passions, from their darkness and oppression. We must remember that we are one sinful body, more or less infected in our members by the breathing of the " common enemy—the Devil"; and that of ourselves, without God's grace, we are powerless to free ourselves from this deadly and darkening breathing: only the Holy Ghost by His breathing can drive away this demoniacal darkness of the passions, through the power of the Lord Jesus Christ's sufferings upon the cross. We must therefore humbly pray to the Lord, in the spirit of brotherly love, for all our brethren and for all people, that they may escape from the darkness of the passions and their great attractiveness, in which they delight, not knowing their destructiveness; for instance: the rich man rejoices in his wealth; the ambitious one—in his distinctions; the glutton—in his food, drink, and dainties; the malicious—in his malice; the envious—in the sufferings of the victim of his envy; and so on.

As the Lord hears every word of the prayer, " God, have mercy upon me," and fulfils every word (this is from experience), if only we speak from the depths of our heart; so, likewise, He hears and fulfils all the words of other prayers, even our own particular sincere prayers. O, Lord, Who so graciously heareth us, glory to Thee! " Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you; for "every one that asketh receiveth" Only pray in the simplicity of your heart, and without doubting.

By striking our bodily structure with sickness, the Lord crushes the old, sinful, carnal man, in order to give strength to the new man, whom we have weakened by the works of the flesh: gluttony, slothfulness, amusements, and manifold sinful attachments and passions. "For when I am weak, then am I strong." Therefore, we must accept every malady with gratitude.

God's Saints are great through their spiritual disposition, through their faith, their firm trust in God, and their burning love to God, for Whose sake they despised all earthly things. O, how null we are, compared to them; how unlike unto them! They are great by their great deeds of abstinence, vigilance, fasting, unceasing prayers, their diligence in studying the Word of God, and in pious meditation. O, how unlike we are to them! How deeply we must venerate them! With what reverence we must ask for their prayers for us! But in no case must we regard them lightly, irreverently, remembering their godliness and their union with the Godhead.

I thank Thee, my Lord, my Master, and my Judge, for teaching me how to pray simply to Thee, for hearing my calling upon Thee, for saving me from my sins and sorrows, and for rightly directing my ways. I called upon Thee (in the sin of my wickedness) in the words of the church prayer: " O, Lord, our God, Who grantest forgiveness unto men through repentance ....." And as soon as I finished this prayer, peace and lightness established themselves in my soul (29th June, 1864).

Do not listen to the calumnies of the enemy against your neighbour, his abominations, his various wickednesses, and his pride. Look upon everybody simply, respectfully, as upon the image of God; and do not think any evil of him without reason.

When you are praying either inwardly only, or both inwardly and outwardly, be firmly convinced that the Lord is there, by you and within you, and hears every word, even if only said to yourself, even when you only pray mentally; speak from your whole heart, sincerely, judge yourself likewise sincerely, without in the least justifying yourself; have faith that the Lord will have mercy upon you—and you will not remain unforgiven. This is true. It is taken from experience.

You are angry with your neighbour, you despise him, do not like to speak peaceably and lovingly to him, because there is something harsh, abrupt, careless, unpleasant to you in his character, in his speech, in his manners—because he is more conscious of his dignity than perhaps is necessary; or because he may be somewhat proud and disrespectful; but you yourself, your neighbour's physician and teacher, are more guilty than him. "Physician, heal thyself." Teacher, teach yourself. Your own malice is the bitterest of all evils. Is it then possible to correct malice by means of evil? Having a beam in your own eye, can you pull out the mote from the eye of another? Evil and faults are corrected by good, by love, kindness, meekness, humility, and patience. Acknowledge yourself as the greatest of sinners, of those who appear to you to be sinners, or are sinners in reality; consider yourself worse and lower than all; wrest out every pride and malice against your neighbour, all impatience and fury, and only then try to cure others. Until then cover the sins of others with your indulgent love. What would life be if everyone were to notice all their neighbour's iniquities? Eternal animosity and discord; for who is without sin? And, therefore, we are commanded to forgive all those who trespass against us; for if the Lord will be extreme to mark our iniquities, who of us may abide before His justice? "For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you." We stand before the altar of love in the presence of Incarnate Love Itself, but we have no love to each other. How strange it is! And we do not even care about this. But love will not come of itself without our zeal, efforts and activity.

Lover of men, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, I thank Thee from all my heart, for having heard my prayer to love my neighbour and despise earthly things, and for having poured into my heart peaceful, reasonable and sweet love. Strengthen these in me, O God, through the prayers of Our Most Pure Lady, Thy Mother, and may I be Thy child, O Lord, and Her truest child. 26 July, 1864. 11 o'clock, evening.

O, how beautiful, how precious a creature is man! O, what a most graceful and splendid palm-tree is man! O, man is the best of God's creatures! O, most honourable of God's creatures, that ought, as the image of God, as the justly-revered temple of God Himself, to be inviolable to anything impure! May all impure, evil, blasphemous thoughts, as well as all doubting thoughts, flee from us. We are—the children of God; we are—holy in Christ; let us keep, let us preserve our hearts in holiness, so that the hand of the impure and evil spirits may not in any way touch us, the living arks of God, our thoughts and hearts! Word of God and God Thyself, Who wast incarnate for our sakes, preserve us in Thy holiness! Our Most Holy Head! Deliver not our hearts and bodies to the impure Satan, let him not sully them by evil thoughts, but ever dwell with us and keep us pure and spotless. Grant, Lord, that as members of Thy Body, we may ever have living union with Thee, our Most Divine Head—union in the thoughts of our hearts, in our prayers, and in our deeds. The falling away of our hearts from Thee is—darkness and death, sorrow and straitness, shame, humiliation and the spiritual abomination, whilst with Thee we find—light, life, peace, joy, wide-ness of heart, boldness, greatness and holiness.

You know that eternal life in God is promised you, that you must earn it by obedience to God and His Church during this transitory life, by patience in sickness, sorrows, misfortunes and various privations—and yet you do not wish to obey the Creator, you live in carelessness and neglect of your souls, in neglect of virtue, in continual sin! What can you expect after this, ungrateful, evil-natured, and disobedient creatures? My soul, think and direct all your earthly life to the glory of God and the good of your neighbour. Do not gratify flesh and blood, but seek to please your Lord; for flesh and—blood are—perishable like all earthly things.

>Why be suspicious, where there should be no suspicion? For instance, during reading and listening to the Word of God, or during the reading and singing in church, during the prayers, etc. God is truth, and that is enough; the Church is " the pillar and ground of truth"; The Devil is—falsehood itself, the calumniator, the adversary—that is enough. Know the one God and His truth; shun the Devil and his lies, illusions and follies.

The demons tremble at the sight and even at the sign of the life-giving cross, because the Son of God was nailed to the wood of the cross and sanctified it by His sufferings upon it; how much more do the demons tremble before Our Lady, the Mother of God, and even at Her Most Holy name? Our Lady is like the brightest star: she is all radiant with the Light—in God, she is like a glowing ember in a large fire, all-luminous and full of fire. As it is easy to think that He, God, is Light and Holiness, so it is that She, too, is eternal light and eternal holiness. Amen.

Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever "; as likewise God's truth—everything that is read in the Gospel, the Holy Scriptures, the Church prayers, the Canons, the Acathistos, the Psalms—is the one same eternal truth; it is the same now, as when you first found it, or when you prayed with a fervent heart, and felt its full verity, its sweetness, peace and life-giving effect. You change and place yourself in various relations to it, but the truth itself remains for ever the same—the eternal enlightening, warning and life-giving sun.

How long will it be before the Holy Mysteries of which we partake remind us that, "we, who are many, are one body"; and how long will there be no mutual hearty union between us, as members of the single body of Christ? How long shall we make our own laws of life be inimical to each Other, envy each other, torment, grieve, fret, judge and abuse each other? When will the Spirit of Christ abide in us, the spirit of meekness, humility, kindness, love unfeigned, self-denial, patience, chastity, abstinence, simplicity and sincerity, contempt for earthly things and entire aspiration after heavenly ones? Lord Jesus Christ! enlighten our spiritual vision and "let Thy loving Spirit lead us all into the land of righteousness." Give us Thy Spirit!

The Lord is everything to us all, for we cannot do anything of ourselves, for ourselves. He is the Giver of all powers, all blessings and of everything necessary for our welfare. Let us cast all our sorrows, cares and anxiety upon the Lord.

During prayer, be like a lisping infant, mingling your spirit in one with the spirit of the prayer you are pronouncing. Count yourself as nothing and accept the prayer as a great gift of God. Renounce your own carnal wisdom and do not listen to it, for carnal "knowledge puffeth up," it doubts, imagines, blasphemes. If, during prayer or at any other time, the enemy hinders your soul by any kind of blasphemy or abominations, do not become despondent in consequence of them, but say firmly in your heart: It was for the cleansing from these and like sins that our Lord Jesus Christ came upon earth; it was to heal these and other like infirmities of spirit that the Most Merciful came to help us; and if you say these words with faith, your heart will be immediately at rest: for the Lord will cleanse your heart. In general, you must not fall into despondency through any sin or evil imagination, but trust in the Saviour. O, boundless Mercy and Compassion of God! O, most great service of the God-Man to us sinners! And even until now He serves us in His love for men, cleansing and saving us. And therefore let the dominion of the enemy be covered with shame!

By praising your pious neighbour—you praise God; by doing good to your neighbour—you do good to yourself, for we are— one body; by doing good to your neighbour—you make God your debtor, for your neighbour is the image of God, and God—is everything in all. By doing good to a Christian—you make Christ, the Son of God, your debtor, for Christians are His body, His members. By lending to a Christian—you lend to the Holy Ghost, for Christians are the temples of the Holy Ghost. " Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"

God created man after His own image and likeness—this is an infinitely great gift; but man, a reasonably free creature, became ungrateful to His Creator, offended Him by his perfidy and faithlessness, by his pride; he wished to become equal to his Creator and went against Him. Every sin is a war against God. But, O infinite gift of God's love to men! When we had fallen so low by having sinned against the Creator, when we had fallen from life into death, by turning away from God, our Life; when we had corrupted ourselves by sins, and when everlasting death threatened us—God sent upon earth the Redeemer of the World, His own Only-begotten Son, in flesh like unto ours, to suffer for our offences and thus cleanse us from sins, through repentance and faith in Him, and bring us again to His Father, from Whom we had fallen away. Let us value this, God's greatest benefit to us, and let us not "neglect so great salvation!" Let us constantly remember our sinful corruption, and the means of grace offered by the Church for our regeneration. " Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." Are we new or the same as of old, with the same sins as before?

The Mother of God is one flesh and blood, and one spirit with the Saviour, as His Mother. So infinitely great was Her merit by the grace of God that she became the Mother of God Himself, giving Him most pure and most sacred flesh, nourishing Him with Her milk, carrying Him in Her arms, clothing Him, caring in every way for Him in His infancy, kissing Him over and over again, and caressing Him. O Lord, who can describe the greatness of the God-bearing Virgin? " Every tongue is in doubt how to worthily praise Thee, even the angelic mind itself wonders how to hymn Thee, Mother of God....." We must call upon Her with one thought and simple impulse of the heart..... She is one with God, like the Saints.

Know and remember, that the matter of your salvation is always near to the heart of Our Lady, the Mother of God, for it was for this that the Son of God, by the favour of the Father, and the co-operation of the Holy Ghost, chose Her out of all generations and was incarnate of Her in order to save the human race from sin, the curse and the eternal death, or everlasting torments. As the matter of our salvation is near to the Saviour, so likewise it is near to Her. Turn to Her with full faith, trust, and love.

Christ, the Son of God, the Most Holy God, "is not ashamed to call us sinners brethren;" therefore do not at least be ashamed to call brothers and sisters poor, obscure, simple people, whether they be your relatives according to the flesh or not, do not be proud in your intercourse with them, do not despise them, for we are all actually brothers in Christ—we were all born of water and the Spirit in the baptismal font and became children of God; we are all called Christians, we are all nourished with the Body and Blood of the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, the sacraments of the Church are celebrated over all of us, we all pray the Lord's prayer: " Our Father....." and all of us equally call God our Father. We do not know any other relationship besides the spiritual, the highest, the eternal relationship, which was given to us by the Lord of our life, the Creator, and the Regenerator of our nature, Jesus Christ, for this relationship is alone true, holy, lasting, whilst earthly relationship is untrue, changeable, inconstant, transitory, corruptible as our flesh and blood are corruptible. And therefore be simple in your intercourse with your fellow-men, as an equal with equals, and do not exalt yourself above anyone, but, on the contrary, humble yourself. "For every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."Do not say: I am educated and he or she—is not, he or she—is a simple uneducated peasant; the gift of God is given to you, an unworthy one: do not turn it into an occasion for pride, but into an occasion for humility, for "unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required; and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more."Do not say: I am of noble birth, and he is of low birth—earthly nobility, without the nobility of faith and virtue, is—an idle name. What is there in my nobility, when I am as much a sinner as others, or perhaps even worse? And we must love our neighbour, not in our way, but in God's way, that is, not according to our will, but in accordance with the Will of God. Our will is only to love those who love us, and to despise, hate, and persecute our enemies or those who are displeasing to us from some reason or other. But God desires that we should love these still more, because they are sick; so that we ourselves, being also sick with self-love, scorn and malice, should cure ourselves by love and humility, applying this same all-healing plaster also to the wounds of their hearts. In curing the spiritual maladies of others, we must not in any case be arrogant nor bear malice, nor become angry and get out of temper, nor think of our own advantage instead of our neighbour's, and serve our own self-love and, in general, our own passions. "Charity is not provoked" by the thoughtless or arrogant behaviour of its neighbour, "but suffereth long, and is kind. . . .Vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. . . . . thinketh no evil," does not take account of every word and screens everything. Yes, this is right: for what you screen by indulgence, often easily passes away of itself. And therefore he who strives to cure others, must himself be in good health, so that he may not be told: "Physician, heal thyself."If the man, whom you strive to heal, notices that you yourself are evil, angry, and do not love him, then he will inwardly despise and hate you, and you will not produce any effect upon him by anything, for evil is not amended by evil, but by good. "Overcome evil with good,"first root out in yourself that which you wish to root out in others.

Worldly cares obscure the mental horizon of our soul; like mist, they darken the spiritual vision and bind the soul. But be careful for nothing, and cast all your sorrows and anxieties upon the Lord, in accordance with the Spirit-bearing teaching of the apostle. Do not grudge any expenses incurred for others; these are a pledge of new and greater bounties from the Lord to you.

Some seem to be praying to the Lord, but are in reality serving the Devil, who nestles in their hearts, because they pray only with their lips, whilst their hearts are cold, do not feel, and do not desire that which the lips ask and say, and are "far from" the Lord. Likewise, there are many communicants who communicate of the Body and Blood of Christ insincerely, not with great love, but only with their mouths and bellies, with little faith, coldly, with hearts attached to food, drink and money, or inclined to pride, malice, envy, slothfulness, and far from Him Who is all love, holiness, perfection, great wisdom, and unspeakable goodness. It is needful for such persons to go deeper into themselves, to repent more deeply, and think profoundly of what prayer is, and what Holy Communion is. Coldness of heart towards God, towards prayer, proceeds from the Devil, he is the coldness of hell; but let us, as children Of God, love the Lord with burning love. Grant us this, our Lord, for without Thee "we can do nothing."For Thou art—everything to us, whilst we ourselves are—nothing. Thou hast brought us from nonentity into being, and hast provided us with everything.

To repent—means to feel in our hearts the falsehood, the madness, the guilt of our sins, it means—to acknowledge that we have offended, by them, our Creator, our Lord, our Father and Benefactor, Who is infinitely holy, and infinitely abhors sin, it means, to desire, with the whole soul, to amend and to expiate our sins.

Remind the Christian who has sinned voluntarily or involuntarily, more frequently of his dignity, that he has been made godly, and that our nature is placed upon the throne with God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Tell the Jew, Mahometan, or heathen—at a fitting occasion—of what they deprive themselves by lingering in unbelief, tell them how our nature has been raised, ennobled, filled with grace by the Son of God; exhort Christians to give up sinning for the sake of this nobility of their nature and draw unbelievers to the faith of Christ.

"The great Litany." In accordance with it, we are all—one. In the litany are enumerated all the members of the Church—the body of Christ—first the earthly members, and then the heavenly ones. Such is the character of all the Divine services of the Russian Orthodox Church: of the vespers, matins, Liturgy. With what a spirit, with what elevation of the thoughts, with what love, must the priest pray to God "in behalf of all, and for all."

Throughout the prayers and hymns of the Church moves the Spirit of Truth. Everything contradictory and blasphemous that comes into the head, from without, proceeds from the Devil, the father of lies, the calumniator; the prayers and psalms are the breathing of the Holy Ghost.

He who prays to the Lord, to the Mother of God, to the Angels and Saints, must first of all endeavour to amend his heart, and his life, and afterwards to imitate Them, as it is written: " Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful." "Be ye holy; for I am holy." Those who pray to the Mother of God must imitate Her humility, Her unimaginable purity, submission to the Will of God (for instance, when you see injustice), and Her patience; those who pray to the Angels must think of the higher life, and strive for spirituality, gradually laying aside all fleshliness and carnal passions, striving also after ardent love for God, and their neighbour; let those who pray to the Saints imitate them in their love for God, and their contempt of the world or its vain blessings, their prayers, abstinence, disinterestedness, patience in sickness, sorrows, and misfortunes, their love for their neighbour. Otherwise, the prayers will be as useless as beating the air.

He who prays must hunger after, must ardently desire those blessings—especially the spiritual ones—the forgiveness of sins, the cleansing, the sanctification, the strengthening in virtue, for which he prays, otherwise, it will be a useless waste of words. The same applies to thanking and praising the Lord; hunger and thirst to constantly thank and praise the Lord, for everything comes from Him, everything is the gift of His goodness and mercy.

The Lord—is my being; the Lord—is my deliverance from everlasting death; the Lord—is my eternal life; the Lord—is my cleansing and deliverance from a multitude of iniquities, and my sanctification. The Lord is—strength in my weakness, space in my straitness, trust in my faint-heartedness and despondency; the Lord—is a life-giving fire in my coldness; the Lord—is light in my darkness, peace in my disturbance; the Lord—is the intercessor in my temptations; He is my thinking, my desire, my activity; He is—the light of my soul and body, food, drink, and raiment, my shield, my weapons. The Lord is everything to me. My soul, love and thank the Lord constantly! "Praise the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me praise His Holy Name. Praise the Lord, O my soul: and forget not all His benefits; Who forgiveth all thy sin; and healeth all thine infirmities; Who saveth thy life from destruction; and crowneth thee with mercy and lovingkindness; Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things."

"All ye are brethren." "Love one another." The Church is like a great, holy family of God, in which God Himself is—the Father; the Most Holy Virgin, the Mother of the Lord Jesus Christ—our Mother; the Angels and Saints—elder brothers; and all of us—younger brothers, born of the same mother and begotten of the Church in the baptismal font by the Holy Ghost. The younger brothers are naturally obliged to respect the elder, are naturally subordinate to them, and, being not yet perfect, ask the elder ones to pray to God for them, as they are God's friends, whose intercession is favourably received by the Lord. The children of the Heavenly Father have the prayer previously given to them by His Son: " Our Father. . . . "

Lord! Thou camest to save us through faith in Thee; behold, I truly believe that Thou art my Saviour—save me! Thou camest to renew my nature, corrupted by sin—renew me, I who have corrupted myself by passions and carnal desires, renew me, both spiritually and bodily, so that I may be pure in heart and strong in body to the glory of Thy Name. Thou camest to deliver us from the works of the enemy—deliver me from the works of the most evil, impure, and abominable enemy, warring in my members and inclining me, drawing me forcibly to sin. Thou camest to enlighten us—enlighten my heart, darkened by passions. Thou camest to gather together that which was scattered—gather together my thoughts, scattered by the enemy. Thou camest to strengthen us in our weakness, and said: "For My strength is made perfect in weakness"; and Thine apostle says: "Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me"; behold I am most infirm, and without Thee can do no good thing; without Thee I cannot think or feel anything good, cannot wish or speak, or do anything good. I am positively powerless for any good without Thee; bestow Thy grace upon me, give me light and strength to think and feel good that which is, and to easily speak and do that which shall please Thee. Behold, I commit all my life unto Thee, Christ my God, my Saviour, my Regenerator, cleanse, sanctify, and save me." Make me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." Help me: for without Thee my destruction is near and speedy at every hour.

By their malice towards us, by their craftiness against us, and by their various offences against us, men are worthy of our special pity and love, as those who are sick and perishing, and who have become the tools of our most wicked enemy—the Devil, who teaches us every evil, and who seeks, through beings like unto ourselves, to bring some affliction and misfortune upon us. But these afflictions and misfortunes are very, very advantageous to us, for they reveal to us the wounds of our heart, which we had not seen nor felt before.

When some inward disturbance or weakness of the heart prevents your pronouncing the words of the prayers during Divine service, then consider such disturbance and weakness as an illusion of the enemy, of the demon; throw aside the despondency, the faint-heartedness, and timidity, and speak concerning the name of the Lord without hurrying, calmly and intentionally louder; you will thus overcome your disturbance and weakness, and will obtain courage and strength. Everything is possible unto those who believe and trust. We must struggle and conquer.

Love your neighbour as yourself; for, by loving your neighbour you love yourself, whilst by hating your neighbour, you before all do harm to yourself, you before all hate your own soul. You know this by experience. O, most wise, creative, and life-giving laws of the Lord! How good it is to fulfil them, although the flattery of sin makes their fulfilment difficult. How blessed is the Lord's yoke for the soul, and how light His burden, that is, His commands.

If you have Christian love for your neighbour, then all heaven will love you; if you have union of spirit with your fellow-creatures, then you shall have union with God and all the dwellers of heaven; if you are merciful to your neighbour, then God and all the Angels and Saints will be merciful to you; if you pray for others, then all heaven will intercede for you. The Lord our God is holy, be so yourself also.

You earth-born creatures, who have not purity, triumph in the fact that the Most Holy Virgin Mary, the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, has entirely and superabundantly attained the purity of soul and body unattainable to you; triumph in this, and pray to Her, that She may teach you and your children to pass your lives in purity in this corrupt world, so full of temptations. It is because of Her purity, humility, and virtues, and because She was found worthy of becoming the Mother of God the Word, that, when offering the bloodless sacrifice, we offer gratitude to the Heavenly Father, and say: "Especially to the Most Holy .... Glorious Lady, the Mother of God . . . ." —that is, we offer to Thee our verbal service, glory, and thanksgiving.