Письмо 48
The Necessity of Single-Minded Devotion
A call to live with undivided loyalty to God, avoiding the spiritual fragmentation that comes from serving two masters.
I thought that N. N.1 would get angry with me, but she did something else; truly, she's kind and humble! Save us, Lord!✦ Without the fear of God, you can't do anything. It's a bad thing to live a scattered life.2 What does it mean to work for two masters? So it has to be one thing or the other. If you go this way and that, nothing will come of it.✦ Light and darkness can't coexist. I wish you peace from the Lord.
The Crisis of Faith in the Modern Age
The author laments the secularization of the educated generation and the urgent need to address the decline of Orthodox faith.
Do you have any idea how bleak my thoughts are? And there's good reason for it. I meet people who call themselves Orthodox, but in spirit are Voltairians, naturalists, Lutherans, and freethinkers of every stripe.3 They've gone through every branch of study in our higher schools. They aren't stupid or wicked, but when it comes to the faith and the Church, they're useless. Their parents were devout; the corruption took hold while they were away at school, removed from their home life. The memory of their childhood and their parents' spirit still keeps them within certain limits. What will their own children be like? ! And what will keep them within proper bounds? From this I conclude that in one generation—two at most—our Orthodoxy will dry up.4 So what then? Sit with our hands folded?5 No—something has to be done!
A Call for Intellectual Defense
The author proposes the creation of apologetic literature to combat the influence of secular ideologies.
Evil principles have infiltrated both the sciences and life itself; we lack books that could bring those still capable of coming to their senses back to reason. . . We need fiery books of defense against every kind of evil.6 We should appoint writers and oblige them to write.7
Read the original Russian
Думал, что N. N. рассердится на меня, а она другое сделала; верно, добрая и смиренная! Спаси, Господи! Без страха Божия ничего сделать нельзя. Врассыпную жить худо. Двум господам работать – что есть? Так уж одно что-нибудь.
Кто туда и сюда, – толку не будет. Свет и тьма вместе не уживутся. Мира вам от Господа желаю.
Знаете ли, какия у меня безотрадные есть мысли? И не без основания. Встречаю людей, числящихся Православными, кои по духу Волтериане, Натуралисты, Лютеране и всякаго рода вольнодумцы. Они прошли все науки в наших высших заведениях. И не глупы, и не злы, но относительно к вере и Церкви никуда негожи. Отцы их и матери были благочестивы; порча вошла в период образования вне родительскаго дома. Память о детстве и духе родителей еще держит их в некоторых пределах. Каковы будут их собственные дети?
! И что тех будет держать в должных пределах? Заключаю отсюда, что чрез поколение, много чрез два, иссякнет наше Православие. Что ж? сидеть, поджавши руки? Нет, надо что-нибудь делать!
Злыя начала вошли в науки и в жизнь; у нас нет книг, читая которыя, можно бы образумиться тем, кои еще способны к образумлению. . . Нужны жаркия книги защитительные против всех злостей. Следует нарядить писак и обязать их писать.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.8.25;Ps.12.1 — And they came to him, woke him, saying, 'Lord, save us! We are perishing!' Ps.12.1 — To the choirmaster: according to The Sheminith. A Psalm of David.
- ↩Matt.6.24 — No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Notes
- 1 ↩Likely the second initial of a traditional Russian name placeholder N. N., continuous with the preceding sentence.
- 2 ↩Врассыпную: scattered, dispersed, without a single settled order of life—not merely 'busy'.
- 3 ↩Волтериане = followers of Voltaire's skeptical freethinking; Натуралисты = philosophical naturalists, not natural scientists; вольнодумцы = freethinkers in the pejorative religious sense.
- 4 ↩чрез поколение, много чрез два: idiomatic 'in a generation, two at most / or at most two'; иссякнет: 'run dry / dry up / be exhausted' of a living stream of Orthodoxy.
- 5 ↩сидеть, поджавши руки — Russian idiom for sitting idle / doing nothing (literally 'with arms tucked under').
- 6 ↩жаркия books: rendered as 'fiery' (ardent, hard-hitting), not temperature-hot; защитительные as defensive/apologetic books.
- 7 ↩писак is colloquial for hired pens/writers; нарядить carries the sense of commissioning or assigning them to the task.
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