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Chapter 4FeofanPisma.1.4

Письмо 4

The Single-Minded Beginning

A successful spiritual life begins with a sincere, undivided desire for God and constant prayer.

May the Lord help you grow wise for salvation.✦ The whole matter isn't hard, and it isn't complicated. The main thing is a good beginning. Once you've made a start, everything will go well on its own. But how to make that start—that's hard to explain. "The Spirit blows where it wills, and you hear its sound, but you don't know where it comes from or where it goes.✦ So it is with everyone born of the Spirit" (Jn.✦ 3:8).✦ You need to pray, and the Lord will provide everything, for He is generous in giving. Wherever the door of the heart opens even a little, He is there at once.✦ You only need a sincere and resolute desire, and not to mix your pursuits; once it's one thing, let it be one.1 The prophet rebukes: "How long will you limp on both your legs?" (1 Kgs.2 18:21). And the Apostle says: "A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways" (Jas. 1:8). And the Lord: "You cannot serve God and mammon" (Lk. 16:13). One thing only — then keep it one.3 "Mary has chosen the good part. One thing is needful" (Lk.✦ 10:42). When this power that unites all our strivings comes, then what you need will turn up from somewhere.4 Everything will fall into place. Let's pray that the Lord gives us this strength.

The Fire of Compunction

True spiritual progress requires a deep awareness of one's danger and a humble, constant turning to the Lord.

There's a lot of good in some people, but it's broken, shattered, and scattered, like the pieces of a broken glass vessel. Fire will come and fuse them into a vessel of honor, first melting them thoroughly within itself.5 You ask what it means to set trouble ablaze around yourself? It is a deep sense of how dangerous your situation is — an extreme danger from which there is no other salvation except in the Lord Jesus Christ. This very feeling will drive us to the Lord and force us to cry out without ceasing: Help me, protect me! All the saints had it, and it never left them. Its opposite is a sense of contentment with your situation, which settles a person down and extinguishes any concern for salvation. I’m full—so what else is there? I didn't mean only the memory of sins, but more generally the sense that there is nowhere to turn except to the Lord. You don't have anything to confess? That's because you're righteous.6 Let's pray that the Lord would make you a sinner—that is, that the tax collector's cry would come to you: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!"7 Pray: "Grant me the ability to see my transgressions.8 ." In the meantime, work on this and train yourself to walk before the Lord. As you become more practiced in this, you'll start to step down from the heights of righteousness and join the company of sinners.9 . . And when you join their number, you won't even be able to list all your sins. Sin isn't just in what you do; thoughts, feelings, and desires can be sinful, too. These last aren't visible; there's no eye looking into the heart—and that is where your righteousness lies.10 That eye cannot see when it's buried under vanity like dust.11 To walk before the Lord means not to tear your attention away from Him—that is the goal.✦ Just thinking about Him for a moment and then dropping it—that isn't it. When that happens, the Lord will begin to judge your thoughts and intentions.✦12 That's when the sins will come to light, and there will be so many of them that it will be a disaster!

Prayer, Reading, and Stillness

Spiritual disciplines like reading and reflection are tools to lead the heart into the stillness of genuine prayer.

Prayer, meditation, and reading are all different things. Prayer is a painful falling down before God in compunction and humility. It can, they say, also be without bows. For example, when necessity requires it, in the presence of others, or while traveling; for the most part, though, it is inseparable from bows. Bows are the consequence of interior prayer. Reading and reflection go together; they can prepare you for prayer, and they can also remain idle.13 But they aren't prayer themselves, and they can't take its place. The limit of reading is this: to come to a subject that seizes the attention and holds it on itself alone.1415 The same applies to reflection. This is where the shift into prayer happens, or even into a prayerful state for an extended period.16 It's beneficial in the morning, after prayer, to pursue this through reading.17 Read a little at a time. . . Reading with warmth is still not the real thing.18 . . There, in the prayerful state, reading stops, the mind stands still and does not stir, and it is well with it. Force yourself to read the prayers the priest pointed out. They are the door. How will you go inside without first opening the door? Overcome the boredom. There aren't many of them. Keep in mind that as you read them, you're speaking a word to the Lord—and He hears it. You can memorize these prayers and recite them by heart, clearly for your heart and for the Lord.19 You just need to master yourself. The Lord is your helper!✦

Read the original Russian

Помоги вам Господи умудриться во спасение! Дело все не трудно и не многосложно. Главное – доброе начало. Когда положено начало, все само собой пойдет хорошо. А как положить начало, это изъяснить трудно. «Дух идеже хощет, дышет, и глас его слышиши, но не веси, откуду приходит, и камо идет. Тако есть всяк человек рожденный от Духа» (Ин. 3:8).

Молиться надобно и Господь подаст все, ибо Он благоподателен. Мало где отворится дверь сердца, сейчас и Он. Искреннее только и решительное желание надобно иметь и не смешивать дел; а уж одно, так одно. Пророк укоряет: «доколе вы храмлете на обе плесне вашы?» (3Цар. 18:21). И Апостол: «муж двоедушен неустроен во всех путех своих» (Иак. 1:8).

И Господь: «не можете Богу работати и мамон» (Лк. 16:13). Уж одно, так одно. «Мария благую часть избра. Едино есть на потребу» (Лк. 10:42). Когда придет эта объединяющая все стремления сила, тогда откуда что возмется. Все пойдет исправно.

Помолимся, чтоб Господь дал нам сию силу.

Много бывает добра у иных людей, но оно разбито, раздроблено, разбросано, как части разбитаго стекляннаго сосуда. Придет огонь и сольет из них сосуд в честь, разварив их прежде собою.

Вы спрашиваете, что значит: зажечь беду вокруг себя? Это глубокое чувство опасности своего положения и опасности крайней, от коей нет инаго спасения, как в Господе Иисусе Христе. Сие чувство и будет гнать нас к Господу и заставит непрестанно вопиять: помоги, защити! Оно было у всех святых и никогда их не оставляло. Противное ему есть чувство довольства своим положением, которое упокоивает человека и погашает в нем всякую заботу о спасении. Сыт, – и что еще? Не память только грехов я разумел, а вообще чувство, что деваться некуда, кроме Господа.

Вам нечего рассказывать на исповеди? Это оттого, что вы праведны. Будем молиться, чтоб Господь сделал вас грешницею, то есть, чтоб пришел к вам мытарев глас: «Боже, милостив буди мне грешной!» Молитесь: «даруй ми зрети моя прегрешения. .» А между тем трудитесь и навыкайте ходить пред Господом. По мере навыка в сем начнете сходить со ступеней праведности к среде, где грешники. .

. и когда вступите в число их, тогда и перечислить не возможете всех грехов. Не дело только есть грех; но и мысли, чувства и желания бывают грешные. Последния не видны; ибо нет ока, смотрящаго в сердце: вот и праведность. Оку тому нельзя смотреть, когда его засыпают суетою, как пылью. Ходить пред Господом значит не отрывать от Него своего внимания; – это цель. А немного подумать о Нем и бросить, это не то. Когда тò придет, то Господь станет судить мысли и помышления.

Вот и откроются грехи, и тут столько их будет, что беда!

Молитва, размышление, чтение, все это предметы разные.

Молитва, болезненное к Богу припадание в сокрушении и смирении. Она может быть, говорят, и без поклонов. Например по нужде, в присутствии других, на пути; большею же частию она неразлучна с поклонами. Поклоны след внутренней молитвы.

Чтение и размышление идут вместе; могут подготовить к молитве и оставаться праздными. Но сами они не молитва, и заменить ее не могут. Чтению предел тот, чтоб дойти до предмета, который бы оковал внимание и остановил на себе одном. Тоже и размышлению. И тут переход к молитве или даже к молитвенному состоянию надолго. Хорошо утром после молитвы добиваться до сего чтением. Читать понемногу. .

. Чтение с теплотою еще не то. . . Там, в молитвенном состоянии, прекращается чтение, и ум станет и не колыхнется, и хорошо ему бывает. Понудьте себя читать молитвы, кои показал священник. Они дверь. Как войдешь внутрь не отворивши двери?

Одолейте скуку. Их немного. Помышляйте, что читая их вы Господу говорите слово, которое Он слышит. Можно заучить сии молитвы и читать на память, внятно сердцу и Господу. Только надобно одолеть себя. Господь вам помощник!

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩2Tim.3.15 — and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
  2. ↩John.3.8 — The Spirit blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
  3. ↩John.3.8 — The Spirit blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
  4. ↩John.3.8 — The Spirit blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
  5. ↩Rev.3.20 — Look, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to them and eat with them, and they with me.
  6. ↩Luke.10.42 — Few things are needed, or only one. For Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.
  7. ↩Gen.17.1;Mic.6.8 — When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, 'I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless.' Mic.6.8 — He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
  8. ↩Heb.4.12 — For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
  9. ↩Ps.27.9;Heb.13.6 — Do not hide your face from me; do not turn your servant away in anger. You have been my help; do not forsake me, and do not abandon me, God of my salvation. Heb.13.6 — So we say with confidence, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?'

Notes

  1. 1 ↩«а уж одно, так одно» is an idiomatic insistence on undivided choice: if the aim is one, keep it wholly one (echoed again in the next section against serving two masters).
  2. 2 ↩Russian «3Цар.» is 3 Kingdoms in the Slavic Bible, equivalent to 1 Kings in standard English numbering.
  3. 3 ↩Уж одно, так одно is a compressed colloquial insistence on undivided single-mindedness after the double-mindedness warnings; rendered as wholehearted commitment to one aim, not mere numerical singularity.
  4. 4 ↩откуда что возмется is an idiomatic assurance of unexpected provision/sufficiency once the unifying power arrives, not a claim that help appears from no cause.
  5. 5 ↩«Сосуд в честь» echoes the biblical idiom of a vessel for honor (cf. Rom 9:21; 2 Tim 2:20–21). «Разварив … собою» is rendered as thorough melting by the fire itself; the image is of purifying heat re-casting broken pieces into one vessel.
  6. 6 ↩Ironic pastoral force: 'you're righteous' names self-satisfied righteousness, not true holiness—the foil for the publican's cry in the next sentence.
  7. 7 ↩Russian uses feminine forms (грешницею / грешной), addressing a woman; English 'sinner' keeps the sense without awkward gendering. 'Make you a sinner' means grant true self-knowledge as a sinner, not lead into sin.
  8. 8 ↩Source opens a Church Slavonic prayer quotation without a closing mark in this sentence (closing falls on s5). Rendering keeps the incomplete quote boundary as segmented.
  9. 9 ↩Not a fall into moral corruption: by learning to walk before the Lord, the reader leaves the high steps of self-righteousness and joins those who know themselves as sinners (publican vs. Pharisee pattern).
  10. 10 ↩«вот и праведность» is ironic: apparent righteousness comes from unseen interior sins going unnoticed, not from true holiness.
  11. 11 ↩«суета» rendered as vanity in the biblical sense of empty worldly bustle, not mere conceit.
  12. 12 ↩«тò» (то) points back to the goal just named—true walking before the Lord with unbroken attention—not to a generic future event.
  13. 13 ↩праздными: idle/empty/fruitless — rendered as 'idle' for the sense that reading and reflection may stay barren rather than lead into prayer.
  14. 14 ↩предел: bound/limit/goal — rendered as 'limit' in the sense of the proper end-point of reading, not a restriction against reading.
  15. 15 ↩оковал внимание: lit. 'would chain/fetter the attention' — rendered as 'seizes the attention' for natural contemporary force while keeping the captivating sense.
  16. 16 ↩молитвенному состоянию: not merely saying prayers, but an interior prayerful condition that can last.
  17. 17 ↩добиваться до сего: strive to reach / work toward this — 'this' points back to the seized attention and transition into prayer described above.
  18. 18 ↩«еще не то» points back to true prayer/prayerful state, not mere warm reading; rendered as 'the real thing' to keep Feofan's plain contrast without inventing a fuller predicate.
  19. 19 ↩«Внятно» here means distinctly/attentively—spoken so that both the heart and the Lord take it in, not mere mutter.

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