Письмо 9
The Vanity of Human Schemes
We must accept God's providence in all things, recognizing that relying on our own cleverness is as fragile as a spider's web.
May God's will be done! And may His good will be accomplished over you as well.✦ Believe, and hold deep in your heart, that nothing happens without God—not even the smallest thing. With Him, everything is accounted for.1 Our duty is to turn everything toward the salvation of the soul and to draw spiritual benefit for ourselves from everything. In this lies all our wisdom. But as for arranging your own life, no one has yet managed that by their own cleverness alone.2 It is all like a spider's web.✦
Resting in the Hands of God
True strength is found not in our own efforts, but in resting like an infant in the shelter of God's care.
The poor man weaves and weaves; a wind blows, and it all flies apart. But when the Lord weaves it, it is solid. It is fine, yet strong—like a cable.3 Blessed is the soul that has come to rest in God's hands!4 Like an infant at its mother's breast, it rests under the Lord's shelter. It is hard to understand this—and harder still to feel it.5 May the Lord help you! The one who falls before God with an aching heart is never forgotten.6
Read the original Russian
Буди воля Божия! И над вами да совершается воля Его благая. Веруйте и глубоко в сердце содержите, что ничто без Бога не бывает, до самой малости. Все у Него расчитано. Наш долг все обращать во спасение души и из всего извлекать себе пользу душевную. В этом вся наша мудрость. А как устроить себя, еще никто сам собою не ухитрился. Все как паутина.
Плетет, плетет, бедный человек; дунет ветер, и все разлетится. А как Господь соткет, так уж прочно. И тонко, да крепко, как канат. Блаженна душа почившая на руках Божиих! Как младенец у груди матерней, покоится она под кровом Господа. Уразуметь, а паче восчувствовать сие трудно. Господь да поможет вам! Болезненно к Богу припадающий не бывает забыт.
Scripture echoes
Notes
- 1 ↩Source has расчитано (likely рассчитано): 'reckoned/calculated/accounted for'—divine providence as deliberate ordering, not cold arithmetic.
- 2 ↩ухитрился carries a wry sense of contriving by cleverness; the point is human self-ordering without God fails.
- 3 ↩Russian «тонко, да крепко» holds both fineness/delicacy and strength; «канат» is a thick rope/cable, not a thin thread.
- 4 ↩«почившая» can mean at rest (including repose in death) or having settled into rest; following context of the living soul at rest under the Lord favors interior repose, not primarily death.
- 5 ↩«восчувствовать» is stronger than mere feeling: to take it in experientially, to sense it from within.
- 6 ↩«Болезненно» is soul-pain/ache more than physical illness; «припадающий» is falling down before God in petition or prostration.
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