Письмо 27

The Infinite Mercy of the Savior

The author reflects on the boundless mercy of Christ, which offers refuge to every sinner.

May the Lord save you and have mercy! Our week of hard labors is over; half-labors come next.¹ And so, I've ended up among those who hear confessions.² “I am only a witness.”³ But how tangibly it is made known how wide the arms of the most merciful Savior are, who receives every sinner. The five wounds of the crucified Lord are not large; but behind them lie immeasurable depths.⁴ Come with whatever heap of sins you may, and no matter how many people come, everything will find cover there.

Surrender to God's Will

True spiritual understanding belongs to God alone, requiring us to surrender our lives to His providence.

Write down everything that is on your soul, but don't think that you, I, or anyone else can truly grasp the force and meaning of what is happening. Only God knows that. From our side, all that is required is complete surrender to God's will, and a deep cry: "Save me by whatever destinies You know."⁵

Attention as the Path to Humility

Self-attention is the essential practice that reveals our inner impurity and leads to genuine humility, preventing the trap of egoism.

You're afraid that paying attention to yourself will lead you into egoism. Last time I wrote to you about how to practice this attention. Start doing it that way, and don't be afraid. Egoism is formed by outward ascetic labors without attention to the thoughts.⁶ But anyone who truly begins to attend to himself and settles into that attention will start, minute by minute, to receive from himself the most convincing lessons in humility. For then it will become clear how much impurity lies at the bottom of the heart. The thoughts, stirrings, and desires that keep rising from the heart—not always upright—will make it plain that the heart is nothing but a festering scab giving off a repulsive stench.⁷ That sense will sink deep into the soul—and then where is there room for egoism? The path of paying attention to yourself is the path of true humility—and it's the only path to it. Look—you yourselves write: what is contrary to the good arises. Where does that come from? It comes from the soul itself. So then, inside the soul there is a store of what is contrary to the good.⁸ How, then, should this soul be regarded? Certainly not as holy. Anyone who does only outward ascetic labors and doesn't attend to himself will fall right into egoism.⁹

The Danger of Externalism

External ascetic labors are necessary but insufficient; they must be paired with interior attention to avoid spiritual vanity.

He makes a few prostrations, sits down, and daydreams: well, now we've done our work. See? We've done God a favor.¹⁰ Or he won't eat his fill—and thinks: just like all the saints;—i. e. , you might as well write him into the calendar of saints.¹¹ . . And so on in the same vein. External ascetic labors are truly necessary, but stopping at them alone is a disaster. Have you ever come across among the holy¹² Fathers the expression “action and understanding,” in which they join the whole labor for the salvation of the soul?¹³ That is the same as saying: ascetic labor and attention.¹⁴

A Final Blessing

The letter concludes with a humble request for forgiveness and a prayer for the recipient's well-being.

Forgive me. I wish you every good. May the Lord keep you.

Read the original Russian

Спаси вас Господи и помилуй! Неделя трудов наших прошла, далее будут полу-труды. Вот и я попал – в чин исповедающих. – «Аз точию свидетель есмь». Но как осязательно дается знать, сколь широки обятия премилосердаго Спасителя, приемлющаго всякаго грешника. Пять ран Господа распятаго невелики; но за ними лежат необятные вместилища. С какою кучею грехов ни приди, и сколько лиц не приди, все там упрячется.

Пишите все, что у вас бывает на душе, только не думайте, что вы, или я, или другой кто хорошо может понять силу и значение бывающаго. Один Бог то знает. С нашей стороны только требуется совершенная преданность в волю Божию, и глубокое вопияние: «ими же веси судьбами спаси мя».

Вы боитесь прийти к эгоизму от внимания к себе. Я прошлый раз писал вам о практике сего внимания. Примитесь делать так и не бойтесь. Эгоизм образуется от внешних подвигов без внимания к помыслам. Кто же начнет внимать себе истинно, и установится в сем внимании, тот начнет поминутно получать от себя самаго самые убедительные уроки в смирении. Ибо тогда раскроется, сколько нечистоты лежит на дне сердца. Поминутно выникающия из сердца мысли, движения, желания – не всегда правыя – дадут знать, что сердце есть нечто иное, как гнойной струп, издающий отвратительный смрад. Ощущение сие глубоко западет в душу, – и где тут до эгоизма?

Путь внимания к себе есть путь истиннаго смирения – и единственный к тому путь. – Вот, вы сами пишите: возникает противное добру. Откуда оно? Из души же. Стало внутри души есть запас противнаго добру. Какою же надобно считать эту душу? Уж конечно не святою. Кто же делает одни внешние подвиги, а себе не внимает, тот как раз попадет в эгоизм.

Положит сколько-нибудь поклонов, сидит и мечтает: ну, ныне мы потрудились. Видите, одолжили Бога. Или не поест до сыта – и думает: так и все святые; – т. е. , хоть в святцы пиши. . . и прочее сему подобное.

Существенно необходимы внешние подвиги; но останавливаться на них одних – беда! Встречали ли вы у св. Отцев выражение: деяние и разум, в которых они совмещают весь труд о спасении души? Это тоже, что сказать: подвиг и внимание.

Простите! Желаю вам всего добраго. Господь, да сохранит вас!

Notes

1 ↩«полу-труды» is kept as half-labors: a lighter work-load after a full week of labor, likely monastic/pastoral calendar language rather than a fixed technical term.
2 ↩«чин исповедающих» is rendered as the ranks of those who hear confessions (priests administering confession), not as confessors in the martyr sense.
3 ↩Church Slavonic «Аз точию свидетель есмь» modernized for readability; sense: the confessor is merely a witness, not the judge or savior.
4 ↩«необъятные вместилища» rendered as immeasurable depths: vessels/holding-places vast enough to contain all who come; could also be reservoirs or receptacles.
5 ↩Church Slavonic «ими же веси судьбами спаси мя» is a fixed liturgical petition; rendered solemnly as 'Save me by whatever destinies You know' (судьбами = destinies/judgments/paths appointed by God; веси = You know).
6 ↩«Помыслы» here is the ascetical term for interior thoughts/impulses (logismoi), not mere casual thinking; «подвиги» means outward ascetic efforts rather than heroic feats in a worldly sense.
7 ↩«Выникающия» is an older form for 'arising/emerging'; rendered as 'keep rising' to capture continuous emergence. «Гнойной струп» is a harsh ascetical metaphor for a pus-filled scab/sore.
8 ↩«Стало» is elliptical for «стало быть» (so then / it follows that), not the full verb 'became'.
9 ↩«Подвиги» here means outward ascetic practices/labors, not heroic exploits in a secular sense; «эгоизм» is spiritual self-regard, continuing the letter's contrast with true self-attention.
10 ↩Russian «одолжили Бога» is ironic: as if their ascetic effort put God under obligation to them.
11 ↩«Святцы» is the Orthodox menology/saints' calendar; the tone is sarcastic self-canonization.
12 ↩Sentence is cut at the abbreviation «св.»; it continues in the next sentence as «св. Отцев» (the holy Fathers).
13 ↩«Деяние и разум» is a traditional Orthodox ascetical pair (active practice and spiritual understanding/discernment); rendered as “action and understanding,” not as scholastic “reason” alone.
14 ↩«Подвиг» here is spiritual/ascetic exertion, not a heroic exploit in the secular sense; «внимание» is interior watchfulness/attention.

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