About dead or good or nothing

(Latin wisdom)

We pray that the Lord will deliver us from the invasion of foreigners, internecine strife and that may come, for example, from the fact that an assassin shoots in the back, or the pilot, to whom passengers entrust their lives, directs the plane into the ground, or from the fact that soldiers shoot civilians from modern weapons.

It is important for us to understand how to treat tragic cases when someone's evil will suddenly stops the life of another person?

Criteria and at the same time a role model can be people of high spiritual life.

The 13th-century Armenian poet Grigor Narekatsi, the author of the Book of Sorrowful Hymns, who suffered much, wrote:

One wise man called in the past years
Death without a cause is clearly a great evil.
Although he is a pagan, I agree with him:
Evil forces rule over instant death.
Like cattle, mindless and dumb,
We suddenly disappear into the darkness of the abyss,
Not realizing the emptiness of this life.
We die and are not horrified
We disappear and are not surprised
We do not humble ourselves even at the last hour.
We are excommunicated - we are not tormented,
We indulge in vices and do not repent,
We are not afraid of low temptations,
We prefer vanity to everything.

It is amazing how modern these words sound, and also how accurately he noticed that “instant death is really ruled by evil forces”: both spiritual forces and earthly forces. But what is also extremely important, Grigor Narekatsi uses the pronoun not he, they or You, A We, identifying himself with those who disappear "suddenly in the darkness of the abyss." He does not condemn anyone, but humbly repents:

I am the worst, my sinful essence.
I am up to my neck in the mud of desires.
Earthly passions burn my chest.
Unsteady in mind, I walk unsteadily.

Such a deeply Christian approach - not to condemn an ​​obvious terrible sin, like murder, but to condemn oneself - is characteristic not only of the Middle Ages, but also of our time.

They can die unexpectedly and very good people- life and death are in the hands of God, He knows when, whom and how to call to Himself. “Blessed, I have chosen and received Thou, O Lord.” We are talking about something else when it is not the good and perfect will of God that acts, but the evil, criminal will of man.

Many have read the wonderful book Father Arseniy. In the chapter "Two Steps to the Side" an eyewitness describes a tragic episode.

The column of prisoners is distilled by the stage "to build barracks in an uninhabited place and lay the shaft of the mine." A physically exhausted, morally broken prisoner defiantly runs out of line and runs, hoping that the convoy, following the instructions, will shoot him while “attempting to escape”.

“The guards pointed their machine guns at the prisoners, and the lieutenant and one of the soldiers turned to the running man and began to shoot. Bullets fell nearby, raising clouds of dust, and the lieutenant and the soldier, seeing that his strength would now leave him, shouted to let the dogs down. They will stop, beat, report to the authorities, add another term to the convict, but he will be alive.

The column froze, worries, understands that the convoy is saving the Tatar, and suddenly a machine gun scribbled from the side. The third hit accurately, from the very first shots riddled the entire Tatar, and he, falling, for some moments seemed to try to grab hold of the shining sunny sky with his hands and, stretching out one hand to the sun, fell headlong down the slope, and the machine continued to shoot. .

The dead man's body was removed, and the column moved on in sullen silence. “The security is evil, we feel: a little something is wrong - they will flash it with machine guns. I looked at Fr. Arsenia - there are tears in her eyes, her face is serious, sad, sad, but I see that she is praying. For some reason, the view of Arsenia pissed me off, he also found time to pray and cry! I ask: “What, Streltsov? Haven't you seen this?"

“I saw it more than once, but it’s terrible when an innocent person is killed. You see everything and can do nothing to help. And I told him with a mockery: “You should call on your God for help. He would have helped the Tatar, or at least cursed the killer. Although verbal and useless, but revenge.

"What do you! What do you! Is it possible to curse someone, and God has already saved many of us. I have seen that. The Lord will punish the soldier. The Angel of Death was already behind him. Oh my God! How sinful I am!” - finished Fr. Arseny. He said and went, sad, sad.

The soldier who shot the unfortunate fugitive was soon killed. “They killed in the barracks - a soldier, they killed brutally. They gouged out their eyes and slit their throats. The prisoners could not do this, since he was killed outside the zone, and only the authorities lived there. Killed one of his own, the Tatar guards. We found out about this only a week after returning to the "special", and I told about it about. Arseny. I remember oh Arseny was terribly upset and said to me: “Lord! God! How awful this is. Another death. Painful, terrible. Death without reconciliation with one's conscience and at least inner repentance. He said and walked away, and I thought with joy: “To a dog - dog death.”

I think, I'm not mistaken, that many of us would think the same way as the narrator, and not like Fr. Arseny. But it is deep, sincere repentance, capable of overcoming the seemingly legitimate desire to condemn the murderer, that is the Christian norm. Not “to a dog - dog death”, but “Lord! How sinful I am!

If only not to condemn, if only to protect your soul from the darkness of malice, hatred and despair, so as not to lose inner freedom, which is actually freedom from sin. Neither bondage, nor hunger, nor torment, nor cruelty, nor the evil will of evil people can take away such freedom of the spirit.

But only strong-minded people can think, live and act like that. In our time of relaxation and permissiveness, rather the opposite behavior is typical. Someone condemns, someone defends, someone denounces someone with enviable confidence, without doubting their pseudo-clairvoyance.

However, not only the murderer is terrible, but also the one who, like Gogol's Viy, points a finger at an innocent person, whom he considers guilty of a crime with some diabolical confidence and says: "Here he is!"

Let's give a very important words English poet John Donne, who speaks of a deep, spiritual, although he does not use this word, the unity of mankind:

“There is no person who would be like an Island, in itself: each person is a part of the Mainland, a part of the Land; and if the Wave blows the coastal Cliff into the sea, Europe will become smaller, and also if it washes away the edge of the Cape or destroys your Castle or your Friend; the death of each Man diminishes me too, for I am one with all Mankind, and therefore never ask for whom the Bell tolls: it tolls for You.

The idea of ​​the unity of mankind is especially important in our time, when “love is impoverished, the evil one triumphs”, when the demonic principle “divide and rule” prevails everywhere, when in the neighbor one sees not a suffering brother, but someone not like that, different, someone alien and therefore hostile.

Father Arseniy did not even treat the obvious murderer with hostility, but sympathized with him, firmly knowing the immutability of the formidable words of the Righteous Judge: "Vengeance is mine, and I will repay."

It’s not at all difficult to accuse, but to say from the heart: “Lord, how a sinner I am,” is to show that you are a Christian, not in words, but in fact, follow Christ, Who surrendered himself to torment without a single word of reproach. With only words about the tormentors with whom He addressed the Father from the Cross were: "Father, forgive them - they do not know what they are doing."

Christ loved man with sacrificial, all-encompassing, perfect love, which is poured out on everyone - both on the righteous, and on sinners, and even on villains.

The sacrifice of Christ on the Cross is both salvation and reproach for us, and a call to follow Him along the path of self-sacrificing, compassionate love, which does not condemn anyone, but surrenders everything to the All-Good and All-Perfect Lord.

This means that confession must be not only sincere, but also detailed. And for this you need to try to think everything over and remember in advance. You can take a good book to help. This is not necessary in order to look into a book during confession and write off sins word for word. The book only helps to see sins forgotten and unnoticed, without replacing our own efforts.

Ordeals or air demonic guards.

It helps well to remember the sins of the story of ordeals. Ordeals are something like outposts or customs that meet the souls of dead people on their way, ascending to the throne of the Heavenly Judge. At each of these ordeals, an account of special sins will be required ... Every passion, every sin will have its publicans and torturers ... after which her fate is determined. This judgment is called private, in contrast to the universal one, which will be carried out over all people at the end of the world, when the Son of Man comes to earth again in His Glory..

1st ordeal: Idle talk and laughter.

The sin of idle talk is idle waste of words, verbosity, intemperance in speech, when the gift of words is used for lies, slander and abuse. Empty nonsense conversation. Sin in a word is not only idle talk, but also verbosity, idle talk, ridicule, and evil and immodest jokes also belong here.

Ridicule of someone's ugliness, vain talkativeness, untimely and excessive laughter, stupid and unreasonable laughter, gossip, double-mindedness, gossip, witticisms at the expense of others, obscene jokes, malicious snitching, swearing, nasty, frivolous words and blasphemous speeches, empty and useless conversations. Do not think that the sin of idle talk is insignificant and not serious. Try to count the empty words spoken in a day... And in a week, in a month, and how many of them will come together in a year? Put them in an empty bag and try to lift it up... It won't be easy. This sin is so “insignificant” that it will outweigh all other sins due to its multiplicity.

2nd ordeal: lies and oaths.

Failure to fulfill these promises, insincerity, hypocrisy, exaggeration, boasting, false denunciation, laying one's guilt on the innocent, hypocrisy, cunning, cunning, slander, perjury, concealing a sin in confession or retelling something false, violation of an oath, oath, vows, perjury . Many elders recognized the sin of lying as unnatural for man, contrary to his very nature. After all, the ancestor and father of lies is the devil, the first deceiver and hypocrite, who imagines himself to be God and offered to eat the forbidden fruit to Eve and Adam in order to "become like Gods ..."

3rd ordeal: condemnation and slander.

The sin of condemnation is the tendency to notice, remember and name other people's shortcomings, to make an explicit or internal judgment on one's neighbor. This sin is closely related to the passion of pride, condemning other people's shortcomings (real or apparent), a person imagines himself better, cleaner, more pious, more honest or smarter than another. The sin of slander (often grows out of the sin of envy) means to dishonor, blaspheme, laugh at other people's vices, humiliate, forget one's own sins and shortcomings while not paying attention to them.

Any double-mindedness in relation to the neighbor, even small and insignificant words and deeds aimed at presenting our neighbor in the worst possible way, any condemnation, even indirectly and in passing, is a sin.

4th ordeal: gluttony and drunkenness.

The passion for overeating and drunkenness is a natural desire for food and drink that has lost its correctness, requiring a much larger quantity and varied quality of them than is necessary to maintain life and bodily strength, on which excessive food acts contrary to its natural purpose, acts harmfully, weakening and destroying them. The sin of drunkenness is the constant drinking of strong drinks, sniffing various potions, smoking tobacco, and the use of other substances that bring a person to intoxication.

IN modern society the sin of drug use is widespread, driving the soul into a mad state and killing it. This sin also includes getting drunk with wine (or something else), paying for services with vodka, tobacco and other goods that lead a person to the sin of drunkenness. Drinking and eating before the Divine Liturgy on holidays and Sundays. Non-observance of the fast on Wednesdays and Fridays and the four fasts established by the Church. Eating fish and wine on fasting days when they are not permitted. Breaking any fast with fast food.

5th ordeal: laziness.

The sin of laziness is carelessness, laziness and negligence in the service of God, abandonment of church and home prayers, parasitism, non-fulfillment or dishonest fulfillment of one's duties. Sloth is idleness, doing nothing, ingratitude to God, omission due to laziness church services, despondency and neglect of his soul. The sin of laziness is one of the seven deadly sins.

A modern person loves peace and comfort very much, surrounds himself with objects that are comfortable and pamper his flesh. In the life of such a person there is no room for the slightest infringement on the pleasures for the soul and the delights for the body. Laziness leads to egoism and selfishness, strikes and paralyzes the will of a person, making it incapable of correction and spiritual achievement.

6th ordeal: tatby.

Theft (tatba) is a sin committed against someone else's property, i.e. theft - gross, open, secret, cunning, plausible, with violence. The types of theft are varied: robbery, sacrilege (appropriation of sacred objects or careless handling of them), bribery, parasitism, any appropriation of someone else's property by deceit.

Acceptance of stolen goods (purchase and storage), embezzlement of state money or things received for storage. Violent detention of someone else's property, which accidentally ended up in your hands. Concealment of a found thing, non-exposing and hiding a known thief. Luxury, extravagance, extravagance, spending money on vain things. It seems insignificant to many not to pay for electricity (they say that the state already has a lot of money), not to return the book they like to the library, but this sin is made up of such trifles.

7th ordeal: love of money and avarice.

This is a sin of extreme importance: in it is the simultaneous rejection of faith in God, love for people and addiction to lower feelings. Feigned begging. Evasion of payment of a debt, concealment of what was found, fraud in the sale, withholding payment from an employee, not giving alms, not visiting the sick, refusing to help a wanderer. Passion for money, for accepting gifts, luxury, addiction to all kinds of things, jewelry, jewelry and clothes.

The very feeling of contentment from the possession of material goods is detrimental to the soul. You can lustfully admire not only a lot of money, but the most innocent gold ring. After all, the Gospel says: "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also..." (Matthew 6:21)

8th ordeal: extortion.

The sin of covetousness is the sin of appropriation of someone else's and bribery (giving money at interest, unrighteous acquisition, participation in the lottery, playing on the stock exchange, etc.). The sin of covetousness is always accompanied by avarice and greed. Bribery, speculation, stowaways public transport. Now all sorts of shows and games are very popular, as a result of which a person wins money, practically without working for it. And playing slot machines, roulette, when players spend whole nights in a casino, completely enslaves a person’s will.

9th ordeal: untruths.

Lying is a conscious attempt to deceive using any form of untruth. There is, perhaps, no more common sin than lying. Lying out of necessity, deception in earnest, bilingualism, secret intrigues against people, cunning, justifying oneself before others with full consciousness of one's guilt, resourcefulness, flattery or insincere sympathy in dealing with people, bribery, insincere or untrue opinion about a person, dishonor of a person in words (in a letter or in any other way), disclosure of other people's vices, hearing slander and judging people based on them.

Many people get into the habit of boasting a little, adding something to what happened, coming up with a convincing answer to the boss on the go, changing the reality a little, but all this will be a lie.

10th ordeal: envy.

The sin of envy is malevolence, malevolence. Envy of someone else's success, position in society. The desire for failure, failure, a sad outcome for other people's affairs. Joy to someone else's misfortune, failure. Envy can lead to any evil deed to the neighbor. The sin of envy is one of the seven deadly sins. Contempt for someone and veneration of oneself better, more worthy and more righteous than others. Suggestion of evil advice, constant dissatisfaction with one's condition.

Our society is seriously hurt by this sin, and there is no person who would not look in the direction of a neighbor - what he bought new: a car, a house or just a fashionable dress, experiencing feelings that are by no means joyful for him. Even talk about the rich and the poor is not harmless: they are often based on a feeling of envy of other people's property.

11th ordeal: pride.

Vanity, self-confidence, contempt for others, disregard for due honor to parents, government and authorities appointed by God, and disobedience to them. Striving for honors and demanding respect from others for oneself, love of glory for ranks, arrogance, boasting, pomposity, vanity, swagger, lack of conscience, arrogance, alienation from other people, in a sense of superiority over others.

Pay attention, in conversations about your neighbor, what do you say more about: good things about them or bad things? Think about how many times a day you say the word "I" - this will be a small indicator of your pride.

12th ordeal: anger.

The sin of anger is irascibility, acceptance of angry thoughts, dreams of revenge, irritability, indignation of the heart with rage, clouding the mind with it. This is an obscene cry, an argument, abusive, cruel, sharp words, stress, pushing, murder. Anger manifests itself in quarrels with neighbors, in the upbringing of children; in behavior - rudeness, rudeness, arrogance, malicious mockery, rage. Even in relation to a dumb creature, to experience anger, to beat animals, and also to get annoyed with inanimate objects, to take out anger on them is a sin.

13th ordeal: rancor.

The sin of malice (memory of malice) is vindictiveness, unforgiveness of insults, vindictiveness. Memory-evil people are unnecessarily demanding of their neighbor, remember for a long time and hold an insult in their hearts in order to repay evil for evil. This sin is contrary to both the spirit and the letter of the gospel of Christ. Without forgiving others, avenging their offense, keeping in mind the evil against another, we cannot hope for the forgiveness of our own sins by the Heavenly Father.

Remember how many hurtful words spoken to you, you carry in your heart, sometimes remember the quarrel in full detail. Do not console yourself with the fact that you are the injured party. In such a heart, where there is no place for love and forgiveness, there is no place for the grace of God. Know how to forgive your neighbors with all your heart.

14th ordeal: murders.

The most terrible sin at all times was considered - murder - deprivation of another greatest gift of the Lord - life. The same terrible sins are suicide and murder in the womb - abortion. Very close to committing murder are those who, in anger at their neighbor, allow assault, inflicting beatings, wounds, and mutilations on them. Guilty are the parents who mistreat their children, those who, by gossip, slander and slander, aroused bitterness in a person against someone else.

Timely failure to provide assistance to the sick, dying, indifference to other people's suffering is considered as passive murder (attitude towards elderly parents by children). Failure to provide assistance to a person in trouble (homeless, hungry, drowning before your eyes, beaten, etc.). We kill our neighbor not only with our hands or weapons, but also with cruel words, abuse, mockery, mockery of another's grief. Those who deprive young souls of honor, innocence, corrupting them physically or morally, pushing them onto the path of debauchery and sin. Killing animals without the need for food, torturing them. Refusal of treatment, intentional failure to comply with doctor's orders, deliberate harm to one's health by excessive drinking of wine, tobacco smoking. Corporal punishment of someone by cruelty to death. Delivering shelter to murderers, delivering means to a crime to a murderer or suicide, silence about someone's preparation or attempt to kill. Assistance in hastening someone's death, refusal of a doctor to help a sick person, deliberate delay in treating a patient or careless treatment, neglect of a sick person in unconsciousness, cruelty to the poor and freaks, bringing someone to sudden death or suicide. Selling food that is unhealthy. The condemnation of the innocent or the acquittal of the guilty, knowing the innocence of the former and the guilt of the latter.

15th ordeal: sorcery.

Divination, the use of liturgical objects for this purpose, divination on cards, participation in any heretical sacraments and rituals, conscious funeral commemoration of living persons, conspiracies, spreading rumors about the end of the world, false miracles and signs, turning to sorcerers, fortune-tellers, soothsayers, classes in theosophy, occultism, spiritualism, invocation of demons.

Very close to contact with the invisible demonic world are the so-called modern pseudosciences, such as extrasensory perception, the use of mediums to know the future, and astrology. It is not surprising for immaterial spirits under the power of the devil to know the future about a person. But the insane carelessness that a person surrenders to when communicating with the dark world of spirits is striking. It turns out that it is easier for a modern person to believe in demons (through some self-appointed oracle) than in the Holy God and the Church, which warns against such communication.

16th ordeal: fornication.

Fornication - a carnal relationship between a single man and an unmarried woman before marriage (or a violation of chastity by a young man or a girl before marriage), any fornication thought, dreaming, mental pleasures, sweet memories of his former sins, reading literature and watching films, photographs that arouse passionate curiosity and describe debauchery , foul language, all foul language, seduction of an innocent person, publication and distribution of seductive writings or images.

Remember that this sin begins with a small allowance and quickly takes you captive, igniting human flesh with passionate lust. The modern view of the so-called "free relations" is a real fornication in the eyes of God and in the face of the Holy Church.

17th ordeal: adultery.

Adultery is a violation of marital fidelity by one of the spouses. Civil marriage without a church wedding, an excuse and a direct obstacle to others entering into a legal marriage, illegitimate pregnancy, mutual avoidance of spouses from each other for free cohabitation with others, unauthorized divorce, leaving the wife of her husband and vice versa - during illness or other misfortune, marriage with a living wife or with a living husband. Willful arbitrariness of the wife, avoidance of a pious life, disobedience and disobedience to her husband. Deviation from piety and willful behavior of the husband, jealousy, reproaches between spouses due to barrenness.

18th ordeal: sodomy tollhouse.

Incest (carnal relationship between close relatives), unnatural sexual relations (sodomy, lesbianism, malakia, bestiality), sinning fornication with different persons, concubinage. Falling into fornication in nepotism, with godchildren, in general in spiritual kinship.

In modern society, they are already calmly looking at same-sex marriages, and we are no longer surprised by the open shameless behavior of many famous people in society. Even sympathy for them and understanding "their problems" is a sin and complicity in the sin of Sodom.

19th ordeal: heresies and schisms.

Wrong wisdom about faith, apostasy from the Orthodox confession of faith and its distortion, disbelief, doubt about faith, censure of the holy, sympathy for heretical and sectarian teachings. blasphemous and swear words in relation to the church and its shrines. Open imposition and teaching of materialistic views, atheism, participation in atheistic organizations (pioneers, etc.) that profess disbelief in God.

20th ordeal: unmercifulness.

Mercy - compassion, sympathy, love in business, willingness to do good to everyone (Dal). In the Sermon on the Mount, which the Lord delivered on the Mount of Beatitudes, the Gospel of the Apostle Matthew says: "Blessed are the merciful,
for they will have mercy" (Matthew 5:7) Further, in the Gospel of the Apostle Luke it says: "be merciful, as your Father is merciful" (Luke 6:36). Here the Holy Scripture teaches us to be merciful and sets us as an example of the Father our Lord God In general, we should try to approach in our qualities the Lord God.

One of the most important duties of a Christian is to actually show his benevolence, charity, mercy and love for others; without thinking about personal gain and self-interest. A Christian should always provide bodily and spiritual help to his loved ones. A merciful person has a kind compassionate heart and a loving soul.

It is necessary to help the needy, the sick and the weak (clothe, feed and drink). In addition to physical help, you need to provide spiritual help. If our loved one has difficulty, sadness, grief, then we need to help with deed, advice, direct or instruct. If we see that our loved one is mistaken and sinning, then it is our duty to help, guide and explain to him that his act is a sin. But all this must be done not with vicious criticism, but as a doctor to advise and instruct and save him from sin with love and kindness. (In this case, the Orthodox Christian teaching is completely inconsistent with the approach adopted in our society not to interfere in other people's affairs). An unmerciful person has a cruel, uncompassionate heart: he truly loves no one but himself. Such a person is like the Gospel Pharisee: he fulfilled all the virtues, except for the last one - mercy.

In order not to sin with mercilessness, it is necessary - at every opportunity - to do the opposite virtue, that is, one must show mercy to one's neighbor and to every creature. For works of mercy, the Lord forgives many of our sins.

2. About the mercy of God.

It may seem that it is generally impossible for an ordinary person who is not endowed with extraordinary spiritual and moral strength to go through these ordeals. And yet, we will not be asked for all the sins committed before, but only for unrepentant sins. . But if someone sincerely and in truth, without concealing anything, confesses all his deeds and repents with contrition of heart for all the sins he has committed, then the sins of such a person, by the mercy of God, are invisibly blotted out, and when his soul goes through ordeals, air torturers, having unfolded their books, they do not find in them any manuscripts of her sins and cannot do her any harm, so that that soul ascends unhindered and in joy to the throne of grace ...

One ascetic said that if our Lord were only the Righteous Judge, then no soul would be saved. But the Lord is also a Merciful Father, accepting into His arms every prodigal son, that is, every sinful, but penitent soul. The prudent thief slept seven penitential words on the cross for eternity. Let us also hasten to shed repentance before God. We must also remember that we have committed all the sins listed one way or another against our neighbor, but we deeply offend God with them. Since ancient times, the Lord gave commandments (that is, laws) to fallen mankind, according to which a person must live and receive pardon and forgiveness at the end of his life. The first ancient commandment tells us about sins committed against God Himself. Many modern people they claim that they live according to the law of conscience and that it does not despise them in anything so vicious. "God is in my soul", they usually say. "I've never committed any mortal sins in my life", they answer in confession. But there are very terrible sins, which are based on disbelief or distorted worship of God. There are teachings that distort the Divine Essence so much that this worship takes on the opposite meaning. Such are all the newfangled esoteric teachings that teach the improvement of the spirit and body through certain mysterious energies supposedly received directly from the cosmos. Such teachings are so puffed up that any person considers himself entitled to be a teacher of other people and considers himself capable of healing from any disease and illness. It must be remembered that according to the teaching of the Orthodox Church, only a blessed and holy person is capable of teaching and healing. To recognize oneself as such, guided by some unprecedented abilities, received for some incomprehensible merit, is extremely destructive for the soul. Pleasing God and assimilation of Him begins only after repentance and correction of life from sins by committing virtues opposite to sins.

This path is very difficult, since a person more conveniently deviates to the bad and only with great difficulty comprehends virtue. It is good to be kind to people and do good for the neighbor, but we must well remember that sin is rooted in original sin, when a person went against God and against His Divine plan. Therefore, sins committed directly against God, against the Holy Church - the guardian of the right, that is, Orthodox teaching, are no less serious than all others. These are: disbelief, denial of the presence of God in this material visible world, denial of His Divine Providence and His actions. This is a blasphemy against the fact that our world is arranged incorrectly and imperfectly, and attributing all troubles to God's oversight, and not to the terrible ruinous deeds of man himself. Disrespect and ridicule of Church canons, traditions and Holy Sacraments performed by the Church. Ignorance of icons, shrines, holy relics, holy church holidays. Non-attendance of the Church and non-participation in church liturgical life. Non-attendance in the Church to participate in the Sacraments: confession and Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. (It’s good to go into the Church and light candles, but this has nothing to do with full and serious churching, without which the salvation of a person’s soul will be very difficult.) This non-prayer, that is, even part of the whole daytime is not devoted to talking directly with God. Ignorance and unwillingness to know prayers, unwillingness to learn a few Slavic letters in order to understand Church Slavonic texts. (The excuse that a modern person does not understand what is read in the Church is simply ridiculous when many know several foreign languages ​​​​and hire teachers for money to master these languages.) Irreverence, indifference and lukewarmness in matters of faith and salvation. Not correcting one's sins and remaining in them (hardening), despite the knowledge that this is a great evil. Any sin committed even against one's own flesh. is a sin that offends God. For example, a person who drank too much and caused concern to his loved ones, first of all, should ask for forgiveness from God, because God conceived him in a completely different way and for completely different things. We only use the body that the Lord has given us and are accountable to Him for everything we do. And another very important virtue and hope for our salvation is to be able to thank God for everything that happens to us in life, the ability to patiently bear illnesses and difficulties, without grumbling - "why do I need this?" and with a grateful heart to the Creator. To acquire these virtues, man is given this earthly life. To understand your calling and find the way to God and eternity.

3. Feelings alone without words are not repentance.

Feeling and word help each other in confession, although the first does not replace the second. He himself is like a Good and Gentle Master, this servant of yours will be pleased with the word, says one of the prayers before confession. We are resolved from sins with words, not with tears and feelings.

Weeping for sins is commanded to us by the Lord. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted (Matthew 5:4). But they will not be comforted because tears alone are enough for repentance. True weeping for sins will certainly teach you to resolve yourself with a word. But if we cry, but we can’t really say anything about sins, this is not a confession. Then you need to return home, think it over well and come again, firmly remembering the sins or writing them down.

Sometimes we cry more because we feel sorry for ourselves. This weeping does not lead to bliss; on the contrary, it only prevents us from repenting. The stronger our love for God is, the stronger the desire to part with sins. On the contrary, the more we love ourselves, the less we care about repentance, and sadness about our own experiences easily takes its place.
In this case, it is important not to give yourself the will to pour out your feelings instead of sins. If we are so carried away by them that we hardly remember the sins themselves, then first we will take the trouble to remember the sins, and only after that we will go to confession.

4. You can remember sins even with a bad memory.

It is not uncommon to hear a serious confession from those who have a rather mediocre memory. Others, on the contrary, do not remember sins and have a much better memory. They remember all their lives, but they do not remember sins. From them we hear: “I have sinned in deed, word and thought, I don’t know what else to say…” But only those who really repented during confession can receive communion. “In deed, word and thought” is not repentance for specific sins. The priest is forced to explain to these people that they do not take communion with such a confession. What's next? Others leave offended, saying that they have no sins, but there are very few of them. More often than not, we immediately hear... a normal confession. What happened? Suddenly improved memory? No, there was a desire. They wanted to - and immediately remembered a lot of sins. After all, everything that impresses us, we remember long and distinctly, and if we forget our sins, does this mean that we simply do not attach serious importance to them?

5. The fewer gross sins, the deeper confession becomes.

If the gravest sins have already been confessed and have not been repeated, this is only one step of repentance. The total weight of the so-called "minor" sins is many times greater than that of mortal sins. That we do not commit sins that others allow themselves - the essence of the matter does not change from this: everyone will answer for himself. To whom more is given, more will be required; who does more, he sees better what he did not do or did wrong.

6. The best preparation is to remember a little each day.

“Who forbids you yourself,” says Father John (Krestyankin), “to think carefully about your life in advance, preparing for Confession during several days of fasting, so that you have something to repent of ... At home, before the Face of the Lord, you need to think over your life and precisely their private violations of the will of God. Check yourself: does all my behavior correspond to what the Lord requires of me as a Christian. If you accustom yourself to such a test, then such an abyss of sins will open up in your soul ... ”(Archimandrite John (Krestyankin). Experience in building a confession. M., 1999. P. 30-33.)

Is it possible to do all this within two or three hours, or even a day or two before confession? Perhaps, but only if we have already accustomed ourselves to check our conscience every day. If not, no amount of effort expended before confession itself will help us remember everything that we have forgotten.

Each of us, if desired, can remember or write down the sins committed by him during the day - whether in deed, word or thought. Well, if we write down several of them, in extreme cases - at least one. The point, of course, is not to write down exactly thirty sins for confession in a month. Our task is broader and deeper - to remember all that we have sinned. And if in a month or more we can remember only one or two sins, this means that we are not yet ready for confession.

7. Irregular confession cannot be complete.

The most meaningful confession usually happens to those who approach this Sacrament, on average, at least once a month. The longer we do not confess, the worse we remember sins. Of course, one can repent wholeheartedly even after long breaks, and the very first confession is quite meaningful for many. But only hardly anyone will be able to maintain this good mood if a lot of time passes again before the next confession.

8. First, about what is most difficult to talk about.

If you hide anything from me, imashi is a sin, - it is said in the follow-up to the Sacrament of Confession. “Sugub” means “doubly”; concealed sin after confession becomes even heavier. Someone will ask - how detailed a confession should be? So much so that the priest understands the essence of the matter.

In a word, if we knew how to sin and do not want to be condemned for it, we must name sins at confession in the same specific way as we would have been called at the Judgment. As one experienced spiritual father used to say, one is glorified by God who, at confession, completely dishonored himself before the priest.

9. We repent before God of sins, not types of sin.

We offend God with sins, not what they are called. The mere names of sins and passions (“I have sinned with condemnation, negligence, lies”) are the most primitive confession; how short and convenient it is, how far from reality it is. Calling sins only by name, we cannot say what we repent of. "Condemnation, negligence, lies" - the words are too general and obscure.

We ask God for forgiveness at confession for deeds, words and bad thoughts. It is for them that He forgives us, but only when we confess them. I forgive and forgive you from all your sins, says the permissive prayer. From all the sins we confessed, if, of course, they were told.

10. The fewer unnecessary words, the better.

And for those who are waiting for their turn behind you, and for the priest, and, of course, for you. We are talking about all those words that do not help the priest better understand what exactly you are repenting of. One has to hear quite a lot of them, and the one who repents in them is the first to be lost.

A long speech is not always meaningful. When confession is delayed, it does not mean that we repent better. Rather, we are simply less prepared or too in love with ourselves. The abundance of pauses and digressions bears the stamp of selfishness, as well as sloppy thinking. Often long narratives, if they were spoken more lively, could be several times shorter without any loss of content.

If you consider it necessary to write your own confession for the priest to read it himself, please remember that you are writing a confession, and not anything else. You don't have to write an autobiography. No need to pour out your feelings under the guise of confession - these are different things. If there is still no order in your thoughts, sort them out, and then write. Do not write prayers of your own composition mixed with sins. Do not write about what you should have done - write only sins.

11. Reasoning about sins is also superfluous.

“It means that such and such a passion operates in me”; “which means that both things contribute to it”, “which means that it only intensified in me”, “which means that there is such and such a sin in me ...” This is also an extreme. This happens when we have thought everything over, but at the same time we do not repent, but philosophize. Meanwhile, asking for forgiveness and reasoning are far from the same thing. If someone offended us and says: “Forgive me, I'm guilty,” this is one thing. And it’s completely different if we hear: “Forgive me, it was such and such a passion that acted in me, and it acted for such and such reasons.” Inappropriately, and most importantly, in reasoning of this kind, passion really operates: pride. By reasoning instead of repenting, we place ourselves a little higher than a person who asks for forgiveness of sins should place himself. And the one who comes to confession in the hope of God's mercy and realizing that he himself is nothing, will repent without reasoning and without any "which means."

12. Do not justify yourself in anything.

Self-justification is the first enemy of confession. It is worse than the fear that the priest will think badly of you. There is more guile in it than in hiding sins from shame. We will not long hide the sins that we are well aware of. Someday a sensible thought will appear: after all, if we are talking about life and death - what difference does it make how we look? He will appear and lead us to confession together with the sins hidden before.

13. Without real effort, everything will be ineffective.

So far we have been talking about confession itself. And yet an honest, collected and detailed confession is only a part of repentance. The other part is the desire to fix the issue itself.
If things are already incorrigible, in any case, the inner dispensation that led to them must be outlived. It cannot be corrected without confession, but it cannot be corrected by confession alone: ​​repentance - a change - whether of the mind, soul or heart, should also affect the deeds of a person - it should become a change in life.

There are no such states of the soul when it is impossible to repent. True, it happens that we don’t want to repent, but we don’t want to and we can’t—two different phenomena. Disbelief in God is always voluntary, as is unwillingness to turn to Him. Haven't we been taught? But is it only this? Or was everything that we know, are able to and love was specially instilled in someone from outside? Unwillingness to remember and see sins, unwillingness to live in harmony with the Truth - all this, of course, prevents us from repenting. Only here the point is not impossibility, but our deep, strong and tender narcissism - and it is voluntary.

There is no sin that will not be forgiven if we repent of it. The key to the Kingdom of Heaven is in our hands: will we be able, or rather, will we want to use it?

May the Merciful Lord vouchsafe us to offer Him sincere and unfeigned repentance.

References:

"Daily confession of sins with brief interpretation."
Archpriest Vasily Mikhailovsky "Full Confession"

Why does a person who has violated the Divine law of chastity and at least once defiled his body or only his thoughts with fornication irresistibly reaches out to experience these sensations again? Proponents of “sex education” argue that such is the “nature” of a person - to derive “pleasure” from everything, and let, they say, teenagers join this “joy of natural feeling”, and they do not need to listen to parents who are “notorious” with outdated views, erecting any restrictions! Sex stormtroopers call this concern for the souls of children "sexual discrimination" of teenagers...

The molesters are slyly silent (and many of them themselves do not understand, being deeply damaged people), why the “forbidden fruit”, ceasing to be forbidden, very soon entails a desire for a new “forbidden fruit”. That is, a person who has fallen into “ordinary” fornication soon becomes fed up and begins to gravitate toward various perversions. Having had enough of even “non-traditional sexual orientation” (as the mortal sins of Sodom are now shamefully called), the sinner may desire “pleasures” with animals, with corpses, with native daughter or as a son, fall into the abyss of ritual satanic depravity... IS THERE A LIMIT TO THIS FALL?!

There is, if we stop and honestly analyze what is really happening with many of our compatriots, why people who were normal yesterday begin to behave like regulars in brothels. Why a person, even once fallen into fornication, is subtly attracted by demons to new terrible falls, and if he does not resist, does not repent of his way of life, then he soon becomes a Possessed person, that is, a submissive slave of the demon that has taken possession of him, a weak-willed puppet in his hands. And the “extraordinary sensitivity” of homosexuals, which TV commentators are now shouting about when interviewing unfortunate sick people, is nothing but a sign of demonic possession ...

It is terrible to read about how this fall under the influence of a demon takes place, what power the forces of hell can have over us. But you need to know this. And this analysis is a merciless verdict to those who would like to turn our country from Holy Rus' into Sodomite Rus'.

The “spirits of wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12) are waging their struggle competently: they start small, so that later they can move imperceptibly to more - this is a strategy. Sleeping a lot, intemperance in food and voluptuousness are just a preparation of a person to commit a more serious, this time already “mortal” sin, which is fornication in all its manifestations.

In a well-fed and, especially, in an excessively rested body, prodigal passions will certainly seethe. While in this state, the body, like gunpowder, is ready to ignite from just one lustful thought, from one prodigal vision in the mind or reality, from the only lustful sensation caused in it by a demon. We can say that such a body is like a barrel of gunpowder, which waits only for an accidental spark to be followed by a destructive explosion. It is quite understandable that an explosion is more likely if a person has either not yet entered into marriage, or has consciously decided to devote himself to God, having taken a monastic vow of chastity.

WHY DO WE HAVE A Difficulty Dealing With Lust?
Why, then, even before (although to a much lesser extent), and, especially, at the present time, people, even those who have known True God and His commandments, do not always cope with fornication? Why is it that the soul, which does not have the instinct and need for reproduction, since, as mentioned above, is not intended for reproduction, cannot control its body? Why our physical body, which, it would seem, should obey the physiological limitations and constants inherent in the named instinct (such as, for example, the cessation of sexual activity during the period of gestation), does not obey them? In addition, the soul of a person who does not even know the commandments of God, for reasons of expediency alone, as well as on the basis of logic and experience, should have restrained himself, his body from wrong deeds in the sphere of sexual relations. But why is it that so many tragedies, so many sins and so many troubles are caused by wrong sexual behavior? Why is it so hard for us to manage ourselves?

Truly, there would be nothing complicated here (and there are examples of this), if it were not for the intervention of a third-party, demonic force, the purpose of which, hiding behind a natural instinct, like a screen, is to force a person to constantly violate the spiritual laws established by God, as well as physiological ones. The demons achieve this quite consciously, because they know much better than we do that the violation of the laws of the Creator is the main reason for the retreat of Divine grace from man. The latter, as mentioned above, is necessary for mastering the will of a person and subordinating him to the demonic will.

In addition, the demons are well aware that it is in this purely intimate sphere of human relations that people can inflict the most painful blows on each other, capable of destroying their lives and souls. The painful blow is due to the fact that only in this area of ​​people's lives can the most monstrous, truly diabolical substitution of the highest of all concepts of happiness - the concept of LOVE, occur. Demons know - it is this substitution that gives rise to the most difficult emotional experiences, feelings of unbearable pain from deceit, betrayal, frustration, and so on.

Demons achieve their goals, as a rule, in two ways:

1) indirectly, by the method of suggestive-telepathic influence,

2) directly, by the method of sensory influence on the higher regulatory systems of the brain.

In the first case, that is, with suggestive-telepathic influence, demons introduce sexually colored thoughts into the human mind, reminiscent of the object of desire, and then, with the help of constant repetition, make these thoughts obsessive. Having become accustomed to them, a person himself will already strive for the object indicated by them, an irresistible desire will appear to see him and possess him, regardless of any norms and laws.

At a deeper stage of mastering the consciousness of a person, demons can already transmit visual images into his consciousness, which, having the character of pornographic pictures and “movies”, with the help of a special reflex mechanism cause a strong excitation of the thalamic pleasure centers. The result of such an impact may be such a form of sexopathology as a “mental orgasm”. Demons carry out this effect most easily during sleep with their consciousness and will turned off, when under the influence of erotic visions both men and some women (Functional female sexopathology. V. Zdravomyslov et al., Alma-Ata, 1985) experience wet dreams. But even in the waking state, demons make a person fantasize on the topics of an erotic nature that they set, which psychologically prepares him for committing a sin: fornication, adultery, onanism (synonyms: masturbation, malakia), as well as many severe sexual perversions.

In the second case (method of sensory influence), demons with directed energy impulses excite orgiastic pleasure centers covering the thalamus, hypothalamus, limbic system, reticular formation of the trunk and cerebral cortex. Such an effect can be modeled by implanting electrodes into the corresponding centers and exposing them to a weak electric current. In this case, the subjective sensations of a person, which are based on the reflex mechanism, will be the same as with ordinary mechanical excitation of receptor fields. Being subjected to such an effect, a person feels an exciting burning sensation, tickling and other specific sexual sensations (SENESTOPATHY) in the area of ​​the genital organs, which are peripheral formations of the reflex arc. Such prolonged demonic influences on these centers make people into sexual maniacs (EROTOMANIA).

THE PURPOSE OF THE DEMONS IS POWER OVER HUMANITY
The main goal of the work of demons on the consciousness, will and body of each person is to achieve complete power over all of humanity, to separate people from their Creator and make them like themselves. The demons set this goal for themselves because of their fierce and immeasurable hatred of God, from Whom they once fell away, wanting to take revenge on Him through those whom He loved so much that He voluntarily went to the Cross, atoning for their sins.

A passionate thirst for revenge for the sake of satisfying their boundless pride and lust for power makes the demons strive to get people to fall away from God, whom they personally cannot harm. But in order to tear them away from the Heavenly Father, to distort the image of God in them, making people similar to themselves (i.e., demon-like), demons must first deprive people of protection - those grace-filled uncreated Divine energies that do not allow demons to control their will, thoughts and the human body. The grace of God, the accumulation (acquisition) of which, according to the word of St. Seraphim of Sarov, should be the main business of a Christian on earth, growing in it quantitatively, and outside of it, it creates, as it were, a protective “screen”, which makes it difficult for the external influence of demons and prevents their introduction into the human body. That is why the demons had a very acute question: how to deprive a person of this blessed protective “screen”

UNIVERSAL LURE: SEXUAL HYPERTROPHY
As the fallen angels are well aware, there is no other way for a person to remain without the grace of God, except for one and only one - to commit a sin by violating any Divine commandment. However, it is not so easy to incline a person to sin, especially initially, since conscience, as a divine instrument given to every person to distinguish between good and evil, greatly hinders the fulfillment of this task. In order to alleviate it, the demons needed to find such a universal bait that could, firstly, reliably hide the hook under the guise of, for example, a natural physiological attraction, and secondly, be equally attractive to all people. As such a universal bait, trapping all of humanity in a network of sin, the demons chose the instinct of reproduction with its inherent natural attraction of opposite sexes to each other. Thanks to special methods of influencing the human consciousness and physiology, demons are able to immensely increase (hypertrophy) sexual desire.

Thus, the method of hypertrophy of the sexual instinct is for demons the ubiquitous, main and universal method of mastering the will and body of a person. He easily and imperceptibly allows the demons to compel a person to cross the God-allowed limit of the use of this instinct, limited by the sphere of legal marriage, and thereby sin. At the same time, demons, at their choice, can direct their hypertrophied sexual desire to any, the most strange, inappropriate, or even terrible and disgusting object, which:

Either forbidden by God (for example: someone else's wife, a small child, a subject of the same sex, some animal, a dead female body, etc.),

Either clearly, due to its social, intellectual or moral qualities, it is not suitable for further married life. In the latter case, the demons aim to create painfully difficult relationships between those who are alien in spirit, but who find themselves in marriage union people whom the demons quite deliberately connected with the help of mutually directed prodigal suggestion. Suffering from this “failed love” (but, from the point of view of the demons, very successful) will be both spouses, and most importantly, their children.

But still, the main, in my opinion, the reason that the demons have completely taken control of the sexual instinct of any person is that it is this instinct in a hypertrophied (with their help) form that is the most powerful means by which they manage to provoke into people rebel against God. The conflict artificially created by demons between the desired (in sexual sphere) and the commandment of God for many centuries among those who know God, it manifests itself, as a rule, in three main forms.

THREE FORMS OF REVOLT
AGAINST GOD
The first kind of rebellion against God is personal rebellion. So, for example, in both of the above cases (see "unsuitable objects"), kindled by a passionate, irrepressible attraction, a person under the supervision and control of demons tries to overcome all the obstacles that God's commandments, parents, society and his own conscience put in front of him. An indomitable, truly insane desire for satisfaction or sexual attraction, or romantic feelings of “love” inspired by demons, makes a person go into rebellion against God and His prohibitions, not noticing that he is hooked and has become a puppet in the hands of fallen angels. It is this obsession with prodigal passion, on which demons know how to throw an elegant romantic veil, that is “fed” to readers in almost all novels and poetic works called “love”, although this passion has nothing to do with true love.

The second kind of rebellion against God, which is based on hypertrophied sexuality, manifests itself in two forms: a) in the form of distortion Christian doctrine and b) in the form of a transition from divinely revealed teaching to paganism (i.e., to unrevealed religions).

Fornication as the basis of heresies

A) Distortion of Christian teaching.

An analysis of the biographies of the founders of various heresies and sects that departed from the original apostolic teaching leads to the conclusion that the main reason for the damage to the consciousness of almost all the founders of sects (heresiarchs) is the sin of fornication.

A conscience wounded by sin usually forces a person either to reject sin (which, in this case, he does not want at all), or to seek justification for it in Christianity “renewed” for this purpose, since they cannot find justification in the undistorted teaching of Christ. Thus, paradoxically, almost all dogmatic distortions of sectarianism are based on the sin of fornication, which forged a new weapon for rebellion against God - heretical teaching. This conclusion, made speculatively on the basis of written sources, including the biographies of many heresiarchs (including: Aria, Apollinaris, Luther, Zwingli, L. Tolstoy, etc.), I can confirm with my own observations. So, for example, all the ecumenists known to me personally at any level, unfortunately, are involved in this sin.

(Nevertheless, I admit, of course, (as an exception) that a completely worthy person who knows nothing about the tasks that the Luciferite Freemasons set themselves when creating the WCC and similar organizations. Some of these childishly pure and naive people are not even able to believe in the reality of the existence among people of a single, powerful and centralized satanic organization, one of the prominent bodies of which is world Freemasonry).

As life itself has shown, the mental abilities of heretics (as, indeed, of all other people) are damaged when grace departs from a person as a result of fornication. This amazing interconnection of seemingly distant phenomena was, however, noticed a very long time ago. Amazingly accurate (based on personal experience moral falls) at the end of his life, the wise Solomon said about this: “The excitement of lust corrupts the mind” (Wisdom 4, 12). The existence of a relationship between the quality of mental abilities and sexual behavior can also be seen in the fact that the word chastity, which means the whole, intact wisdom, otherwise - holistic understanding, three-dimensional vision (in Greek sophrosyne - prudence), has long been used to denote bodily purity and purity , the loss of which, as it turned out, directly entails the loss of correct thinking, that is, of that very whole, undamaged wisdom. The fragmentation of thinking that all mankind suffers today is the result of the loss of chastity, that is, bodily purity (I remind you that intimate relationships in a legal marriage are completely legal and do not violate chastity).

The path to idolatry

B) Transition from revealed religion to paganism.

This form of struggle with God is characterized by a retreat from the true revealed religion and a return to some ancient or modern pagan religions, not constraining, but on the contrary, in some cases even stimulating complete sexual freedom. Here are just a few of them: the cults of Astarte, Aphrodite, Isis, Tammuz, Adonis, Lucifer, as well as Tantrism, Shintoism, Mormonism, Dianetics and numerous other occult systems.

The desire provoked by demons for moral deliverance from a clear and precise restriction of sexual function, which was determined for people by God in the form of legal marriage, that is, the desire for sexual “freedom”, or rather, for debauchery, was, it seems to me, the main reason repeated deviation into idolatry of the ancient Israelites - the only people who possessed a divinely revealed religion in pre-Christian period. The prophet Ezekiel, for example, in one of his revelations saw how at the northern gate of the temple of the Lord “there sit women weeping for Tammuz” (Ezek. 8, 14). The meaning of the denunciation of this wickedness by God was in. that the Israeli women seen by the prophet served the idol Tammuz (Tammuz), placed in the temple of the True God (!!) along with other pagan “gods” by the wicked king of Israel, Joachim. This service was accompanied at first by weeping for Tammuz (Tammuz), and then by unbridled joy, combined with the most vile and shameless debauchery (Bible Encyclopedia, M., 1891, p. 686).

For many centuries now, all Christians have been experiencing a similar demonic influence in the sexual sphere, gradually falling away from the true teaching, and some from Christ. It suffices here, for example, to cite the Roerich family that fell away from Orthodoxy and their numerous followers, who fell into the most primitive demon-worship (paganism), clothed, however, in an elegant tinsel of pseudo-scientific, as well as Hindu and lamaistic concepts and terms.

“Human rights” to debauchery

C) The third type of rebellion against God and His Church is the direct revolutionary activity of Freemasonry and all other varieties of deeply religious Satanism, whose task is the complete destruction of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, as well as Catholicism that fell away from it in the 11th century, which was most openly manifested in French Revolution of the end of the 18th century, and most importantly - in the three Russian revolutions of the 20th century. The deep motive of these uprisings for many of the revolutionaries (of course, not the most dedicated ones) was, in my opinion, a sexual revolt, a struggle for freedom for sin and, first of all, for the sin of prodigal.

By the way, the last Russian (in this century - the fourth in a row), the so-called Gorbachev revolution, which destroyed the economy (including industry and agriculture), the army, science, health care, school education and education, and most importantly - moral values ​​(still preserved in Russia from Orthodox ancestors), one of its main goals was the struggle for “human rights”. It was these rights that were discussed at Gorbachev's meeting with the American president in the famous Masonic lair on the island of Malta. R. Reagan demanded from Gorbachev, of course, freedom and respect for human rights, and specifically sexual freedom, which, as it turned out later, was expressed in “human rights” to homosexuality (that is, the sin of Sodom), prostitution and pornography! And this freedom was granted to everyone who was possessed by a prodigal demon: articles that persecuted homosexuality, prostitution and pornography were removed from the criminal code of the USSR. “Yes, you say, but many temples have opened!” In fact, the Orthodox were simply thrown a distracting bone, and in the meantime, tens of millions of young souls were morally destroyed, irrevocably (mostly) cut off from God and from the Church by rampant sexual freedom, spiritually crippled by “human rights” to fornication and sexual perversions. Again, one of the main goals of this revolution was the struggle against God and Orthodoxy, which is based on the sexual instinct exaggerated by demons (not without the help of their servants in the media).

PRODUCTION SIN

OPENS DOORS TO DEMONS
I note that these consequences are most clearly revealed in those cases when young people sin with these sins for the first time. This is explained by the fact that the picture of the consequences is quite clearly revealed only as long as it is not “blurred” by other sins. My conclusion, unfortunately, is unpleasant and, I would even say, terrible, but so far I have not been able to find a refutation of it. Here he is:

Prodigal sin deprives people of grace-filled protection to such a large extent that the demons IMMEDIATELY get the opportunity to ENTER THEIR BODIES, without fail capturing the will in one way or another and binding the mind.

In other words, prodigal sin always leads people to one form or another of possession and to damage (to varying degrees) of the mind. Spiritually unenlightened and inexperienced people, as a rule, do not understand this, being surprised at the sudden and abrupt change in the character of a son or daughter. Parents are literally amazed at the unexpected appearance in children of various bad habits(to alcohol, drugs, etc.), immensely increased pride, rudeness, the disappearance of any mutual understanding. Since the very fact of demonization and the indicated degree of mastery by demons of the soul and body of a person can actually lead him to spiritual death, this very fact, in my opinion, is the reason that many saints. Fathers call fornication sins mortal.

Firstly, as you know from the Bible, the Creator, having created the first couple, blessed an exclusively monogamous heterosexual marriage with the words spoken by Him through Adam, i.e. prophetically, by the inspiration of God: his wife, and they shall be two, one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). God will repeat the same thing in five and a half thousand years directly Himself, having come to earth: “... and the two shall become one flesh” (Mk. 10, 8). Note: in both cases we are talking about one wife and one husband, who are united, as it were, into one being. Thus, from the words of Christ Himself it absolutely unequivocally follows that not three or four people are united into a single being (as, for example, among Muslims), but two and, moreover, of different sexes! Pay attention here to the fact that the word “flesh”, in the quotations I have cited, does not mean a material body at all, but a certain single spiritual essence, consisting of two (if there are no children yet) souls, as if two hypostases, which are before God as a whole. Moreover, this single spiritual whole does not cease to be one even when the spouses are temporarily separated by the circumstances of their lives and spatially separated from each other by a great distance.

The study of the essence of spiritual ties in married couples led me to the conviction that the connection of two people (spouses) is carried out, first of all, at the spiritual and energy level. This means that in marriage there is a union of two different potentials of uncreated energy (grace), which previously belonged to each of their spouses separately. As a result, some kind of new spiritual essence (one in two hypostases) is formed, which has its own special, averaged spiritual potential. Thus, now, when one of the spouses, by sinning, is deprived to some extent of God's grace for his sin, this instantly affects the other (and if there are children, then also on them), since it falls general level blessed energies. More than once, for example, I had to hear confessions of this kind: “Once, when I cheated on my wife on a business trip, she had a severe heart attack on the same day and hour, from which she almost died, although she had never had a heart attack before. ”, or, for example, - “When I got together with one man at the resort, my husband got into a car accident on the same day, and my daughter, who is at the summer cottage kindergarten, since then epileptic seizures began, which continue to this day.

LAW OF PARENTAL SIN
In the latter case, for the mortal sin of the mother, as you may have noticed, the whole family lost the grace of God. The husband and daughter remained unprotected from the influence of demonic forces, and the body of the child was directly implanted by demons, which was expressed in the form of epilepsy, one of the most severe forms of possession. Rather conventionally, all members of the family can thus be compared with communicating vessels, in which the level of liquid simultaneously decreases, even if it is scooped out from only one vessel. In the two examples I have given above, which could be infinitely multiplied, we observe the operation of one of the most important laws of God that regulates the life of a person as a rational spiritual person, and therefore are called spiritual laws, in contrast to the laws given by God to nature: physical laws, chemical, biological, etc. This law, let's call it the LAW OF PARENTAL SIN, explains why children suffer for the sins of their parents, not understood by many. Let me try to formulate it now:

The sin of even one of the parents (especially “mortal”) necessarily lowers the common potential of the uncreated Divine energy (grace), which is the same for the whole family, which most affects children, as the weakest members of the single body of the family, depriving them and all other family members blessed divine protection from the negative effects of demonic forces.

The fact that the family can really be considered as a single spiritual body, just as the Church, consisting of many members (people and local Churches), is the body of Christ, can be read in St. Paul in the Epistle to the Ephesians (Eph. 5:23-27), as well as in the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 12:12-14). See how the apostle likens the husband to Christ, and the wife to the Church... In this comparison lies an extraordinary depth and mystery, which we can only partly reveal.

Just like the Church, which “by water and the Spirit” gives birth to new children (according to the Spirit) for eternal life and, thereby, grows Herself, the wife gives birth to children (according to the flesh) for this earthly life, thereby multiplying the body family, the head of which is the husband, just as Christ is the head of the Church. Just as all members of the body of the Church are “drenched with one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:12), i.e., united into one body by the grace of the Holy Spirit, the one body of the family is united by a single common potential of grace-filled energy, although each member of the family, I think , and has some kind of its own supply of grace.

WHAT IS A “WRONG MARRIAGE”?
To understand why the Church considers prodigal sin so serious that it calls it "mortal", we must remember another amazing regularity indicated by St. Paul, but hidden for many by the darkness of misunderstanding. It turns out that fornication has the same spiritual and energetic consequences as legal marriage, but only with negative sign, because it is illegal and, like any illegal act that violates God's commandment, has its inevitable consequence of depriving sinners of grace. The Apostle Paul writes: “... whoever copulates with a harlot becomes one body with her, for it is said, “The two shall be one flesh” (1 Corinthians 6:16). Pay attention - this is the same formula, the same words with which the marriage of Adam and Eve is performed back in paradise! So, prodigal copulation actually formalizes marriage, but a marriage that violates the purity of the true and complete union in love of spouses, as it was originally intended by the Creator. An illegitimate marriage, just like a real one, leads to the unification of the spiritual potentials of both sinners, which means that in addition to the huge loss of grace-filled energy by both as a result of this sin, each of them is deprived of grace to an even greater extent due to the fact that the consequences are transferred to him. all the sins of the “partner”. Ultimately, the loss of grace during such an illegal connection is so significant for both partners (sometimes falling almost to zero) that the demons instantly move into their bodies (or join the ranks of those who have already settled earlier), because, I repeat, only the grace of God protects a person not only from the introduction of demons into his body, but also from controlling his thoughts and will from the outside.

HOW TO GET RID OF
UNWANTED “GUESTS”?
As a result of the “sexual revolution” successfully launched by the World Satanic Church (WCC) (not to be confused with the World Council of Churches, which, having the same abbreviation - WCC, is under the leadership of the satanic church) in the 60s of this century in America and successfully distributed by Freemasons almost all over the world with the help of the so-called mass culture, to find today a person in whom demons would not live (only their number and degree of influence are different) is as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack. This, of course, is not a reason for despair, but only a reminder that we, with the help of God, must complete a very important task in our lives: get rid of uninvited guests (demons), having won freedom for our will from enslavement by the demonic will and, as a result, literally become themselves.

Hegumen N.
How we emerge from our youthful years depends very much on how we enter into them. The water falling from the cliff boils below and swirls, and then it goes quietly in different channels. This is an image of youth, into which everyone plunges, like water into a waterfall. Two orders of people come out of it: some shine with kindness and nobility, others are overshadowed by wickedness and debauchery; and the third is the middle class, a mixture of good and evil, of which the semblance is a brand of fire, which are inclined now to good, then to evil, like a broken clock - either they go right, then they run or lag behind. Whoever has safely passed his youthful years, it is as if he has swum across a turbulent river and, looking back, blesses God. And another, with tears in his eyes, in repentance, turns back and curses himself. You will never get back what you lose in your youth. Whoever fell, will he still achieve what he who has not fallen has? The unfallen one is always young. The features of his moral character reflect the feelings of the child, while he has not yet become guilty before his father. In it, the fruits of the Spirit indicated by the Apostle are revealed in all their strength: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, mercy, faith, meekness, temperance. Then he is characterized by some insight and wisdom, seeing everything in himself and around him and being able to manage himself and his affairs. All this together makes him both respected and respected. He involuntarily attracts to himself. The existence of such persons in the world is a great grace of God.

Theophan the Recluse
The sin of fornication has the property that it joins two bodies, though unlawful, into one body. For this reason, although he is forgiven immediately after repentance for him at confession, on the indispensable condition that the repentant leave him, but the cleansing and sobering of the body and soul from prodigal sin requires a long time so that the connection and unity established between the bodies ... and infected soul, dilapidated and destroyed.

Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov.

About the girl's chastity
Although you did not speak and did not pronounce those words of a harlot: “Come and wallow in lust,” you did not pronounce with your tongue, but spoke with your appearance, did not pronounce with your lips, but spoke with your gait, did not invite with your voice, but invited your voice clearer with your eyes. Although inviting, you did not betray yourself; but you are not free from sin; for this, too, is a special kind of adultery; you have remained pure from corruption, but of the body, not of the soul.

St. John Chrysostom

About the chastity of young men
Nothing beautifies a young age so much as to enter into marriage pure from all debauchery. And the wives will be kind to them when their soul does not know in advance fornication and will not be corrupted, when the young man will know that one woman with whom he entered into marriage. Then love is more fiery, and the disposition is sincere. And friendship is more reliable, and a wife is sweeter than everyone else, when young men marry in compliance with this rule ... If a young man has become corrupt before marriage, then after marriage he will again look at other people's wives and run to his mistresses. He who was chaste before marriage, will remain so after marriage. On the contrary, whoever before marriage learned to fornicate, he will begin to do the same after marriage.

St. John Chrysostom

The material presented below is the author's work of the priest Maxim Kaskun (Moscow region), published on the Internet in the format of video lectures. Author this project"ierei063" in order to present information more concisely, optimized his lectures in such a way that, without losing the main idea, significantly reduce the amount of material, allowing the reader to quickly and accurately catch the main idea.

Batiushka did a serious, respectable job, various sources, including from the works of the Holy Fathers, collected information on the topic, clearly systematized and disclosed it. He was engaged in the development of this material for a very long time, and I do not claim authorship, but in order to save my own time, seeing this worthy work, I dare to place the “abridged version” on my website. Those wishing to refer to the original material, I ask you to go to the Internet project of Priest Maxim Kaskun, who also needs support for his work.

Passion is man's perversion of his natural ability. But, in addition to passion, a person in fornication also sins with the sin of death.

What is mortal sin? The Apostle John the Theologian says that "there is sin unto death, and there is sin not unto death." So the sin of death is the one that, firstly, kills the soul of a person. Secondly, this sin gives the demons the right to cry out to God, so that He would take this person's life for such a crime. First of all, this sin refers to fornication.

If a person does not repent and does not change his life, then, as a rule, he dies an unnatural death, that is, not his own death: violent or sudden, without having prepared, without repentance and forgiveness.

The term "fornication" is translated as sexual debauchery or depravity. But in Russian transliteration, the word "fornication" means - to wander, to be mistaken. Which shows that such a person has in himself complete ignorance or delusion, lack of path, that is, this is a person who does not have a spiritual path. This is expressed in such a concept as "spiritual fornication."

Fornication of the body - it means sexual relations before marriage, that is, civil marriage and so on, which is very common among young people today. Young people argue this by saying that they want to get to know each other better, to live together, and what if they don’t fit or, on the contrary, make sure that they fit. But, as far as I noticed, even from Soviet times, such couples lived very well and amicably before registering with the registry office, they gave birth to children and the like. But as soon as they formalize their marriage, it did not last even five years. A civil marriage itself cannot give a person the fullness of the sensations of a legal marriage, when you want to check whether you get along - it's simply impossible. It's like testing yourself to see if you can be a priest. There is no way to know this without the sacrament. So marriage is also a sacrament, it is God's blessing on your life together, and without it it's just fornication, a mortal sin and nothing more. As for the official position of the Church on civil marriage, She recognizes it, but as imperfect, since there is no God's blessing on it. However, by civil marriage, the Church does not mean cohabitation, but a registered marriage in the registry office. And such a marriage is no longer fornication, and the one who calls it a sin sins himself, since no priest has the right to perform the sacrament of the wedding if the couple has not registered with the registry office.

Adultery is when one spouse cheats on the other. These include the so-called "Swedish families" - this is when two men and one woman live together, or vice versa, or when two families come together for mutual betrayal - this is all adultery.

The next manifestation of fornication is nocturnal or no seed flow. This problem is familiar to those who abstain for a long time and are therefore subject to demonic attacks.

Masturbation or malakia- a very common type of fornication. IN Soviet time doctors began to recommend this practice to men to relieve tension, stress or depression, arguing that it is good for the body. We hear all this even now, but after trying at least once, it is already very difficult to stop, especially for young people, in a period of growth, both physical and emotional.

The most insidious kind of fornication in a person is manifested in attraction to one's own sex or sodomy, and among women. I would also include pedophilia in this paragraph - this is the attraction of an adult to young children or minor teenagers. These phenomena have become very widespread, I would even say, ubiquitous. People no longer understand what they are doing, they are so blinded by their base desires and instincts.

Bestiality is the extreme degree of fornication.

How the sin of fornication is born.

First of all, it is the will of the person himself. Without our consent, without our will, it is impossible.

Procreation is our natural desire, but when we make it a source of pleasure, it is already sin and lust. This sin is by no means the lot of only adults, it is often possible to hear that prodigal or even perverted thoughts visited a person when he was 5-10 years old, that is, even before puberty. Sin is a mystery and a personal choice of each person. We can only pray for our children and educate them in morality, but this does not give us a 100% guarantee of their righteousness in the future. Here is a mystery, here is the Providence of God.

And it is necessary to remember the story of Noah and his son Ham, who saw the nakedness of his father. And what is happening now! For example, many take their children with them to bathe in the bath - they say, what's wrong with this, they are still small. And no one understands that by doing this we ourselves are corrupting our children.

“Like tends to like, so the flesh desires the flesh,” says St. John of the Ladder. Sin requires inner consent, after which there is a desire, which is expressed in lust, which pushes us to action, whether it be violence or crime.

Reasons why fornication occurs in a person

depravity human nature after the fall, she rebelled against man, and we are doomed to wage constant war with her. And this body we get from our parents and pass it on to our children. Our nature is prone to sin and prone to vice, that is, we understand with the mind, but the body demands, rebels against the will. And who will win?

The vices of education. You know, there is a famous saying: "The apple does not fall far from the tree." Our personal example, the way we live, our behavior - all this is imprinted in the soul of the child, and then he imitates his parents.

The temptations of this world are a whole river of vice.

Spiritual Causes of Fornication

Unbelief is the main cause of sin. And this also applies to those who live the church life. Unbelief is so ingrained in us that it has become a habit, we no longer notice it. We fast, we take communion, we pray, we go to services – but where is faith?! After all, we live in worldly dreams, fun, sins.

The next reason is gluttony. Fornication is based on the womb, when the womb is full, a person receives extra juices, as St. Theophan the Recluse, and extra juices excite human nature.

Immodest hands and eyes. A person should watch his eyesight and not stare at people of the opposite sex. When we simply look at a person, this is fine, but as soon as we have made our judgment about his attractiveness or beauty, then a wide road for sin is already opened here. Married people have it easier in this regard, as they have found their companions along the way of life, and they are already working to save their marriage and increase love. And people who are single, who are still in search of their chosen ones, are forced to look, evaluate, search. The main thing here is not to get used to it, the Lord, even before the creation of everything visible, chose for each of us employees on this life path. If we allow God, if we believe in His providence, His love for us, then we will not miss our soul mate, since they are created for each other. Unfortunately, very often we do not allow God to do this, and we do everything in our own way, for which we often grieve.

Many Holy Fathers forbade going, especially to singles, to public baths.

It is best to refrain from unnecessary temptations. Remember the life of St. Anthony the Great, when he and his student crossed the river, they separated so that no one could see the naked body of the other, and when they crossed, they dressed and again united for further travel. Since you can not look at the naked body of another person and not harm your soul.

As for the hands, there are many dangers. Many Holy Fathers, such as St. John of the Ladder and St. Efrem Sirin, especially noted the fact that when a person washes, he should not examine his body, touch his intimate places, stretch this process. Since at the same time people who lead a chaste lifestyle can very easily be aroused by their own touches, and then sin cannot be avoided.

For married people, this is not so important, but for single people, this is very important.

People who have chosen the path of monasticism and asceticism have a very vulnerable place through which prodigal passion can penetrate their souls - this is the love of sweet, tasty food or guttural insanity. This happens at the beginning of the monastic path, and when the monk has already gained some spiritual experience, then fornication looks for another path - this is arrogance.

If a monk has not found humility, then the Lord sends him fornication temptations in order to humble him. The third reason for ascetics to be tempted by fornication is if they condemn their neighbors. Abba Evagrius and other Holy Fathers write that when you condemn your neighbors, you yourself fall into this sin. Judgment kills love in a person. Each of us loves his child, no matter what, even if he does something, fights or something else. We still love him, protect him, shield him, forgive him. And if someone else's child does something, we are immediately indignant, we condemn and we will touch upon his parents, how badly they raise their child, etc. Condemnation in a person kills not only love, but also prayer, reverence - this is a very insidious passion and one must be on the alert with it.

Signs of fornication

A full womb is the first sign that a person is in for a lustful temptation.

dreamy dream, a long sleep, or vice versa, insomnia (when a person lies and dreams) - all this is a consequence of overeating.

Lack of sleep - when a person does not get enough sleep, there will also be a struggle of passion.

Weakening - a person who often indulges in fornication, loses his strength, both physical and spiritual.

Resistance to Prayer. Sadness, despondency, hopeless darkness - this is a state of extreme despair, since the soul of a person dies. Dies from exhaustion of spiritual forces, God's grace. Fornication destroys us from the inside, and after that the demon of despair comes and fills everything with itself, pushing a person to suicide.

Free treatment of neighbors (especially with the opposite sex) - when a person behaves cheekily with people around him. Abba Dorotheos advised not to look at the face of his interlocutor at all, but to look at the ground, because. he taught his disciples that when you talk to another person, you are talking to the image of God, that is, to God. Therefore, he taught reverence in communication between people. In modern society, you rarely hear respect in your voice, let alone reverence.

Frequent nocturnal desecrations- that is, if more than once a month a similar thing happens to a person, then we can say with confidence that the prodigal passion in him is progressing. And you need to urgently take up the fight against it.

Intemperance in family life- that is, not observing the posts.

Degrees of sin:

The suppression or perversion of conscience is a necessary condition for the initial stage of fornication. In the beginning, she needs to expel the Holy Spirit from the soul of a person, so that nothing will prevent her from taking root;

Corruption by thoughts and deeds is the practical side of fornication. When a person moves from theory to practice;

And the last, extreme degree of fornication is when a person with only one thought can bring himself to the expiration of the seed.

Derivative sins of fornication

Many of us are familiar with them, as they are taken from St. John of the Ladder, so I’ll just remind them: gratification of passion and peace in everything, relaxation, condemnation, blasphemy and blasphemous thoughts, pride, laughter (barbs and untimely laughter) and so on.

The influence of fornication on the human body

“First of all,” as St. Theophan the Recluse, this is the loss of the body's strength, and its exhaustion, and its weakness. In ancient times, no warrior or athlete shared his bed either with his wife or with a woman before a battle or competition. since even then they knew that a person weakens after this by about 25%. And now we are shown what is shown in modern historical films - they drink, eat, walk all night, and in the morning they go into battle. Only suicidal people behave like this. And there is victory, fanfare and a happy ending!

Body fatness - a person becomes less able to control his body, as it becomes naughty.

The development of the habit of sin and dependence on it, when a person can no longer live without it. This is especially evident in those who have taken monastic vows. It is good if a person came to the monastery as a virgin, and those who have known sin are tormented by memories and dreams.

Fornication produces darkness and spiritual stench in the human body - and this is the real truth. The demons of fornication are stinking, and a person seduced by them takes on this stench, and his body becomes stinking and unclean.

Influence on the human soul

Fatness and insensitivity of the soul, and, as a result, torment and death. After the sin of fornication, the soul is greatly tormented and suffers. It is hard for her, she is devastated, she is wounded, and prodigal sin, it greatly defiles the soul and shakes the mind. The one who has sinned through fornication is a completely demoralized person, prone to despair, since the mind cannot comprehend the full depth of its fall. Precisely falls, since this word is used only for prodigal sins and not for any others. Even if a person has sinned with fornication only in his mind, he still fell, because fornication immediately brings down the entire spiritual building of a person to the ground. In his works, Rev. John of the Ladder more than once makes such a comparison: when a repentant heretic is accepted into the Church, he is accepted through repentance and even in the existing rank (if he is a priest) and that’s it, no penance. And for fornication they were excommunicated from Communion up to 10 years. That is, how worse than sin fornication compared to heresy!

Inflaming the soul with passions - a person can finally lose control of himself and become just an animal, a slave to his passions.

Paralysis of all spiritual movements in a person - after sin, a person cannot find the strength and will to pray, fast sincerely, with all his soul.

Disorder, anxiety, tossing and reeling of the soul - this is when the soul cannot find peace. She flutters like a flag in the wind, finding no home.

Suppression of joy about God in a person's soul - this happens when a person begins to enjoy lecherous thoughts, sin. Such a Person can no longer rejoice: he jokes, smiles, he is affable and friendly, he is the soul of the company, but inside there is longing and despondency, and there is no place for joy in his soul - passion has destroyed everything.

Influence on the human mind

Immersion of the mind in darkness and its clouding - it becomes not receptive to everything spiritual.

Weakness and mental disorder– when a person thinks and philosophizes only in a worldly way, there is no longer a spiritual component. This happens when a person is completely enslaved by vice. He cannot imagine himself without it. He talks, thinks, jokes and lives only by this. Look at modern television - and there you will find only fornication and the womb. And nothing more.

Influence on the human spirit

Spirit Landing. After prayer, a person’s spirit burns towards God, burns with a thirst for grace, love, joy, but when a fornication possesses a person, it does not allow the spirit to ignite with God, but returns it to earthly affairs and pleasures.

Fornication drives away the Holy Spirit, and a person loses his boldness before God.

The madness of a person is what a person who is possessed by the passion of fornication comes to. He is likened to Satan, since this sin is one of his favorite sins.

The general influence of fornication on a person

“Fornication is a carnal passion, it is a denial of Christianity within us” (St. Theophan the Recluse). When a person commits a fornication sin, he renounces Christ and drives Him away, becoming a pagan and an atheist. Fornication is one of the most terrible passions.

The total enslavement of a person to sin occurs through fornication. And also it destroys all the good that is in man. He destroys and plunders everything that a person has created in his soul, leaving no stone unturned.

Man's punishment for the sin of fornication

Taking away God's blessing in life.

Sorrow. Trouble. misfortune. Diseases. And even death.

Church punishments follow in the following order:

masturbation and fornication - a ban on communion for 7 years;

adultery, sodomy, bestiality - excommunication from the Holy. Secrets for 15 years;

nightly defilement - if a person did not inflame himself before, and this happened simply for physiological reasons, then he can take communion.

This is stated in the rules of St. Athanasius the Great, Dionysius of Alexandria and Timothy of Alexandria.

Fight with passion. General Methods

First of all - the fight against gluttony, fasting, abstinence. In the fight against them, it is very important to pay attention to the quality of food - this is the removal of meat, fatty foods, spicy. Get used to getting up from the table a little hungry, eating infrequently so that there is no constant state of satiety.

Physical labor until exhaustion and fatigue. You know, when you get tired, just walk to the bed, what fornication is there.

Jealousy for achievement. Faith in God. Prayer is all helpers in the fight against passion.

Humility. Obedience. Mercy - drive fornication out of a person.

Modesty in dress and behavior. Panache must be completely eliminated. Because the one who flaunts, tempts not only himself, but also others. It provokes you to look at yourself and experience feelings. It is so close to our nature that even some older women cannot refuse perfumes and cosmetics. And when you tell them about it, they are offended, they do not understand the true nature of their habit.

Avoidance of the spectacle of another's body is films, television, magazines, etc. All these images then pop up in our memory and inflame passion in us. Again, let me remind you about baths - in no case should children see their parents naked. If you want to go to the sauna with your son, please put on your swimming trunks and go.

Family creation. According to Ap. Paul, “But, in order to avoid fornication, each one should have his own wife” (1 Cor. 7:2). This helps in the fight against passion, in achieving chastity through family life, since it is blessed by God - this is already a law. No one will condemn this person for this, since everything is according to love, according to the law, according to grace.

private methods.

During temptations, it is necessary to cut off thoughts at the root, that is, as soon as an image or inspiration appears in the soul, one must resort to prayer in order to expel this filth from the soul or replace this thought with a good one - this is recommended by St. Theophan the Recluse. The invocation of the name of God, the Jesus Prayer, or any other, because without the help of God, no one will ever be able to overcome this passion. According to the Holy Fathers, before defeating it, a person must admit his weakness and his inability to fight this sin with his own strength. Until this moment, God cannot help us without destroying our soul, but as soon as we admit our weakness, from that moment our true struggle with the sin of fornication begins.

Memories of shame after the fall. Remembering the punishment for sin in this life and the next. Many Holy Fathers resorted to this method - the constant remembrance of death.

Reading Holy Scripture and Lives of the Saints. This helps to drive out lustful thoughts, and then the place of Satan in our soul is occupied by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Alternatively, you can engage in your favorite business or hobby, which will also help distract yourself from sin.

Fornication and family relationships.

Can fornication be present in family life? Fornication may be impure, but fornication is not! Because fornication is the illegal use of each other, and in marriage everything is according to the law. When family man cannot abstain during fasting - this shows that he is weak and sick with fornication.

Fornication impurity in family life is expressed in perversions, unnatural use of the other sex. This is all a mortal sin, and it must be eradicated. I will not talk about them in detail, but I will mark one of them, as many may not know that this is a sin - this is mutual masturbation. Some people think that this is not a sin, but it is not. This practice came to us from family psychology. Many have read such manuals for revitalizing family life and have begun to practice this, not knowing that it is a desecration.

Of course, you need to remember about decency, about natural shame. One day I was walking my dog ​​and decided to visit my acquaintances, newlyweds. His wife opens the door for me - dressed in only one shirt and that's it! I was so dumbfounded. They invited me to tea, but I, citing business, hastened to leave. I come to the priest, I say so, they say, and so, and he answers me: “Well, what are you - this is worldly.” It is one thing when they are alone in the house, but to meet guests in this form is at least disrespectful and tempting.

Such little things have become so firmly established in our lives that we began to perceive them as the norm. We began to forget that the Lord constantly calls us to purity, to holiness, to prayer. We must strive for this with all our soul. No one says that we are saints, but the desire for holiness should become our need, as in the air. It is necessary to remind people of their sleep, to wake them up, and not to brush aside sin with worldly sophistication.

Relationships before marriage should be without sin. There is a proverb: "As you start, so you will end." That is, he began with his sin family life Well, sin and continue. Whoever can, let him better refrain from fornication.

Demons love nothing more than fornication, because through fornication they most quickly get our death with you. Therefore, every Christian should be afraid of him, fight with him and not indulge in sin, but call white - white, and black - black.

A terrible thing is SUDDEN death. She is the SWORD of God's wrath for our sins! We see this clearly from the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man was greedy, a slave to the flesh and whims. He completely forgot about death, about the immortality of the soul and about God. He became attached with his mind and heart to the blessings of the earth, to wealth, and died not as a man who believes in God, but as a wicked man who had lost all faith; not as a man who has an immortal soul, but as a dead soul; not as a rational man, but as a dumb animal. For all these sins, the rich man died, by God's definition, a forced death - sudden. That he did not die naturally, but that he was mowed down, by the command of God, by a sudden death - we see this from the same parable.

In this death, God Himself convicts the ungodly sinner and announces to him the terrible execution of sudden death: Madness, this very night they will torture your soul from you (Luke 12:20). At the same time, the Lord also revealed the reason for such a terrible condemnation - the vice of covetousness, greed, selfishness, carelessness, negligence, about one's soul and about the end of earthly life.

Yes, sudden death is harmful to our soul! For in whatever state the moment of death finds us, in such we shall remain and abide forever. After death, neither the Virtuous changes from the virtuous into the vicious, nor the sinner from the vicious to the virtuous. The divine Ecclesiastes also confirms this, saying: And if a tree falls to the south, or to the north, then in the place where the tree falls, it will remain there. This means: what place a person will be worthy at the hour of his death, there he is determined and remains in endless ages of ages. Live honestly and good man, according to the commandments of God - he will go to God. He lived wickedly, in a bad way, he did evil and deceit - he will go to Hell!

We, the unfortunate ones, constantly sin, and sin constantly follows on our heels. We dedicate one time to eating and drinking a lot; the other - we spend in peace, carelessness, whims, the rest - we sacrifice to theft, lies, murders, enmity, oppression and persecution of the brethren! When do we not sin? Reproach, slander, condemnation, lies, foul language and idle talk do not cease to come out of our mouths. When are we not involved in pride, love of glory, vile vindictiveness and crafty imagination? Almost never! Sin always surrounds us, always presents our souls as slaves to uncleanness and lawlessness into lawlessness (Rom. 6:19). When, before death, God, the Lover of mankind, sends a cruel illness upon us, then, having come, she announces to us, as if another Isaiah, saying: This says the Lord: arrange for your house, for you are dying (Is. 38, 1).

Like a trumpet, then a grave ILLNESS proclaims: “Man! Get ready for future life. Your time has come." Then a person feels separation from the world, then he sees that wealth, and glory, and wisdom, and in general any earthly blessings are useless and do not need him now. Relatives and friends of the patient then call on his spiritual father so that he can repent, cry, turn to God, confess his sins and unite with the Savior Jesus Christ, through the acceptance of His Most Pure Body and Blood. Without a doubt, then there is hope that such a person can be saved and remain not in a place of torment, but in a place of bliss.

But when SUDDENLY, like a swooping hurricane, like a whirlwind, — DEATH steals Life, when a person, being strong, healthy and devoted to sin, in one minute — DIES and appears before God at the Judgment — silent and insensible, what then can be hope for salvation? Where is the repentance then? Where is the confession? Where is the appeal? Neither a relative, nor a friend, nor a priest will be able to help then, even if someone wanted, tried and zealously desired. Then the merciless will suddenly come, torturing the soul of the unfortunate. This very night your soul will be tortured by you (Luke 12:20).

Death, no doubt, is inevitable and terrible, and it is ultimately impossible to prevent or avoid it; but we can prepare ourselves for it, arrange earthly affairs and exert diligence and care for our souls. Freed from all earthly cares, we will prepare and lighten our souls with repentance, confession of sins, free ourselves from remorse and drive away the excessive fear of torment, and unite with Christ in the Sacrament of Communion. As a result of this, our hope in the mercy of God, the hope of the immortal Kingdom, which takes away the sadness of separation from the world, will instill in our hearts. Then nothing mournful and terrible will remain, except for the feat of separation of the soul from the body. Merciful and bright angels will then surround us and drive the regiments of demons far away. They will alleviate the sorrow of death, ease its difficulty, drive away spiritual fear, and, rejoicing, take our soul. Blessed is he who will be rewarded with such a death, he will quietly and meekly say with David: In peace together I will sleep and rest (Ps. 4, 9)

When - an accidental, SUDDEN death WILL happen to us, when it will find us among - our OFFENSES, how TERRIBLE it will be for us, how destructive! We will see and feel then that her naked sword hangs over us, and now, in one second, we will depart - into Eternity. And no matter how much we - would not WISH then with all our soul - to AVOID this, but escape is no longer possible. We would like to make dying orders about our house, but our thoughts will become clouded and disappear. We would like to repent, to confess our sins before the priest, but our tongue will not obey us, and our lips will close, and we will bitterly feel that we are dying in sins and prepared for the devil and his demons. This will cause us terrible torment, horror and utter despair. Dark and unmerciful demons, denouncing our deeds and torturing our soul, will torment us. Finally, our soul, in unspeakable torment, will be separated from the body—it will be forcibly kidnapped. Woe to that person who thus ends his life, for this is the very death about which the holy prophet David said: The death of sinners Lut (Ps. 33, 22).

Terrible, agonizing death - WAITING for all Sinners!

We, people, not only do not know about the time of our death, but we also do not know what our end will be: whether it will come to us meek, or fierce and bestial. Will she warn us with any signs or overtake us like a thief in the night. Will she give us some time to repent, or will she instantly snatch us away in all our iniquities? Nothing is known to us. Why such uncertainty, such ignorance about the hour of death? But the philanthropic God arranged it this way, for the sake of our salvation, because ignorance of the hour of death gives rise to fear, fear leads to abstinence, and abstinence stops the opportunity for sin.

Ignorance about the hour of death produces ATTENTION; and attention - the DESIRE and the desire to live - according to the Commandments of God, which is the cause of Virtue. It is left unknown to us whether our death will be good or cruel in order to BE AFRAID, to AVOID sin, and, moving away from vices, to more and more succeed in Virtue. Therefore, let us prepare for Eternity and for the transition to eternity, called death, during earthly life, in this threshold of Eternity.

Earthly life is an unceasing struggle between life and death, and we fluctuate between them, constantly deviating first to one, then to the other. If we properly evaluate that short moment for which we are placed here on earth, comparing it with immeasurable and majestic eternity, then we will find that only the correct use of earthly life, i.e., preparation for eternity, will be useful for us.