Письмо 42
Inner Strength Amidst Suffering
The author encourages the recipient to look past outward distress to the inner spiritual growth occurring within.
What’s this you’ve said—that you’re broken in both soul and body? You have the Mother of God there, so it’s hard to believe you’re so distressed; maybe you simply don’t notice the inner building that’s happening alongside the outer ruin. The dust from the latter keeps you from noticing the former. May the Lord strengthen you!
Discerning Truth in Controversy
The author reflects on the necessity of engaging with Western theological errors while maintaining a clear, humble perspective.
Thank you for the book (a foreign one, against the Orthodox Church). So the time is coming for us, too, to enter into open controversy with the West. The Latins continually lift high their proud eye.1 Self-deluded confidence won’t let them attend to the truth. Plain common sense can see the falsehood both of their claim to supremacy and of their view of the origin of the Holy2 their new dogma, and everything else. By the Latins' own admission, all these novelties took shape from the eleventh century onward. And the book says as much, only with a twisted reading of it.3 You can't retell it all, though.
The Call to Spiritual Commitment
The author urges the recipient to replace worldly attachments with dedicated spiritual bonds to ensure progress in the monastic life.
In a quiet monastery, all you need to do is pray. You mentioned that you're cut off from worldly bonds. So hurry to bind yourself with spiritual ones, so it doesn't turn out that you've left one shore and never reached the other.4
Read the original Russian
Что это вы сказали, что разбиты и душею и телом? У вас там Матерь Божия, потому не верится, что вы расстроены, а, может быть, только не замечаете созидания внутренняго в одно время с разорением внешним. Пыль от последняго не дает заметить перваго. Господь да укрепит вас! Благодарствую за книгу (иностранная, против православной Церкви). Вот и нам приходит срок вступать в открытую полемику с Западом. Латины выну высят гордое око свое. Самообольщенная уверенность не дает им внимать истине.
Простой смысл видит ложь и главенства их, и мнения о происхождении Св. Духа, и новаго их догмата, и прочаго всего. Все сии новизны, по сознанию самих латин, сформировались с XI-го века. И в книге это значится, только с кривотолком. Всего впрочем не перескажешь.
В тихой обители вам только молиться. Вы помянули, что отрезаны от мирских уз. Поспешите же связать себя духовными, чтоб не вышло: – от одного берега отстали, а к другому не пристали.
Notes
- 1 ↩выну is Church Slavonic for 'always/continually'; высят гордое око свое has a biblical register (haughty/proud eye).
- 2 ↩Sentence is truncated mid-phrase (Св.); continuation is in FeofanPisma.1.42.2.s2 (Духа...). Rendered so the two halves read as one thought when taken together.
- 3 ↩кривотолк = distorted/twisted interpretation or misconstruction; rendered as 'twisted reading'.
- 4 ↩духовными elliptically continues уз from the previous sentence: worldly bonds → spiritual bonds. The closing clause is the Russian proverbial image of leaving one bank without reaching the other.
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