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← Letters on the Christian Life/Book 1 · Письма о христианской жизни
Chapter 58FeofanPisma.1.58

Письмо 58

The Interior Life and Self-Mastery

The soul must move beyond the fog of worldly desires to find its true center in God.

Let everything be as it comes. Our part is to yield to necessity and serve what is useful—but why give free rein to whims? We need to be masters of ourselves. That is what we were created for, and that is what the Lord recreated us for!1 We have two sides: the undefined stream of desires and thoughts, and consciously free and rational activity. The latter must scatter the darkness of the former. That first side settles over the soul like a fog, and if the soul doesn't come to its senses and take its proper place, it can be drawn into empty, useless, and sometimes harmful deeds and occupations.2 We have only one law: to strive as far as we can for that state in which everything vanishes from the soul and God alone remains.

The Discipline of Self-Compulsion

Spiritual progress requires both divine grace and the active, disciplined effort of the believer.

Oh, if only the Lord would help! Let us pray: He is ready for loving communion.3 Let us open the door of our heart and mind to Him.✦ As for binding, He does not bind.4 Each person must also do something themselves: you must compel yourself. These efforts of self-compulsion don't concern external works alone—for example, getting up, going to church, and so on— but rather the interior ones: namely, to incline yourself toward one thing and draw yourself away from another—all according to the commandment’s direction and the demand of the life you have begun. Life teaches that, too.5 Only upon this self-forcing does God's help then come as well, and it orders both the inner activity and the outward conduct. May the Lord help you. It's good to go to church regularly; at home, keep everything in its proper order: when to read, when to pray, and when to work.6 But you must avoid amusements, especially noisy ones, in every way; they destroy the soul's peace and sow bad desires. That is what you encountered at N. N. It was good.

Humility and the Stranger's Path

External trials are necessary to strip away pride and help us live as pilgrims on earth.

If only there were more moments like that! There you saw that you're good for nothing, and felt like someone cast aside. You need to nurture and stir up that feeling within yourself, so that you may truly become strangers and sojourners on the earth.✦ How? Through occasions just like these. When left to ourselves, we keep singing our own praises and see ourselves in too rosy a light.✦ But then they blow that little fog clean away!

Discernment in Learning and Friendship

One must exercise caution in intellectual pursuits and carefully test the quality of one's acquaintances.

That part is good; but as for some woman philosopher and some philosopher getting to know each other, I don't know whether that's good. You can't tell yet; you'll see for yourselves later. If they want to know the truth, tell them with humility what you know; but if they only want to be with you for pleasant pastime, then it's better to leave them alone. Astronomy isn't a difficult subject; you can learn what is available to everyone just by reading. Look for Naum's book on God's world.7 Everything is written there, and even a simple peasant will understand it. In the kinds of books coming out nowadays, you can easily get confused. The trouble is that our astronomers tack their own theories onto the facts, and for the most part, they confuse things and fall into falsehoods that contradict the Word of God. That is something you need to watch out for. It's already settled: you should only form an acquaintance when you're sure of like-mindedness and a shared purpose; otherwise, multiplying acquaintances is nothing but ruin. How many you have! N.8 N.9 N.10 N.11 and so on. and of people like that, a hundred if you like, or even more than you can count.12 Numbers don't matter here: they're all one, and even if there's no room to fit a finger, there's still plenty of room for everyone. Don't count someone among your friends until you've tested them first.

Overcoming Spiritual Negligence

A call to vigilance against spiritual coldness and a reminder to cry out to God in times of dryness.

But this still isn't really the important thing; there's something more serious. You write: "I barely pray at all; honestly, I'm negligent; I read, and the book slips from my hands." So what is this—have you fallen asleep? After all, you mustn't let cases like these pass by carelessly. You need to stir a little fear in yourself and give your memory a shake. It's good that afterward your soul softened a little in church; otherwise, trouble wouldn't be far off. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Of course, a state of this kind...13 In other words,14 it is a kind of wild recklessness of the soul, and it isn't entirely in our power; still, you mustn't remain indifferent to it in any way, but at the very least, cry out to the Lord and to Our Lady.1516 But it seems we've already talked about this more than once!

Read the original Russian

Пусть будет все, как придется. Наше дело – уступать нужде и удовлетворять пользе, а блажь-то что распускать? Владыками нужно быть над самими собою. На то мы созданы, на то и воссозданы Господом! Есть у нас две стороны: неопределенное течение желаний и помышлений и сознательно свободная и разумная деятельность. Последняя должна рассевать мрак первой. Та, как туман какой, налегает на душу, и если душа не образумится и не станет в свой чин, то может быть увлечена к пустым, бесполезным, а иногда вредным делам и занятиям. Закон то у нас один: добиваться, сколько можно, того состояния, в коем из души исчезает все, и остается Бог един.

О, когда бы помог Господь! помолимся: Он любообщителен. Отверзем Ему дверь сердца и ума. Связывать, Он не связывает. Всякий твори и сам нечто, понудь себя. Сии понуждения не внешних только дел касаются, напр. , встать, пойти в церковь, и проч. , но паче внутренних, именно: к одному себя расположить, а от другаго отвлечь, все по указанию заповеди и требованию начатой жизни.

Ведь и она учит. На сие только понуждение приходит потом и помощь Божия и упорядочивает и внутреннюю деятельность, и внешнее поведение. Помоги вам, Господи! В церковь хòдите, – хорошо; и дома по чину все да будет: когда почитать, когда помолиться, когда поработать. Но развлечений, а паче шумных, всячески бегать надобно: они губят покой души и засеменяют худыя желания. Вот то, что вы встретили у N. N. , было хорошо.

Побольше бы таких случаев! Там вы увидели, что никуда не гожи, и были, как заброшенная. Сие чувство надо согреть и возвысить в себе, чтобы воистину соделаться странниками и пришельцами на земле. Как? Вот подобными случаями. Ибо сами-то мы все трубим пред собою и являемся себе в слишком радужном сиянии. А тут пораздуют туманец-то сей!

Так это хорошо; а то, что какая-то философка и какой-то философ познакомились, не знаю, хорошо ли. Теперь не видно, после сами увидите. Если они захотят знать истину, со смирением скажите им, что знаете, а если хотят быть с вами только так, ради приятнаго препровождения времени, то лучше оставить их. Астрономия – вещь немудреная: можно и посредством чтения узнать доступное для всех. Поищите книгу Наума о мире Божием. Там все написано, – и мужичек поймет. В выходящих в настоящее время книгах такого рода можно запутаться. То беда, что астрономы наши к фактам приплетают свои теории и большею частию путают и попадают в ложь, противную Слову Божию.

Сего надобно опасаться.

Дело уже решенное, что заводить знакомство надо только по уверенности в единомыслии и единонамерении, а без этого, умножение знакомств есть только разорение. Сколько у вас! N. N. N. N. , и пр. , да таких хоть сотню, хоть счету не будь.

Тут число ничего не значит: все, как один, и хоть пальца негде поставить, а всем просторно. Не испытавши, в приятели помещать не приходится.

Но это не совсем еще важная вещь; есть поважнее. Пишете: «молюсь едва только; так, по совести, с нерадением; читаю, книга валится из рук». Что ж это вы заснули? Ведь не надо же сих случаев пропускать небрежно. Страху себе надобно поддать немножко, память пошевелить. Хорошо, что после умягчилась немного душа в церкви, а то до беды не далеко. Со страхом и трепетом соделывайте свое спасение. Конечно, что такого рода состояние, т.

е. , некоторая оголтелость души, и не совсем в нашей власти; всячески однакож не следует оставаться при нем равнодушною, а, по крайней мере, вопиять Господу и Владычице. Но о сем, кажется, уже была не раз речь!

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Rev.3.20 — Look, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to them and eat with them, and they with me.
  2. ↩1Pet.2.11;Heb.11.13;Ps.39.12 — Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the fleshly desires that wage war against the soul. Heb.11.13 — By faith these all died, not having received the promises, but having seen them from afar and having greeted them, and having confessed that they are strangers and exiles on the earth. Ps.39.12 — With rebukes for iniquity you discipline a person, and you make what is precious to him melt away like a moth; surely every mortal is only a breath. Selah.
  3. ↩Matt.6.2 — So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by people. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩воссозданы (recreated/remade) points to restoration in Christ, not a second physical creation.
  2. 2 ↩чин rendered as 'proper place' (order/rank); also could be 'station' or 'ordered role'.
  3. 3 ↩любообщителен is Feofan’s compound for a God who is free and ready to share Himself in love; rendered as ‘ready for loving communion,’ not mere sociability.
  4. 4 ↩Связывать here means coerce or force, not sacramental binding; the point is that God does not compel the will.
  5. 5 ↩Russian она is feminine; the nearest natural referents are the life already begun (начатая жизнь) or the commandment (заповедь) from the preceding sentence. Rendered as 'that life' by continuity with 'требованию начатой жизни.'
  6. 6 ↩по чину means by a fixed order/rule/schedule of life, not mere social etiquette; rendered as 'proper order.'
  7. 7 ↩Russian «мире Божием» here, after talk of astronomy, is taken as God's world/creation (cosmos), not «peace».
  8. 8 ↩N. is the conventional anonymized name placeholder in the Russian letter text, not a full sentence.
  9. 9 ↩N. is the conventional anonymized name placeholder in the Russian letter text, not a full sentence.
  10. 10 ↩N. is the conventional anonymized name placeholder in the Russian letter text, not a full sentence.
  11. 11 ↩N. is the conventional anonymized name placeholder in the Russian letter text, not a full sentence.
  12. 12 ↩Russian «хоть сотню, хоть счету не будь» is idiomatic: even a hundred, even if the counting never ends / no matter how many.
  13. 13 ↩Source ends mid-abbreviation at «т.»; next section begins with «е.», almost certainly completing «т.е.» (that is) and continuing the clause.
  14. 14 ↩Source fragment «е.» completes the split abbreviation «т.е.» begun in FeofanPisma.1.58.9.s8; rendered as the English connective sense “that is,”.
  15. 15 ↩«оголтелость» is strong and colloquial: brazen, unbridled recklessness or frenzied abandon of the soul, not mere dullness or laziness.
  16. 16 ↩«Владычице» is the traditional Orthodox title for the Mother of God (the Lady/Sovereign Lady); rendered “Our Lady” to keep Marian address without archaism.

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