Письмо 33
Discerning the Enemy's Whispers
The reader is encouraged to reject intrusive thoughts as external temptations rather than internal doubts.
Don't be afraid. Everything that comes into your mind is an empty raid—a temptation. As you can see, your heart is completely free of any doubts. The thoughts being whispered to you aren't yours: spit on them.1 That is the advice of St. Dimitry of Rostov. Here is the reason. You heard empty talk, and a memory of it remains.
Patience in the Spiritual Struggle
The author advises turning to the heart in prayer and maintaining steady zeal despite the lack of perceived progress.
The enemy takes the traces left in your memory and weaves them into a net before your mind's eye to tangle it up. Then go down into your heart, turn your eyes away from the enemy's phantom images, and cry out to the Lord. It's not a bad thing that you don't see progress; it's a good thing. The danger is when you do see it.2 Just keep applying zeal and prayer for progress even when you don't see it, and don't give in to carelessness. How could everything happen all at once? You've had the good thought to leave for a monastery—go as soon as you can. You heard empty talk and were unsettled by it.
The Illusion of Worldly Peace
The author contrasts the true peace of faith with the 'dead' peace of those living according to the flesh.
Compare the state you're in when you rest in unshaken faith and keep your proper order with the state these empty words put you in—and see where the truth is and where the lie is. For it's the same as paradise and hell. Would you really want to be your own enemy, abandoning the first and leaning toward the second? You'll say, "But how is it that others are so at peace?" That is a phantom of peace; their spirit is dead. The life of the natural soul and of the flesh is a murky, joyless life.✦3 If they woke up even a little, then different talk would follow. So please, don't waver on their account. Haven't you been given enough evidence?
Trusting in God's Timing
The reader is reminded of past graces and urged to wait patiently for God's timing rather than seeking heaven all at once.
And then there are the interior consolations, the nearness of the Mother of God, the help that comes so swiftly and suddenly, and so much else! What more do you want? You want to get to heaven all at once! Wait. Everything has its own time.
Writing as a Path to Clarity
The author offers practical advice to overcome turmoil through prayer and the therapeutic act of writing.
And as for the thread of life being spun unevenly — that's how it is for everyone. So please don't lose heart. The turmoil will pass. You'll start reading and praying — and everything will settle. In the meantime, write — write everything. . . Once you write it out, it will all scatter and vanish.4
Read the original Russian
Не бойтесь! Все, что приходит на мысль вам, пустой набег – искусительный. Сердце, как видите, совершенно чуждо всяких сомнений. Мысли навеваемыя не ваши: плюньте на них. Так советует св. Димитрий Ростовский. Причина вот какая! Слышали вы пустыя речи, о них осталась память.
Враг берет эти черты памяти, и плетет из них сеть пред очами ума вашего, чтоб запутать его. Сходите тогда в сердце, отвратив очи от призрачных образов вражеских и взывайте ко Господу. Что не видите успехов, это не худо, а хорошо. Беда, когда увидите. Только не видя успехов, прилагайте ревнование и молитву об успехе, а беспечности не предавайтесь. Как же можно все вдруг? Хорошее пришло вам помышление уехать в монастырь, поезжайте поскорее. Вы слышали пустыя речи, и смутились.
– Сравните то состояние, когда вы пребываете в невозмутимой вере, и в своем порядке, с тем состоянием, в какое поставляют вас эти пустыя речи, – и смотрите, где истина и где ложь. Ведь это тоже, что рай и ад. Неужели врагом себе захотите быть, оставя первое, и склоняясь на второе. Скажете: «как же другие то покойны». Это призрак покоя, у них дух мертв: жизнь душевная и плотская – есть жизнь мутная – безотрадная. Если б они очнулись хоть немного, тогда пошли бы другия речи. Так, пожалуйста не колеблитесь ради их. Разве мало вам свидетельств?
А внутренния утешения, а близость Матери Божией, а помощь скорая и внезапная и другое многое! Чего же еще? Хотите вдруг на небо! Подождите. Всему свой срок.
А что неровно прядется нить жизни, это у всех так. Так не робейте, пожалуйста. Смятение пройдет. Начнете читать, молиться – и все установится. Между тем пишите, – пишите все. . . Как напишите, так все и разлетится.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Eph.2.1;Rev.3.1 — And you, though dead in your trespasses and sins, Rev.3.1 — And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of the one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works; you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.
Notes
- 1 ↩навеваемыя: thoughts wafted/blown upon the mind (often of hostile suggestion); plusnite is blunt folk dismissal, kept as 'spit on them'.
- 2 ↩«Беда» is strong trouble/danger, not mere inconvenience: spiritual peril of noticing one's own progress and falling into self-satisfaction.
- 3 ↩Russian «жизнь душевная и плотская» uses the traditional spiritual distinction between the natural/soulish life (душевная) and the fleshly life (плотская), as opposed to life in the Spirit.
- 4 ↩разлетится: literally 'will fly apart/scatter'; in context, the troubles dissipate once poured out in writing.
Letters on the Christian Life companion
Rule yourself daily, not just on retreat
Chosen Portion turns the mirror into a daily practice — a short reading and examining question each morning before you lead anyone.
Chosen Portion makes the mirror daily: the ruler-formation questions this collection preserves become a two-minute morning examination in the app.
- A daily formation reading drawn from centuries of counsel to those in authority
- One pointed examination question a day — two minutes, before the meetings start
- Track your practice over weeks and watch the examined life become a habit