Письмо 49
The Struggle Against Spiritual Sloth
The author encourages the reader to adopt disciplined prayer habits while lamenting the pervasive influence of worldly and demonic distractions.
What's going on with you now? Learn to make full prostrations.1 You should see how, in a well-ordered monastery, everyone comes forward from their places in good order and begins to make prostrations, or stands bowed, making the sign of the cross. But you seem a little lazy about it. Let us praise the Lord! Woe to us! Satan has entangled us, and we can't get free. He has laid down such tyrannical laws that we can barely stand it—and yet we follow them and carry them out diligently.2 How much poison! I think you know all of this.
Trusting in Divine Deliverance
The author urges the reader to endure current trials through prayer, trusting that God will intervene when the time is right, rather than relying on self-willed solutions.
You're bearing the brunt of all this. Endure it and pray. The Lord is almighty. You won't even notice how He flings you out of this whirlpool.3 You'll just look around and marvel at how it all works out. But again, that will happen only if it's needed. With our desires, born of self-love and self-pity, we can do ourselves no good, and we don't know how.4 How wonderful!5
A Prayer for Deliverance from Worldliness
The letter concludes with a lament over the state of the world and a fervent prayer for God to scatter the clouds of unbelief and grant peace.
And we take a lump of coal instead of gold. Ah!6 What bleak thoughts come at times! Where will our way of thinking, our literature, and our customs lead us! Your will be done, Lord, upon us.✦ With Your almighty right hand, scatter the cloud that hems us in—freethinking, unbelief, indifference, and self-indulgence on every side.7 May the Lord our God send you His peace!✦
Read the original Russian
Что-то теперь у вас творится? – Учитесь класть земные поклоны. Посмотрели бы, как в благоустроенном монастыре все чинно выступают из своих мест и начинают класть поклоны или стоят, наклонно крестясь. А вы что-то полениваетесь. Восхвалим Господа! Горе нам! запутал нас сатана и не можем выпутаться. Прописал такие тиранские законы, что мочи нет, а следуем им и исполняем их рачительно.
Сколько яду! Вы, думаю, все сие знаете.
Достается вам от всего этого. Терпите и молитесь. Господь всесилен. Не заметите, как вышвырнет из сего омута. Только оглянетесь и подивитесь, как все это устроится. Но опять это будет, если только будет нужно. Мы с своими желаниями, раждаемыми самолюбием и саможалением, ничего добраго себе сделать не можем и не умеем. Красно!
и берем уголек вместо золота. Уа! какия по временам безотрадные приходят мысли! К чему доведет нас наш образ мыслей, наша литература, наши обычаи! Буди воля Твоя, Господи, на нас. Всесильною десницею Твоею развей облежащий нас облак вольномыслия, неверия, равнодушия и самоуслаждения всесторонняго. Мир Свой да пошлет вам Господь Бог наш!
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.6.10;Luke.11.2 — Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Luke.11.2 — He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come."
- ↩John.14.27;Num.6.26 — Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Num.6.26 — The LORD lift up his face upon you and give you peace.
Notes
- 1 ↩«Земные поклоны» are full prostrations to the ground in Orthodox practice, not mere bows of the head.
- 2 ↩«Мочи нет» is idiomatic: no strength left / unbearable; not a literal medical claim. Subject is satan from the previous sentence.
- 3 ↩Subject of вышвырнет is implied from the previous sentence (the Lord).
- 4 ↩саможаление rendered as self-pity; самолюбие as self-love (self-regard), not mere vanity.
- 5 ↩Красно! is a brief exclamation (fine/splendid), here likely ironic, continued in the next section with taking a coal instead of gold.
- 6 ↩Russian «Уа!» is a short cry of dismay or disgust; rendered as a plain contemporary interjection rather than archaic «Alas!».
- 7 ↩«вольномыслие» rendered as freethinking (19th-c. skeptical/liberal free thought), not mere open-mindedness.
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