Письмо 90
The Danger of Distraction
The author warns against the spiritual instability caused by excessive busyness and lack of focus.
Save yourselves! Watch out, or you'll get into trouble. You've gotten yourselves all worked up with busyness. It's time to settle down and take your proper place, or else all the parts will be shaken loose.1 There will be no stability in your affairs.
Reverence for Divine Providence
The author rebukes the recipient for murmuring against God's providence and treating spiritual matters with frivolity.
Because of what you thought about God's providence—those stirrings of murmuring—you are subject to penance.2 How can you allow such thoughts? This is simply blasphemy—and right to the Lord's face. If you didn't know a single letter of the alphabet, that would be another matter; but as it is, you seem already able to read by syllables—and still you let such absurdities into your head!3 You can't joke about this. Thoughts about God are a serious matter, for they all take place before His eyes. How can you be frivolous about that! Well then, what is this—N.?4
Guarding the Heart and Tongue
The author provides practical counsel on avoiding harmful associations and the destructive habit of gossip.
N. ? I don't assume she has any good disposition of heart. When she spreads darkness with her talk, it means what she said didn't come from a good source. Drop her.5 . . Or, if you do talk with her, never discuss other people's character.6 What a low occupation—weaving gossip? As for you, get a pin and always carry it with you. As soon as your tongue starts gossiping too, prick it without mercy.
Read the original Russian
Спасайтесь! Смотрите, не попасть бы в беду. Захлопотались вы. Пора остепениться и стать в должный чин, а то расколыхаются все составы. Прочности не будет в делах.
Что вы о промышлении Божием думали (движения ропота), за то подлежите епитимии. Как можно допускать такия мысли? Тут просто хула и – прямо Господу в глаза. Добро бы вы и аза в глаза не знали, другое дело; а то, кажется, уже и по складам разбираете, между тем такия нелепости пускаете в голову! Шутить ведь этим нельзя. Помышления о Боге – великое дело, ибо они все совершаются пред Его очами. Как тут легкомысленничать! Ну, а это что такое – N.
N. ? Добраго настроения сердца в ней не предполагаю. Когда навела мрак речами своими, значит, то, что было говорено, исходило не из хорошаго источника. Бросьте ее. . . или ведите с нею речи, никогда не касаясь личности других.
Что за скаредное занятие – пересуды сплетать? Вы же заготовьте себе булавку и всегда носите ее с собою. Как только и ваш язык начнет пересуды, колите его нещадно.
Notes
- 1 ↩«стать в должный чин» = stand in due order/rank (proper spiritual station); «составы» may mean faculties, members, or the ordered components of life—rendered as “parts” for natural force without over-specifying.
- 2 ↩епитимии: Orthodox canonical penance (epitimia); rendered as 'penance'.
- 3 ↩аза в глаза не знали / по складам разбираете: Russian literacy idioms—total ignorance of the letter A vs. already reading syllable by syllable.
- 4 ↩N. is a redacted personal name/initial in the printed letter, not a corrupt reading; left as in source.
- 5 ↩Бросьте ее: imperative to break off association with her (not physical discarding). Rendered as 'Drop her' in the sense of leave off the relationship.
- 6 ↩личности других: 'persons/characters of others' — here the sense is personal affairs or reputations (gossip targets), not 'personality' in the modern psychological sense.
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