Письмо 51
Ascending with Christ in Prayer
The author encourages the reader to fix their mind on the ascended Christ and recommends spiritual reading for deepening the interior life.
You have ascended in glory, O Christ our God. Happy feast day—peace to you! But where the Lord is, seated at the right hand of God—✦1 .2 .3 there we too need to sit with our mind.✦4 I just happened to open the Life of Father Seraphim to the page where that soul-saving story is written, and before that section, there's also something on the Jesus Prayer. How good they both are!
The Labor of the Heart
Practical instruction on the Jesus Prayer and the pursuit of divine grace in the heart.
Make the effort to read it through, and keep reading. The whole course is here; everything is laid out. May the Lord bless your labor—still physical for now—so that you may move on to the prayer of the mind; train yourselves to count the knots on the prayer rope, but only with the prayer formula!5 Mother of God, be their helper.6 I wish you deep peace. May that fire which the Lord came to cast upon the earth take root in the soil of your heart.✦ Pray for this, and seek this!✦ Bless them, Lord!
Postscript and Further Reading
The author concludes with a brief note regarding additional instructional articles.
P.7 Along with this, there are six more articles, from the 4th through the 9th inclusive.8 I didn't manage to finish everything.
Read the original Russian
Вознесся еси во славе, Христе, Боже наш. С праздником, мир вам! Но идеже есть Господь одесную Бога седя. . . там умом присидеть потребно и нам. Сейчас невзначай развернул жизнь отца Серафима в том месте, где помещена душеспасительная повесть, а пред сею статьею и о молитве Иисусовой. Как хорошо то и другое!
Потрудитесь прочитать и читать. Тут весь курс, все указано. Господь да благословит труд ваш, пока вещественный, чтоб перейти к умному; навыкайте же считать узелки в четках, только с приговором! Матерь Божия, буди вам помощница. Мира вам глубокаго желаю. Огнь оный, что Господь пришел воврещи на землю, да внедрится в земле сердца вашего. О сем молитесь и сего ищите! Благослови вас, Господи!
P. S. При сем еще шесть статей, от 4-й до 9-й включительно. Не успел всего кончить.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Mark.16.19;Col.3.1;Heb.1.3 — So then, after the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. Col.3.1 — If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Heb.1.3 — He is the radiance of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's own being, and he upholds all things by his powerful word. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
- ↩Col.3.1 — If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
- ↩Luke.12.49 — I came to cast fire upon the earth, and what do I wish? If only it were already kindled!
- ↩Matt.6.33;Matt.7.7 — But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matt.7.7 — Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
Notes
- 1 ↩Church Slavonic construction (идеже...седя) reads as a relative clause pointing to the place of Christ's session; the trailing dash reflects that the thought continues in s6 after empty s4–s5.
- 2 ↩Source sentence is only a period; no recoverable wording.
- 3 ↩Source sentence is only a period; no recoverable wording.
- 4 ↩присидеть means to sit near / keep attentive company; rendered as spiritual abiding of the mind with Christ at the Father's right hand, not physical sitting.
- 5 ↩«вещественный» / «умному» pairs bodily/material prayer practice with noetic (mental-heart) prayer. «приговором» is the spoken prayer formula said with each knot (typically the Jesus Prayer).
- 6 ↩Slavonic «буди» is a solemn imperative/blessing form; rendered as direct address to the Mother of God.
- 7 ↩Epistolary abbreviation; with the following 'S.' this is almost certainly the split form of P.S. (postscript). Left as in the source.
- 8 ↩'S.' continues the postscript formula (P.S.). 'Статей' rendered as 'articles' (numbered pieces/items of instruction), which fits the letter's instructional context.
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