Письмо 53
The Real Presence
The author defends the literal, life-giving reality of the Eucharist against Calvinist allegorizing.
Who was it that spoke so absurdly about the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ? That idea is Calvinist. But according to Orthodoxy, this is how you must believe! Whoever doesn't eat the Lord's Body and drink His Blood has no life in him.1 Who abides in the Lord? The one who eats His Flesh and drinks His Blood.2 There is nothing unclear here, and no allegory of any kind. This is how everyone who has been saved in the Lord has believed, and this is how we too ought to believe.
The Illusion of Consolation
True spiritual consolation cannot exist apart from the Lord, who cannot enter an unbelieving heart.
People who don't understand and refuse to look carefully will say just about anything! And they even talk about some kind of consolation! But how is it supposed to come to them? The Lord won't enter an unbelieving heart, even though He stands at the door and knocks—and apart from the Lord, what consolations are there? Poor souls, poor souls.
The Duty of Witness
Believers are called to speak the truth simply and from the heart, trusting in the Lord's power to accompany their words.
But don't stay silent. There's no need to get heated, but it's our duty to state the truth briefly and simply and to speak up for it. And a voice raised for it is no small thing. With it is the Lord, and where the Lord is, there is God's power too—and so, action as well.3 Speak it from the heart. Then it will be the most convincing truth.4
The Edification of Holy Reading
Reading the lives of saints and accounts like the aerial toll-houses softens the heart and turns the soul toward God.
So you've read the account of the aerial toll-houses.5 Where will you find anything like it? It's both sweet and edifying. You'll find nearly the whole of church history in the Cheti-Minei, and it all has that same character.6 It sobers you, softens the heart, and turns you toward God.7
Read the original Russian
Кто же это так нелепо говорил о таинстве Тела и Крови Христовой. Мысль эта кальвинская. А по православному вот как надо веровать! Кто не вкусит Тела Господня и не пиет Крови Его, живота не имать в себе. Кто в Господе пребывает? ядый Плоть Его и пияй Кровь Его. Тут нет ничего неяснаго и никакого иносказания. Так веровали все спасшиеся о Господе, так веровать подобает и нам.
Мало ли чего не наговорят не понимающие и не хотящие вникнуть! И еще толкуют про какое-то утешение! Откуда же оно зайдет к ним? Господь не взойдет в сердце неверующее, хоть стоит у дверей и толчет, а вне Господа какия утешения? Бедные, бедные!
Но не молчите! нет нужды горячиться; но кратко и просто сказать истину, подать за нее голос есть долг наш. И голос за нее – не малое дело. С ним Господь, а где Господь, там и сила Божия, стало быть, и действие. Говорите ее от сердца. Это будет тогда самая доказательная истина!
Вот вы читали повествование о мытарствах. Где найдете что подобное? И сладостно, и назидательно. В четьи минеях вся почти церковная история и вся она такого свойства. Отрезвляет, умиляет и к Богу обращает.
Notes
- 1 ↩Church Slavonic scriptural diction (вкусит / пиет / живота не имать) rendered in modern English while keeping Eucharistic specificity and the force of John 6.
- 2 ↩Slavonic participles ядый / пияй kept as a plain present participial answer; Flesh/Blood capitalized for Eucharistic gravity.
- 3 ↩действие rendered as 'action' (effective working); could also be 'effect' or 'operation' depending on whether the emphasis is on divine agency or its result.
- 4 ↩доказательная: 'most convincing' preferred over stiff 'most demonstrative'/'most evidentiary'; force is persuasive proof, not mere rhetorical flourish.
- 5 ↩мытарства: Orthodox teaching on the soul's post-death trials, conventionally rendered in English as 'aerial toll-houses' (or simply 'toll-houses').
- 6 ↩четьи минеи (Cheti-Minei): the Reading Menaion / Lives of the Saints for daily reading (classically St. Dimitry of Rostov's collection). Kept as Cheti-Minei rather than paraphrased only as 'Lives of the Saints,' which can understate the fixed calendar corpus.
- 7 ↩умиляет: not mere sentimentality; the sense is a tender, grace-touched softening of the heart (often near compunction), rendered here as 'softens the heart.'
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