Humble yourself proud. Tver diocese. Humble yourself, proud man

Nowhere will you find peace, man, as soon as in humility, and you will not experience such embarrassment as in pride. If you want to have peace and quiet, then be humble; but if not, then in rumors and confusion, in sorrow and sorrow you will wear out your life and you will always be subject to a fall. Humble yourself before all, and you will be exalted by the Lord. It is of little use that you yourself will become exalted, and not God will exalt you. Your exaltation is falling away from God, and your exaltation from God is accomplished by His grace. If you begin to ascend yourself, God will humiliate you, and if you humble yourself, God will exalt you. But even with such an exaltation, however, be humble, and the Lord will exalt you for all eternity. Humble yourself before the Lord, and He will exalt you (James 4; 10) - says the Apostle. Remember the image of humility: you received your flesh from the earth and you will return to the earth again. You did not call yourself to life and you do not know where you will move from this temporary life. Be humble, so that you always say with the Prophet: Lord, my heart did not puff up and my eyes did not lift up, and I did not enter into the great and inaccessible to me (Ps. 130; 1). And one more thing: I am a worm, not a man, a reproach among people and contempt among the people (Ps. 21; 7). For how can you not humble yourself when you have nothing of yourself? How can you exalt yourself when without God's help you can do nothing good yourself? So humble yourself, as God made you humble. God made you humble, and you are arrogant! God allowed that without Him you could not do anything good, but you attribute everything to yourself and exalt yourself! What do you have that you wouldn't get? And if you have received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? (1 Cor. 4; 7) - says the apostle.

Think humbly, think humbly, do everything humbly so that you do not stumble on every path. Remember where your body and soul came from. Who created them and where they will go again, and inwardly realize that you are all dust. Look into yourself and know that everything in you is vain. Besides the grace of the Lord, you are nothing, like an empty reed, a barren tree, dry grass, fit only for burning, a sinful vessel, a spacious receptacle for all filthy and wordless passions. In itself you have nothing good, nothing pleasing to God, only sin and crime. You cannot make a single hair white or black (Matt. 5; 36).

Do not ascend by dignity, if you have it, nor by seniority: there they will look not at dignity, but at love for virtue: not at majesty, pride and nobility, but at meekness and humility. For not in pride and majesty, but in our humiliation, the Lord remembered us and delivered us from our enemies, says the Prophet (Ps. 135; 23, 24). Very many who are not noble here will appear noble there. But here the glorious and honest will be there in great dishonor; the noble of this world will be rejected there, and the poor will be accepted; the proud and arrogant are with demons, but the humble are with the Lord. There is no partiality there, as happens here: there the Lord will set everyone in His righteous and faithful measure.

So, pursue humility and you will be exalted by the Lord Himself. How great is your dignity, so have humility. To the extent that people honor and praise you, consider yourself dishonorable. Do not boast of any virtue lest God reject you. Do not think, do not say: "I did this, I did that," so that all your goodness does not suddenly crumble before your own eyes. And if you did something good, say: "Not I, but the grace of the Lord is with me." Our salvation lies not so much in our correction as in the mercy of Christ. Attribute everything to God, so that in all good things He will be your quick helper. Do not desire seniority and any honor on earth and do not consider yourself honest and worthy in everything, but rather consider yourself the worst of all. Then you will be honest and worthy when you recognize yourself as small, then only you will be something when you consider yourself to be nothing. The Lord showed you His image of humility: He humbled Himself, being obedient even unto death, the death of the cross. Obedience is born from humility, but from pride - bickering and disobedience.

You have nothing to be proud of, man: you have nothing good of your own, you have nothing of your own. Have you ever been in this world before? Was not. Do you know when your mother conceived you in the womb? Or were you born by your industry? Do you comprehend what end you will come to? If, however, you do not know and comprehend all this, then why do you needlessly pride yourself not in your own, but in God's? Be humble and prudent. If people ascribe something good to you, attribute it all to God, for everything is from Him, He created everything. From you, without God's help, not some good, but any evil can come, since you were conceived in iniquity, and your mother gave birth to you in sin (Ps. 50; 7). As branches without a root cannot produce anything from yourself: so you will not wish anything good and will not do anything without God's grace. The Lord is the root, and you are the branch: until then you can do anything pleasing to God while you are with God, but when you depart from God, you will fall into all evil. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit of its own accord unless it is in the vine, so you, unless you are in the Lord (John 15:4), for the Lord Himself says: Without Me you can do nothing. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain; if the Lord does not guard the city, the watchman watches in vain (Ps. 126; 1).

Try and work in good, but do not rely on yourself, but always pray to God and diligently seek His help. If he helps you, the work will be done; if not, everything falls apart. If what is yours seems to be good, and the Lord is displeased, what good is it to you? If, in your arrogance, you wanted to boast of something before the Lord, and He would not accept what you help yourself with? Will he not tell you, as in the gospel parable: friend! I don't offend you... take what is yours and go (Matthew 20:13, 14). If you consider yourself to be something, then you are nothing before Him. If you recognize yourself as reasonable and good for something, then you yourself are not good for anything at all. If you recognize yourself as pure and righteous, then before the Lord you appear even more wretched and sinful than all people. Everyone who is haughty in heart is an abomination to the Lord, says Solomon (Prov. 16:5). Therefore, be humble, acknowledge your weakness. Remember that everything is God's, not ours, everything is from God, not from you. Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from above, from the Father of lights, says the Apostle (James 1; 17). Remember that everything is in the grace of Christ, and not in your strength and power. Know that without God's help you are ready for any evil, that without His grace all your corrections are like a cobweb. Do not be proud and conceited, lest you become like a demon. The demon fell away from God by ascribing everything to himself, and not to God, who created everything. Therefore, he fell away from everything and lost the grace of the Lord. Without humility, you are nothing before God. And in humility, every virtue grows.

Do not be arrogant about yourself, do not think that you have surpassed others with your mind and wisdom and can embrace everything, but think how great the world and all the ends of the earth, in which there is an innumerable multitude of persons worthy of all glory and honor, whom the grace of the Most Holy Spirit miraculously made whom you have not imitated, and whom you do not even know, and cannot comprehend with your mind, what an innumerable multitude surpasses you by thousands of thousands. The runner thinks that he is running faster than anyone else; when he joins the others who are fleeing, then he will realize his weakness. Here is the measure of humility for you: when you are the best of all, admit that you are worse than all creatures, every creature. Consider yourself the worst of all, so that the Lord will recognize you as the best. What is humility? Humility is self-knowledge and self-abasement. And it is righteous to recognize yourself as nothing: after all, you were created from nothing. And do not consider yourself anything, because you have nothing of your own, your own. We are created from nothing and do not know where we will go and how the Lord will arrange us. By the will of the Lord, we were born and then we will turn into stench, dust and ashes, and our soul will be arranged, as the Lord Himself knows, the Creator and Builder of all.

Let all earthly people come, and let all the wise men reason and marvel at God's miracles: how marvelous is the Lord, how strong, how merciful and righteous in counsels, more than all the sons of men. He created man, and does not require anything from him, only a right mind and true repentance, so that, knowing His blessings, he clings to Him with love and, conscious of himself as nothing, always remains humble, grateful and glorifying for everything.

From the Works of St. Demetrius, Metropolitan of Rostov

Recent events related to road accidents have forced us to pay attention to the spelling of car names and their brands. I saw different options: "Volkswagen" / "Volkswagen" / Volkswagen. Which one is correct? Thank you.

Russian language service

The use of quotation marks and capital letters in car brand names will depend on several circumstances. If the nomination is used in a special text and / or in combination with a number or word indicating a model, modification, it is necessary to write with capital letters and in quotation marks: "Boeing-707", "Moskvich-412", "Volga-3110", etc. If the text is of a general nature, let's say a variant with a lowercase letter, but it is recommended to leave quotation marks: A Boeing wing came off, arrived in a luxurious Toyota, etc. In everyday use, the names of vehicles can be used without quotation marks: for example, an old one is being sold Cadillac, wrongly parked Volvo. At the same time, one should not forget that the names of vehicles that coincide with their own names - personal or geographical, are always written with a capital letter and enclosed in quotation marks: "Volga", "Oka", "Tavria" (cars), "Ruslan" (aircraft ), etc. Exceptions to this rule are the words "Zhiguli" and "Mercedes".

Alexey SHMELEV, Doctor of Philology, Head of the Department of Russian Speech Culture, Institute of the Russian Language. V.V. Vinogradov RAS

For the Russian language picture of the world, the attitude towards “reconciliation with reality” is extremely characteristic. Sometimes this attitude is even characterized as "helplessness and resignation to fate, transcending all boundaries, - causing amazement and contempt of the whole world" (A. Solzhenitsyn, "Russia in a collapse"). But it is also characteristic that the key word that serves to designate this attitude, reconciliation, as well as the verb to reconcile, is included in the word-formation nest with the top of the world. From the point of view of setting on “reconciliation with reality”, achieving inner peace (a peaceful state of mind) is possible only if reconciliation with the external, surrounding world, i.e., refusing hostility with other people and accepting everything that happens around. At the same time, the bearer of such an attitude finds for himself arguments why “reconciliation with reality” is possible, reasonable and necessary.

The rest of the duties of the attending physician required only methodicalness: timely prescribing tests, checking them and making notes in thirty case histories. No doctor likes to scribble on scribbled forms, but Vera Kornilievna reconciled herself to them because for those three months she had her own patients - not a pale interweaving of lights and shadows on the screen, but her living constant people who believed her, waited for her voice and view (A. Solzhenitsyn. "Cancer Ward").

Wed also Solzhenitsyn’s statements about Pushkin (from the essay “Your tripod shakes”), showing that “reconciliation with reality” can indeed be considered as an ideal in the Russian linguistic picture of the world:

His faith rises in a necessary, and explanatory, unity with a common reconciled worldview;

treated death conciliatoryly, calmly, with an elevation of thought;

harmonious wholeness, in which all aspects of being are balanced: through the depths of world tragedy that he has experienced, vividly felt - ascent into a layer of peace, reconciliation and light;

Grief and bitterness are lightened by higher understanding, sadness is softened by reconciliation.

The presence in the system of ideas and the world of the attitude towards “reconciliation with reality” led to an interesting rethinking of the words reconcile and humility in line with “folk etymology”. These words, correlated with one of the most important Christian virtues, which implies the absence of pride and the moderation of any pretensions, etymologically go back to the root of measures. However, under the influence of consonance with the words reconcile and reconciliation and the general attitude towards “reconciliation with reality”, they began to be associated with the acceptance of the surrounding world as it is, and these new overtones in the understanding of humility were assimilated even by Russian church thought.

The reasoning of Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom) is characteristic:

We are accustomed to think of humility as the state of a person who has ceased to see in himself anything that could arouse in him vanity, pride, self-satisfaction. But humility is something more: it is reconciliation to the end, it is peace with everything. It is a state of surrender to the end, beyond fear, beyond self-defence; this is the ultimate vulnerability and defenselessness. And at the same time, it is such an openness to God that gives Him the opportunity to influence us, whatever He wants to do with us, whatever He wants us to become. It is the readiness, precisely out of this reconciliation, to accept any humiliation or any glory with equal openness, without shudder and without enjoyment.

As a result of this rethinking, the verb to reconcile, along with the original use, acquired a different control model (to reconcile with), similar to the control model of the verb to reconcile:

And with emotion, Oleg felt that he was completely satisfied with his share, that he was completely humble with exile, and he only asks for health from heaven, and does not ask for great miracles (A. Solzhenitsyn. "Cancer Ward").

Setting on such humility, which involves, among other things, reconciliation with one's position, can lead to inactivity and unwillingness to do anything. It is no coincidence that it causes repulsion in active and active people. This is Vadim Zatsyrko from the Cancer Ward:

Vadim was annoyed by these thinning fables about humility. Such a watery, faded truth contradicted all the youthful pressure, all the burning impatience that Vadim was, all his need to unclench, like a shot, unclench and give back.

But not only Vadim, whose Soviet upbringing played a decisive role in shaping his views, but also the characters, who arouse the author's obvious sympathy, believe that humility is contrary to the cause. So, the boy Dyoma does not see anything "efficient" in humility:

Dyoma walked, limping, and everywhere he looked for precisely Aunt Styofa, who could not even advise him on anything sensible, except how to put up with it.

Oleg Kostoglotov also clearly contrasts humility and efficiency. So, he reflects on the explanations given to him by Lev Leonidovich, "a surgeon with hairy hands":

Or simply, true to his medical profession, this efficient person also only inclines the patient to humility?

It should be noted that in the "Cancer Ward" humility and, in general, "reconciliation with reality" is generally not highly valued, it is adjacent to conformism and is opposed to the struggle for truth. So, before Elizaveta Anatolyevna, whose son is growing up, the question arises whether to hide the truth, reconcile him with life or load him with the truth. It is also characteristic that the negative Rusanov demagogically uses precisely the appeal to humility as an argument against the Khrushchev thaw and the beginning release of millions of prisoners: What madness this is! - return them! What for? They got used to it, they resigned themselves there - why let them in here, disturb people's lives? ..

So, in relation to everyday language, on the whole, the opinion of the famous Polish-Australian linguist Anna Wierzhbitskaya seems to be fair, who believes that, unlike the Western Christian ideal of humility, which fully allows for an active struggle for a better arrangement of life, the “Russian ideal of humility” implies obedience to circumstances. Therefore, it can cause rejection in people with an active lifestyle; cf. Solzhenitsyn's characteristic call: “... we will not put up with dead songs, which means that the period of our “passionarity” has passed and there is nothing to expect from us. Let's not even hope that some kind of Miracle will come and "of course" will save us. All of us - and there is Russia. We made it like that, we have to pull it out ”(“ Russia in a collapse ”).

At the same time, when the word humility is used in a religious context, it is usually about the absence of pride, and the idea of ​​“reconciliation with reality” may fade into the background or even turn out to be irrelevant. It is characteristic that some native speakers of the Russian language consider the possibility of combining humility and active creative activity as specific to Russian ideas about humility, incomprehensible to Western people:

All the more incomprehensible and mysterious for the modern Western man are such concepts as "tenderness" and "daring". How is boldness explained? Like courage based on humility. But for the West, courage is the antithesis of humility (Tatyana Goricheva).

Connections with the world also led to the development of ideas about humility as a special type of behavior - peaceful, not violent. Wed expressions such as subdue, pacify, straitjacket, folk humble (in the literary language humble). Wed:

He would gladly order them to be silent, and especially this annoying brown-haired man with a bandage around his neck and a pinched head - everyone simply called him Ephraim, although he was not young. // But Ephraim did not pacify in any way, did not lie down and did not leave the ward anywhere, but restlessly walked along the middle passage along the room (A. Solzhenitsyn. "Cancer Ward").

But it is essential that all the various ideas about humility (as a Christian lack of pride, as reconciliation with the surrounding reality, as a humble behavior) can merge into a single undivided ideal. So, Solzhenitsyn, among the traits of the “Russian character”, singled out trusting humility with fate and gave the following comment on this:

beloved Russian saints - humbly-meek prayer books (let's not confuse humility by conviction - and lack of will); Russians have always approved of the humble, the humble, the holy fools (“Russia is in a landslide”).

All this, of course, is fantastic, but the “proud man” is real and aptly captured. For the first time he was captured by Pushkin, and this must be remembered. Precisely, precisely, almost over him, and he will angrily tear and execute for his offense, or, even more conveniently, remembering that his own belongs to one of the fourteen classes, he himself will cry out, perhaps (for this has happened too), to the law that torments and the one who executes, and will call him, if only his personal offense would be avenged. No, this brilliant poem is not an imitation! Here the Russian solution of the question, the “damned question”, is already suggested, according to popular faith and truth: “Humble yourself, proud man, and above all, break your pride. Humble yourself, idle man, and above all work hard in your native field," this is the decision according to the people's truth and the people's mind. “The truth is not outside of you, but in yourself; find yourself in yourself, subdue yourself, master yourself - and you will see the truth. This truth is not in things, not outside of you and not somewhere beyond the sea, but above all in your own work on yourself. You will conquer yourself, you will pacify yourself - and you will become free as you never imagined yourself, and you will start a great deed, and you will make others free, and you will see happiness, for your life will be filled, and you will finally understand your people and their holy truth. Gypsies and nowhere else have world harmony, if you yourself are the first unworthy of it, angry and proud and demand life for free, without even assuming that you have to pay for it. This solution to the problem in Pushkin's poem is already strongly suggested. It is even more clearly expressed in "Eugene Onegin", a poem no longer fantastic, but tangibly real, in which real Russian life is embodied with such creative power and with such completeness, which did not happen before Pushkin, and even after him, perhaps.

Onegin comes from St. Petersburg - certainly from St. Petersburg, this was undoubtedly necessary in the poem, and Pushkin could not miss such a major real feature in the biography of his hero. I repeat again, this is the same Aleko, especially later, when he exclaims in anguish:

Why, as a Tula assessor,

Am I paralyzed?

But now, at the beginning of the poem, he is still half fat and a man of the world, and has lived too little to have time to be completely disappointed in life. But he is already beginning to visit and disturb

The noble demon of boredom is a mystery.

In the wilderness, in the heart of his homeland, he, of course, is not at home, he is not at home. He does not know what to do here, and feels as if he were visiting himself. Subsequently, when he wanders in longing for his native land and for foreign lands, he, as an undeniably intelligent and undeniably sincere person, even more feels himself a stranger among strangers. True, he loves his native land, but he does not trust her. Of course, he also heard about native ideals, but he does not believe them. He believes only in the complete impossibility of any kind of work in his native field, and looks at those who believe in this possibility - and then, as now, few - with sad mockery. He killed Lensky simply from the blues, who knows, maybe from the blues according to the world ideal - this is too in our opinion, it is probable. Tatyana is not like that: she is a solid type, standing firmly on her own ground. She is deeper than Onegin and, of course, smarter than him. She already with her noble instinct foresees where and in what the truth is, which was expressed in the finale of the poem. Perhaps Pushkin would have done even better if he had named his poem after Tatyana and not after Onegin, for she is undoubtedly the main character of the poem. This is a positive type, not a negative one, this is a type of positive beauty, this is the apotheosis of a Russian woman, and the poet intended her to express the idea of ​​the poem in the famous scene of Tatyana's last meeting with Onegin. It can even be said that the positive type of a Russian woman of such beauty has almost never been repeated in our fiction - except perhaps for the image of Liza in Turgenev's "Noble Nest". But the manner of looking down made it so that Onegin did not even recognize Tatyana at all when he met her for the first time, in the wilderness, in the modest image of a pure, innocent girl, who was so shy before him from the first time. He was unable to distinguish completeness and perfection in the poor girl, and indeed, perhaps, he took her for a "moral embryo." This is she, an embryo, this is after her letter to Onegin! If there is anyone who is a moral embryo in the poem, it is, of course, himself, Onegin, and this is indisputable. Yes, and he could not recognize her at all: does he know the human soul? This is a distracted person, this is a restless dreamer in his whole life. He did not recognize her later, in St. Petersburg, in the form of a noble lady, when, in his own words, in a letter to Tatyana, "he comprehended with his soul all her perfections." But these are only words: she passed him in his life without being recognized or appreciated by him; That is the tragedy of their romance. Oh, if then, in the village, at the first meeting with her, Childe Harold, or even, somehow, Lord Byron himself, would arrive there from England, and, noticing her timid, modest charm, would point out to him - oh Onegin would immediately be amazed and surprised, for in these worldly sufferers there is sometimes so much spiritual servility! But this did not happen, and the seeker of world harmony, having read her a sermon and nevertheless acted very honestly, set off with his world longing and with the blood shed in stupid anger on his hands to wander around his homeland, not noticing it, and, boiling with health and strength , exclaim with curses:

I am young, my life is strong,

What can I expect, longing, longing!

Tatyana understood this. In the immortal stanzas of the novel, the poet depicted her visiting the house of this man, so wonderful and mysterious to her. I'm not talking about the artistry, the unattainable beauty and depth of these stanzas. Here she is in his office, she looks at his books, things, objects, tries to guess his soul from them, solve her riddle, and the “moral embryo” finally stops in thought, with a strange smile, with a premonition of the solution of the riddle, and her lips whisper softly :

Isn't he a parody?

Yes, she should have whispered it, she figured it out. In Petersburg, then, after a long time, when they meet again, she already knows him completely. By the way, who said that secular, court life had perniciously touched her soul and that it was precisely the dignity of a secular lady and new secular concepts that were partly the reason for her refusal to Onegin? No, it wasn't like that. No, this is the same Tanya, the same old village Tanya! She is not spoiled, she, on the contrary, is depressed by this magnificent Petersburg life, is broken and suffers; she hates her dignity as a secular lady, and whoever judges her differently does not understand at all what Pushkin wanted to say. And now she firmly says to Onegin:

But I am given to another

And I will be faithful to him forever.

She expressed this precisely as a Russian woman, this is her apotheosis. She tells the truth of the poem. Oh, I will not say a word about her religious beliefs, about her view of the sacrament of marriage - no, I will not touch on that. But what: is it because she refused to follow him, despite the fact that she herself told him: “I love you”, or because she is “like a Russian woman” (and not southern or not some kind of French) , unable to take a bold step, unable to break his fetters, unable to sacrifice the charm of honors, wealth, his secular significance, the conditions of virtue? No, the Russian woman is brave. A Russian woman will boldly follow what she believes in, and she proved it. But she is "given to another and will be faithful to him for a century." To whom, what is true? What are these responsibilities? To this old general, whom she cannot love, because she loves Onegin, and whom she married only because her “mother prayed with tears of spells”, and in her offended, wounded soul there was then only despair and no hope, no light? Yes, she is faithful to this general, her husband, an honest man who loves her, respects her and is proud of her. Let her “begged her mother,” but she, and no one else, agreed, she, after all, she herself swore to him to be his honest wife. Let her marry him out of desperation, but now he is her husband, and her betrayal will cover him with shame, shame and kill him. And how can a person base his happiness on the misfortune of another? Happiness is not only in the pleasures of love, but also in the highest harmony of the spirit. How to calm the spirit if a dishonest, ruthless, inhuman act stands behind? Should she run away just because my happiness is here? But what kind of happiness can there be if it is based on someone else's misfortune? Let me imagine that you yourself are building the building of human destiny with the goal of making people happy in the end, finally giving them peace and tranquility. And now imagine, too, that for this it is necessary and inevitably necessary to torture only one human being, moreover, even if not so worthy, even funny in a different way, a creature, not some Shakespeare, but just an honest old man, a young husband his wife, in whose love he blindly believes, although he does not know her heart at all, respects her, is proud of her, is happy with her and is calm. And only he must be disgraced, dishonored and tortured, and your building should be erected on the tears of this dishonored old man! Will you agree to be the architect of such a building on this condition? Here is the question. And can you admit even for a minute the idea that the people for whom you built this building would themselves agree to accept such happiness from you, if suffering is laid in its foundation, let's say, though an insignificant creature, but mercilessly and unjustly tortured, and , having accepted this happiness, to remain forever happy? Tell me, could Tatyana decide otherwise, with her lofty soul, with her heart, so affected? Not; The pure Russian soul decides this way: “Let me alone lose happiness, let my misfortune be infinitely stronger than the misfortune of this old man, may, finally, no one ever, and this old man too, recognize my sacrifice and appreciate it, but I don’t want to be happy by ruining another!” Here is a tragedy, it is happening, and it is impossible to go over the limit, it is already too late, and now Tatyana sends Onegin away. They will say: yes, Onegin is also unhappy; Saved one and killed another! Excuse me, here is another question, and perhaps even the most important one in the poem. By the way, the question why Tatyana did not go with Onegin has a very characteristic history among us, at least in our literature, and therefore I allowed myself to expand on this issue in this way. And what is most characteristic is that the moral solution of this question has been questioned by us for so long. This is how I think: even if Tatyana had become free, if her old husband had died and she had become a widow, then even then she would not have followed Onegin. It is necessary to understand the whole essence of this character! After all, she sees who he is: the eternal wanderer suddenly saw a woman, whom he had previously neglected, in a new brilliant, inaccessible environment - but in this environment, perhaps, the whole point of the matter. After all, this girl, whom he almost despised, is now worshiped by the light - the light, this terrible authority for Onegin, despite all his worldly aspirations - that's it, that's why he rushes to her blinded! Here is my ideal, he exclaims, here is my salvation, here is the outcome of my anguish, I overlooked it, but “happiness was so possible, so close!” And as before Aleko to Zemfira, so he rushes to Tatyana, looking for all his permissions in a new bizarre fantasy. But doesn’t Tatyana see this in him, but didn’t she see him for a long time? After all, she knows for sure that he in essence loves only his new fantasy, and not her, humble, as before, Tatyana! She knows that he takes her for something else, and not for what she is, that he does not even love her, that maybe he does not love anyone, and is not even capable of loving anyone. despite suffering so painfully! He loves fantasy, but he is a fantasy himself. After all, if she goes after him, then tomorrow he will be disappointed and look at his passion mockingly. It has no soil, it is a blade of grass carried by the wind. She is not like that at all: she, both in despair and in the suffering consciousness that her life has perished, still has something solid and unshakable on which her soul rests. These are her childhood memories, memories of her homeland, the rural wilderness in which her humble, pure life began - this is "the cross and the shadow of the branches over the grave of her poor nanny." Oh, these memories and former images are now the most precious thing to her, these images are the only ones left to her, but they save her soul from final despair. And this is not a little, no, there is already a lot, because here is a whole foundation, here is something unshakable and indestructible. Here is contact with the motherland, with the native people, with its shrine. What does he have and who is he? She shouldn’t follow him out of compassion, just to amuse him, so that at least for a while, out of endless loving pity, give him a ghost of happiness, knowing firmly in advance that tomorrow he will look at this happiness with mockery. No, there are deep and firm souls who cannot consciously give up their shrine to shame, even if only out of infinite compassion. No, Tatyana could not follow Onegin.

L. I. Sinitsko th

15/28-II-46

The grace of God be with you, my dear Lyudmila Ivanovna!

Batiushka and I cordially greet you with the upcoming Holy Forty Day. We prayerfully wish to spend it as it should and, fasting bodily, to be richly saturated with luxurious dishes from the rich meal that the Holy One in Triodion offers us - in particular, to taste the source of the immortal.

I received your letter the day before. I am very pleased with it and deeply grateful to you. Sorry for not speeding up [with] the answer.

How is your granddaughter? We remember him daily. The Lord comforts us with the opportunity to celebrate Vespers every evening, the hours in the morning, we go to Matins “in the cells”, “on the beds, being touched”, or, rather, being lazy. On holidays we rule and have matins.

We have a priestly prayer book and selected hymns. We thank God for this too, but we miss having nothing more.

Our living conditions are satisfactory. It's only a bit cold, especially when the weather is windy, and there has been almost no firewood lately. Fortunately for us, the winter is relatively warm, in February there were thaws. The winds were not so frequent.

My health is good, work does not burden me. It's just a shame that taking care of the stomach takes a lot of time. But, apparently, this is for humility. Do not be proud, proud man, you have nothing to be proud of when for the sake of the womb you are ready to leave everything else.

I really love our divine service, our wondrous hymns and prayers, and I have long dreamed of bringing together all the services and rites that were published separately and remaining in manuscripts, of correcting, supplementing, redesigning them in order to bring them closer to the understanding of modern pilgrims and facilitate the possibility of using them for modern worshipers.

And so I imagined myself that I was one of the few connoisseurs of the Charter and church books that remained now (although for myself I know very well that I am an “expert” or an expert, but only an “expert” in quotation marks). I began to think with anxiety that if in the near future I did not get the opportunity to carry out my assumptions, at least to start this business, it would not start at all, and what I had already collected and done would perish, while it seems to me that it is very necessary and useful for the Church of God. That is why I wrote to the Patriarch.

Three times I sent what was written, - twice what was written was lost on the way, the third time the draft reached, and a copy from it was presented for its intended purpose. Nine months have passed since the sending of the first letter and five since the submission of the copy, and still there is no movement, only people close to P[patriarch] A[leksy] strongly advise to write more.

And I see in the delay that has taken place an indication that the time has not yet come, there is not yet the will of God for the fulfillment of my plans. Take it easy, proud man. Therefore, I decided to refrain from any new steps for the time being. When the time comes, and my assumptions prove to be necessary, the Lord Himself will direct and arrange.

Batiushka feels more or less satisfactorily, but senile and chronic illnesses cannot be cured, and what kind of treatment can there be in our conditions. It doesn't work at all yet. But he is in great pain. His main caretaker, Varvara Vladimirovna, became very seriously ill, which is very dangerous with her exhausted body. Pray for her.

The Lord bless you and your entire family, especially your grandmother's favorite. I call on everyone to be blessed.

With love, pilgrim Your e[bishop] A[fanasiy]

* The PSTGU publishing house published the book “What a great consolation is our faith! .. Selected letters of St. Athanasius the Confessor, Bishop of Kovrov”.

The publication is dedicated to the legacy of one of the most famous and authoritative hierarchs-confessors of the Russian Church. The collection includes a biography of Vladyka Athanasius, his famous autobiographical chronicle Stages and Dates of My Life, and 126 selected letters from Vladyka's extensive epistolary legacy (textological errors in previous publications of St. Athanasius' letters have been corrected).

The selection, chronologically covering almost 40 years (from 1923 to 1960), includes the most important letters both historically and spiritually. Possessing an extraordinary gift of consolation, a loving and caring pastor, Bishop Athanasius, even under the most difficult conditions of imprisonment and exile, raised the spirits of his children, instructed and healed spiritual wounds. These letters are one of the most impressive documents testifying to the confessional "even to death" pastoral service of the Russian hierarch during the years of persecution.

Book 5. Teaching 26

I. On the day of Rev. Nicholas Svyatosha, once a glorious and rich Russian prince, and after becoming a monk, in the Kiev-Pechersk monastery in 1106, a humble monk who served either as a doorkeeper or as a simple worker, who with ardent love and great joy performed all the most menial work in the monastery, very It will be fitting to offer your love, my brethren, the following teaching of St. Demetrius of Rostov on humility.

II. Nowhere will you find peace, man, as soon as in humility, and you will not experience such embarrassment as in pride. If you want to have peace and quiet, be humble; but if not, then in rumors and confusion, in sorrow and sorrow you will wear out your life and you will always be subject to a fall. Humble yourself before all, and you will be exalted by the Lord. It is of little use that you yourself will become exalted, and not God will exalt you. Your exaltation is falling away from God, and your exaltation from God is accomplished by His grace. If you begin to ascend yourself, God will humiliate you; but if you humble yourself, God will exalt you. But even with such exalted, be humble, and the Lord will exalt you for all eternity. Humble yourself before the Lord and he will exalt you, says the apostle ().

Remember the image of humility: you received your flesh from the earth, and you will return to the earth again. You did not call yourself to life, and you do not know where you will move from this temporary life. Be humble so that you always say with the prophet: Lord, my heart was not haughty, and my eyes were not lifted up, and I did not enter into the great, and inaccessible to me (). And one more thing: I am a worm, not a man, a reproach among people and contempt among the people.

How can you not humble yourself when you have nothing of yourself? How can you exalt yourself when without God's help you can do nothing good by yourself? So humble yourself, as God made you humble. God made you humble, and you are arrogant! God allowed that without Him you could not do anything good, but you attribute everything to yourself and exalt yourself! What do you have that you wouldn't get? And if you have received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? - says the apostle (). “Think humbly, think humbly, do everything humbly so as not to stumble on every path. Remember where your body and soul came from. Who created them and where they will go again, and realize to yourself that you are all dust ... Look into yourself and know that everything in you is vain. Apart from the grace of the Lord, you are nothing, like an empty reed, a barren tree, dry grass, fit only for burning, a sinful vessel, a spacious receptacle for all filthy and lawless passions. In itself you have nothing good, nothing pleasing to God, only sin and crime. You cannot make a single hair white or black ().

Do not ascend by dignity, if you have it, nor by seniority: there they will look not at dignity, but at the love of virtue; not to majesty and pride and nobility, but to meekness and humility. For not in pride and greatness, but in our humiliation, the Lord remembered us and delivered us from our enemies, says the prophet (). Very many who are inglorious here will be glorious there, the humble here will be noble there. But here the glorious and honest will be there in great dishonor; the noble ones of this world will be rejected there, and the poor ones will be accepted; the proud and arrogant are with demons, but the humble are with the Lord. There is no partiality there, as happens here: there the Lord will set everyone in His righteous and faithful measure. So pursue humility and you will be exalted by the Lord Himself. - How great is your rank, so have humility. To the extent that people honor and praise you, consider yourself dishonorable.

Do not boast of any virtue lest God reject you. Do not think, do not say: I did it, I did it so that all your goodness would not suddenly crumble before your own eyes. And if you did something good, say: Not I, but the grace of the Lord is with me. Our salvation is not so much in our correction as in the grace of Christ. Attribute everything to God, so that in all good things He will be your quick helper.

Desire not seniority and no honor on earth, and do not consider yourself honest and worthy in everything, but rather consider yourself the worst of all. Then you will be honest and worthy when you recognize yourself as small; only then will you be something when you consider yourself to be nothing. The Lord showed you His image of humility: He humbled Himself, being obedient even unto death, the death of the cross. Obedience is born from humility, but strife and disobedience are born from pride.

You have nothing to be proud of, man: you have nothing good of your own, you have nothing of your own. If people ascribe something good to you, attribute it all to God, for everything is from Him, He created everything. From you, without God's help, not some good, but all evil can come, since you were conceived in iniquity, and your mother gave birth to you in sin (). Just as branches without a root cannot produce anything from themselves, so you will not wish or do anything good without God's grace. The Lord is the root, and you are the branch; until then you can do something pleasing to God while you are with God, but when you depart from God, you will fall into all evil. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it is on the vine, so can we, unless we abide in the Lord (), for the Lord Himself says: Without Me you can do nothing. - If the Lord does not build the house, then those who build it work in vain: if the Lord does not protect the city, then the guard is awake in vain ().

Try and work in good, but do not rely on yourself, but always pray to God and diligently seek His help.

If he helps you, the work will be done; if not, everything falls apart. If what is yours seems to be good, and the Lord is displeased, what good is it to you? Even if in your arrogance you wanted to boast of something before the Lord, and He would not accept it: how will you help yourself? Will he not tell you, as in the gospel parable: friend, I do not offend you ... take what is yours and go (). If you consider yourself to be something, then you are nothing before Him. If you recognize yourself as reasonable and fit for something, then for that very reason you are not at all useful for anything. If you recognize yourself as pure and righteous, then before the Lord you appear even more wretched and sinful than all people. Everyone who is haughty in heart is an abomination before the Lord, says Solomon (). Therefore, be humble, acknowledge your weakness. Remember that everything is God's, and not ours, everything is from God, and not from you. Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from above from the Father of lights, says the apostle (). Remember that everything is in the mercy of Christ, and not in your strength and power. Know that without God's help you are ready for any evil, that without His grace all your corrections are like a cobweb.

Do not be proud and conceited, lest you become like a demon. The demon fell away from God by ascribing everything to himself, and not to God, who created everything. Therefore, he fell away from everything and lost the grace of the Lord. Without humility, you are nothing before God. And in humility, every virtue grows. Do not think highly of yourself, do not think that you have surpassed others in your mind and wisdom, and you can embrace everything; but think how great is the world and all the ends of the earth, in which there is an innumerable multitude of persons worthy of all glory and honor, whom the grace of the Most Holy Spirit miraculously made wise, whom you did not imitate, and whom you do not even know, and you cannot comprehend with your mind, what countless many thousands of thousands surpass you. The runner thinks that he is running faster than anyone else; when he joins the others who are fleeing, then he will realize his weakness. Here is the measure of humility for you: when you are the best of all, admit that you are worse than all creatures, every creature. Consider yourself the worst of all, so that the Lord will recognize you as the best.

What is humility? Humility is self-knowledge and self-abasement. And it is righteous to recognize yourself as nothing: after all, you were created from nothing. And do not consider yourself anything, because you have nothing of your own, your own. We are created from nothing, and we do not know where we will go, and how the Lord will arrange us. By the will of the Lord, we were born, and then we will turn into stench, dust and ashes, and our soul will be arranged, as the Lord Himself knows, the Creator and Builder of all.

III. My beloved brothers! Let us imprint in our hearts these holy and soul-saving words of our saint and great teacher of our Church, St. Dimitri Rostovsky. Let us add to them the following words of the Gospel: come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke (but not the yoke of pride and exaltation) upon you, and learn from Me, for you are meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls ().