13 These are net available in English. Something similar could he read from the Prayer Book (p. 370): "Those who are preparing for Holy Communion…."

In a few words we have given directions about how a spiritual father should establish in penitents that disposition of soul — a disposition of repentance, faith and hope — with which confession becomes fruitful. But this is not enough. When they have noticed that the priest has pain in his heart for his children, the latter will also persistently expect from him guidance and directions for the correction of their life. In general this is the first demand of an awakened conscience. The Jews asked St. John the Baptist what they had to do in order to enter the Kingdom of Cod; both the rich youth and "a certain lawyer" asked about the same thing, about eternal life, when they drew near to Jesus, as did the three thousand witnesses of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles.

Russian people do not go to monastery elders for any other reason than to ask them directions on the path into the Kingdom of Heaven. When they met Fr. John of Kronstadt in railway stations, in church, in the street, they seized him by the cassock with the plea: "Batiushka, teach me not to swear, teach me not to quarrel with my wife; tell me if I should go to a monastery or get married*. It is difficult even for an experienced spiritual father to give intelligent answers to such unexpected questions amid a crowd of jostling people; but our spiritual fathers experience even greater difficulty at confession, even if it is unhurried. This is because most of them do not have spiritual experience, and have not endeavoured to borrow it from the Holy Fathers. At theological school the usual lay teacher could not teach them to do this, preferring to be not a servant of the Church, but a Titular Councilor, and thinking only of how to transfer from pastoral theology — a subject hateful to him since childhood — to civil history or at least to the Latin language.

What then should I read in order to acquire spiritual wisdom? Read much, but know that the principal means of learning are attention to oneself, checking on the life of one’s own soul, reverent prayer and observation, compassionate and full of love, of the souls surrounding you, of your flock, your family and your acquaintances.

But what should you read? First of all, read the Bible, concurrently from 1) Pentateuch and Kings, 2) from the Prophets and Wisdom Books and 3) from the New Testament. Read every day, for at least half an hour. If you make yourself read through the Bible twice in this way, then subsequently you will reread it at your own desire and inclination. Anyone who has read the Holy Bible three times cannot help becoming a religious philosopher and moralist.

However, this is important principally for the priest*s general spiritual development; there also exist patristic works directly relating to the guidance of penitents. But before you begin reading them I advise you to master the key to the understanding of spiritual life, i.e. to read the book The Path to Salvation by Bishop Theophan the Recluse (d. 1894), with attention and, I think, not just once; then start reading the Synaxarion. But do not read it in order in which it is written; if you will soon have to start hearing confessions, look in the table of contents and find articles which relate to human weaknesses and passions and teach how to struggle with them; such articles are listed at the end of the Synaxarion.

I am pointing out the primary importance of the Synaxarion for counseling penitents firstly, because most churches have this book, except for those built recently, but chiefly because this book, as well as the Limonarion of Sophronius of Jerusalem, or the Spiritual Meadow by? John Moschus, or similar collections of the "memorable sayings about the holy fathers," expounds the rules of piety in parables, as did the Savior, or in events from the lives of righteous men, which are more easily assimilated than direct advice, and are remembered longer, on the most part, for one’s whole life. I will give just one example. A monk who had long been fighting against temptations with terrible struggles became faint in spirit and started praying to God to lighten the cross which had been placed on him in life: "Is it really impossible for me to reach the Heavenly Kingdom and spiritual perfection with a less painful cross?" An Angel appeared and led him into a spacious upper room, on the walls of which hung many varied crosses: heavy? iron ones and lighter wooden ones; among both the former and the latter were some very? large crosses, some smaller and some very small. "The Lord has heard your prayer," said the Angel, "and permitted you to choose a cross for yourself."

"Do you suppose God will forgive me’, said the hermit, that I, after struggling for many years, am now taking for myself this, the smallest of the little wooden crosses?’’

Then the Angel said to him, ‘‘This is the very cross you have been hearing up to this day and which you considered too exhausting; all the other crosses are incomparably heavier." Then the monk understood his foolishness and offered repentance, realizing that the Lord never lays on people a burden beyond their strength; but a Christian must accept it submissively and pray for the help of divine grace.

If a priest assimilates the contents of similar stories in the Synaxarion and continuously reads at least this and a few other simple books, then he will learn quite thoroughly to guide Christians in their struggle with sins and passions. But there is a whole library of such spiritual cures. Such primarily is the collection of patristic writings in five volumes called the Philokalia, collected by the same Bishop Theophan the Recluse. The volumes of this can be obtained separately, and especially useful are the first two, in which the writings of the greatest ascetics are collected: Anthony, Pachomius, Isaiah and so on. One of the most highly developed themes in the fathers is the teaching about the eight chief passions of the human heart and struggling with them. If you cannot now obtain the Philokalia, those same fathers can be bought separately. Especially useful is the book of Sts. Barsanuphius and John, containing the "Answers" to the monks’ questions on matters of piety, and also the Ladder, by St. John, abbot of Mount Sinai, in which there is a special word or "epistle" "To Pastors."

Among more contemporary works there is "Advice to the Priest on Performing the Mystery of Confession" by Archbishop Platon of Kostroma, written sixty years ago, hut this advice is somewhat formal and scholastic. More practical are the exemplary "Questions to Penitents" by Metropolitan Jonah, Exarch of Georgia, which many spiritual fathers in monasteries had in manuscript, and it is unlikely that they remained unpublished.

However, the priest should be concerned not so much with having the printed material for guidance through confession in perfect readiness, as with immersing his attention in this field of spiritual pathology and therapy, which is revealed by the holy ascetics. Then he will add to it his own independent activity, wiIl make use of the Fathers’ experience consciously and adapt it to those states of soul which his parishioners will reveal to him at confession and in general in spiritual talks.

In our academy lectures on pastoral theology, we gave instructions about how to give edifying advice at confession to people with various dispositions and from various walks of life. Of course, even then we could make no claim to enumerate all the varied conditions of inner life and external situations of Christians, conditions which are endlessly variable. Here, where we are living at present, far from the short summaries which we made for delivering the lectures, we can manage only to set forth what little we remember of what we borrowed from the writings of the Fathers and from our own spiritual experience.

To begin with, let us consider the most acute cases. The person confessing declares that he does not believe. Nowadays such a person would probably not even come to confession, but then (I was teaching until the last years of the 19th century, until the spring of 1900), he would explain that he came because of the requirement of civil law for officers and civil servants, or the requirements of a school for its pupils, or finally, at the insistence of his parents or wife, or in order to observe family customs. But I am still convinced that at the present time of triumphant nihilism such people must appear not infrequently at the confessional. First of all, one must ask if they seriously and sincerely want to talk to the priest, or if they have only come to make mock of him; in the latter event they should simply he sent away. It is essential that your question be affectionate and full of sympathy. If he answers that he would like to be convinced of the truths of faith, or at least re-examine his convictions, then of course it is better to offer to have a preliminary talk with him in another place before confession, especially if he is an adult and an educated person. If you notice that his unbelief is only imaginary or passing, and feel that he can be brought to his senses in a few minutes, then ask him why he lost his faith. Was it from reading books, and if so, which ones? Or from various soul-shaking events — disillusionment, misfortune, prayers unanswered by God (this happens especially often with women) or for other reasons? If he names Tolstoy or Renan or other writers as being responsible for his loss of faith, then say "Of course, these books strive to kill faith in people, but it cannot be that they are a sufficient reason for you not to believe. You probably did not take the trouble to read a single book in defence of the faith, or even one book devoted to refuting the thinkers you mentioned. Admit that you started reading these hooks with a desire to be delivered from faith; and if this is not so, then still, before reading them you must have found religion burdensome, since if this were not so you would not have come to part with it so easily, but, sick at heart, you would have sought a person or another book which could have dispersed your doubts. On the contrary, did you not seek out those books and companions who could destroy even what remained of your faith? Why did you begin to find it burdensome, and when? Wasn’t it when you lost your chastity or wished to lose it, but faith and your conscience prevented you, and you began to hate them just as a mischievous schoolboy hates the person in authority over him? It is not reason, but unchastity which is the enemy of faith, as the Lord said: ‘Whoever shall be ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation,’ and so on (Mk. 9:38). He did not say: ‘in this lazy or self-interested generation,’ but ‘adulterous generation,’ for He knew where and whence enmity against God begins. Many people have read your Tolstoy and Renan and not lost their faith, and others have compiled detailed refutations, both of these writers and of Darwin, Marx and so on. I will give you the refutations I know, and those which I do not know I will find out for you from people who do, if you really want to study these questions deeply, and are not simply covering up your immorality by naming books and philosophers.

"Thus you have admitted that it was not a book, but your evil will which took you away from God. Repent before Him, but if you are very far from Him, then admit to yourself your heavy guilt against truth and your conscience, and then you will receive the desire to ask God for the remission of your sin, your renunciation of your Redeemer. If you are already full of such repentant feelings, then let us pray; I will say the prayer of absolution over you. But as to approaching the Holy Mysteries, think about it first. If the Lord returns faith and hope to your heart, then receive Communion; but if the spirit of unbelief remains in your heart, then wait a while: but do not put off thinking about and investigating this, which is the most important thing on earth, and which is all that remains when we part from the earth. You said that you accept only facts, but death is an indubitable fact. Tell me, is there any sense in our life, if it comes to an end here just as the soul has been brought to fulfillment by maturity and thirst for understanding? Is there any sense in all that is good and great, if there is no God? For then, you see, there is no difference left between good and evil; all those who deny God have been compelled to admit this, the latest of them being the famous Spencer. Believe me, no sincere and thoughtful person can deny God and accept these conclusions about good and evil and the senselessness of life; when people talk of denying Him, they are just boasting and wanting to escape their pangs of conscience."

A man can be brought to his senses by such words, or similar ones, provided they come from heartfelt sympathy and compassion, and often such a person who imagined he was an atheist will there and then admit how grievously he was in error and ask for absolution. But if this does not happen straightaway, even so he will bow his head and become thoughtful, and will not refuse to continue his talk with the priest outside the church, or go to see someone who in your opinion can disperse his doubts. Of course, I am far from thinking that such a talk can bring about a conversion in the soul of every person who declares that he does not believe. It is necessary to speak to one person one way and to another person, differently. But I am giving an example of how the voice of pastoral love and the conditions of confession enable you to talk about faith and unbelief on a completely different plane from the usual one; usually people start talking about a book or attack, perhaps correctly, the unbelieving author named by the person they are talking to. The latter then starts employing subtle arguments to defend his teacher. But here you are calling upon the person to place himself under judgement and admit those sinful desires which drew his attention and sympathy to the enemies of God, and so tore him away from God.

If the unbeliever to whom you are speaking is stubborn and does not yield or even becomes angry and starts quarreling, however gentle you are, then still do all you can to ensure that he does not consider this talk as final, but remains willing to come and see you again or to go to some other better informed teacher to whom you can direct him. You know, in one of Gogol’s fantasies, the soul of a sleeping girl is separated from her and says, I think to some magician or other, "Marusya" (I probably have the name wrong) "doesn’t know a tenth of what her soul knows." If someone who considers himself an unbeliever has come to a priest, that means that in his soul, unknown to himself, there remains a considerable desire to get his faith back, although he also has the opposing desire to avoid it. Keep your pastoral eye on such a person and know that the more sharply and angrily he speaks to you, the more strongly his soul is struggling within him, his conscience struggling with the demon of unbelief and opposition to God. Unbelievers are converted to living faith in various ways, but rarely as the fruit of a gradual refutation of all the pseudo-scientific arguments against the existence of God or the immortality of the soul which they had accepted. Usually, after an inner struggle, at once both intellectual and moral, the turning point conies suddenly, and the person is no longer even interested in refuting his former arguments, but discards these theories as useless husks, as empty sophisms. It becomes clear that they only propped up his unbelief, which came from embitterment or insubmissiveness. Now, softened by a word of pastoral love, the soul has itself found a way out of its gloomy dungeon into the light, and soared to God in prayer. Of course, it would do no harm if the penitent thoroughly studied everything that has been said or written for and against his former atheistic ideas. But only a few will agree to this — they more readily start carefully reading the word of God, listening attentively to the Church prayers and devoting themselves to works of love. O, how blessed you are, minister of God, if you have found the key that enables you to enter into the soul and heart of such a person and open up for him a truthful outlook on himself. This is what the Lord brought about in the soul of Zaccheus, who himself understood what was necessary for him to begin living in God: "Behold, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold’’ (Lk. 19:8).

It is considerably easier for a priest to overcome partial unbelief, or weak faith, on the part of a penitent. Many people confess that they cannot convince themselves that Holy Communion is really the Body and Blood of Christ, or of various miracles performed by the saints, of the necessity of the fasts, of the existence of the devil, and so on. This sort of unbelief is nearly always based on thoughtlessness and the habit of credulously repeating things that are constantly to be heard in the worldly conversations of stupid people. The priest should ask the doubtful person what he does believe in particularly strongly: in the Gospel? In the words of Christ? — Yes! — and all these questions which he finds doubtful have been clearly and definitely answered by the Saviour Himself, in words which he has either forgotten, or to which he has never paid attention. "Either deny belief in God Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ and His words, or believe as He taught us. No kind of geography or ethnography or zoology can tell you whether the devil exists or not; lead a religious life and you will find out for yourself the difference between temptations from the devil and those from your own evil will, and until you believe your Saviour, do not believe those deceivers and idiots either, who assert that those possessed by demons were just epileptics: did the Lord drive epilepsy into a herd of pigs? Did He not distinguish demonic temptations from those temptations due to faint-heartedness and passions, as in the parable of the sower?"

About the fasts, are not these His words?: "But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine bead, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father Which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly" (Mt. 6:17-18); "They will fast when the bridegroom is taken away from them"; "This kind are not expelled except by prayer and fasting." Besides this, without fail direct the doubting person’s attention to the words spoken by Christ in His parting talk with His disciples after the Mystic Supper: "He that believeth on Me, the works that I do he shall do also; and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto My Father" (In. 14:12). If you believe in Christ’s miracles, and do not consider Him a dishonorable fraud, then you must also believe these words of His, which He confirmed before His Ascension: "These signs shall follow them that believe . . ." (Mk. 16:17), and so on. The irrational Protestants believe in the miracles performed by the Apostles which are reported in the hook of Acts, hut they do not believe in those which are set forth in their "Lives." Why? Was one of Christ’s promises not to be fulfilled? "If they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them" (Mk. 16:18). You see, there is no information about any such miracle in Holy Scripture, but there is in the life of the Apostle John (the Theologian). A vain attempt was made to put him to death by poisoning, but the poison did not harm the Apostle in the least. To those in doubt about the reality of Communion, repeat not only Christ’s words at the Mystic Supper, but also His words about the bread which comes down from Heaven (Jn. 6), which they probably do not know. Besides this, obtain and give to people to read the short but very convincing pamphlet by St. Dimitry of Rostov, "To Those in Doubt about the Reality of the Transformation of Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ." Here the usual doubts about the Holy Mysteries are dispersed remarkably simply and clearly.

There are other articles of faith which some people cannot accept without difficulty; it is impossible to enumerate them all, but we hope that from these four examples a zealous spiritual father will learn how to struggle with all such doubts experienced by Christians.

It is yet more essential for him to distinguish unbelief, or doubts that really spring from unbelief, from imaginary or apparent doubts, which often severely oppress inexperienced Christians and put them in a situation where they are helpless. Many a faithful and prayerful Christian laments to his spiritual father, "At times I believe in Communion, at times I believe in God, but at times it is as if I don’t believe at all." I had answers to lamentations like this printed in the last, or next to the last number of the "Parish Bulletin," published by the Holy Synod in February, 1917, and then in the fourth supplementary volume of my writings (Kiev, 1918), in the "Letter to a Priest about Learning to Pray." Such thoughts of unbelief arise in the souls of suspicious people who love to examine all their thoughts and feelings minutely, and are filled with a constant futile fear that they will do something wrong or be found to have neglected something. Then it seems to them that they are ill, or that their child is getting ill, or is just about to get ill, or something similar. Not infrequently they fall into yet greater woes, into so-called "blasphemous thoughts," when abusive words come into their heads, completely against their will, together with thoughts of the name of Christ or the Mother of God. And of course, the more they fight against these absurd combinations, the more persistently they come crowding into their heads. Inexperienced people begin in horror to think that they are blasphemers, and inexperienced priests start talking to them about the serious sin of blasphemy, about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit as the greatest of all sins. After this these poor souls immediately start to experience an influx of abusive expressions about the Holy Spirit, are tormented, waste away and even consider suicide, thinking that they have already perished eternally anyhow. And the priest will not be able to help those tormented by these thoughts until they meet a man more informed about spiritual life, who will explain to them that the best medicine can be obtained at any theological book shop and is not expensive; it is another pamphlet by St. Dimitry, entitled "About Blasphemous Thoughts." Here it is explained in the words of the great Fathers of antiquity that such thoughts are not the fruit of hatred towards God and the saints, but simply combinations of abusive words or sounds in the head of an imaginative person, and so they do not in any way constitute a sin. One should not pay any attention to them, but calmly pray and receive Communion, no matter how stupid the words or images that may be crowding into one’s head.

An apparent lack of faith in Holy Communion, or even in God Himself, that comes from time to time, has a similar significance. Faith is a very subtle, spiritual, feeling. However much it may be present in us, if we fumble to find it in ourselves, as if taking account of all the qualities of our feeling towards God or the Mother of God and the other saints, then we find that this feeling has, as it were, evaporated for a time from the realm of our direct awareness, but not, of course, from our soul and heart. But experiment with one of the crudest feelings in the same way: pinch your hand until it hurts and then start to analyze how this pain differs from a toothache or a headache — and you will even stop feeling your pain. One German philosopher, suffering torments from the onset of a toothache, managed to stop feeling it in just this way. Thus, if he is not convinced of any definite refutations of the truths of faith, a Christian must not think that he has no faith, although at times this may seem to be so. He must calmly pray and approach the Holy Mysteries, not attaching any significance to his imagination, which only gets stronger if he deliberately fights against it.

Several spiritual fathers in monasteries have disclosed to me that God has helped them obtain from penitents the admission of sins which they could not bring themselves to confess at previous confessions over the course of ten or twenty years. This had tormented them for their whole lives and they already considered themselves doomed for eternity, knowing that the Church says, "If thou hidest anything from me, thou hast a greater sin; take heed therefore, lest, having come to a physician, thou depart unhealed." These sins may be very shameful and impure, unnatural sins against the seventh commandment, such as incest, bestiality or corruption of children; all these happen extremely often, and sometimes with people who are respected by those around them. On the other hand, they may be criminal offences: murder, infanticide, theft, robbery, attempted poisoning, malicious slander out of jealousy or envy, inspiring hatred against one’s neighbor, incitement of others against the Church and faith, and so on. If the priest directly poses a question about such a sin, the penitent will probably not deny it, but he cannot bring himself to tell of his offence voluntarily.

However, it is impossible to question each person about such abominable sins. After finishing the usual questions, you should ask in a quiet, gentle voice, "Perhaps there is some sin which you are ashamed to confess? Perhaps there is something which you could not resolve to say about your sins at earlier confessions, or forgot, and then remembered and did not dare to tell the priest?" It is extremely possible that the parishioner will answer affirmatively, but will still hesitate to say what exactly it was. Sometimes at this moment, people (especially women) start to weep and tremble, they become covered in sweat, but cannot resolve to speak. Then show even greater sympathy and affection and say, "Put aside your shame so that you will not be ashamed at the Dread judgement before everyone. Here, apart from me and the angels, nobody will know anything, and you will not shock your brother the priest by your sin; in a single day we have heard such things that nothing can astonish us any more." If the person confessing still cannot bring himself to say directly what it was, then say to him, "Well, perhaps it will be easier for you to confess if I ask you questions according to the commandments: does your sin concern the seventh commandment against pleasures of the flesh? Or stealing or doing evil to people? Or blaspheming?," and so on. When you are given an answer about the type of sin, then ask what sin it was exactly and enumerate the possibilities. Simple people sometimes cannot even give a name to their sin; then ask descriptively. When the penitent, realizing that you are not fiercely trying to condemn him, but are a friend, suffering with him, finally tells about his offense, do not be horrified or angry, for he has already reproached himself enough. Only lament, asking why he had not spoken of this before, why he had hidden it at his previous confessions: indeed, he could have died without admitting it and his soul have perished forever. Those who lie at confession usually end their earthly life by suicide. Let the sinner consider God’s mercy towards him, in that He did not deprive him of the possibility of confessing his sin.

Then tell him what penance, and how long an exclusion from the Holy Mysteries is prescribed for this by the canons. But if you see that he is deeply penitent and if the sin was committed long ago, then consider whether you should not let him receive Communion the next day, and demand that he make good the consequences of his sin, either immediately or over the course of time. If he took something unlawfully, he should return it, if he has dishonoured someone, he should make amends, or ask forgiveness; if he has begotten illegitimate children, he should support them, and so on. Then, if he is deeply moved and clearly wishes to free his conscience from the sin, give him a penance. But first ask him if he prays at all or comes to church. If he does neither one nor the other, then of course there will be no sense laying fasts upon him, but give him as a penance a vow to say three or four prayers in the morning and evening and constantly to remember about his fall with repentance before God. If he is a religious person, then give him a rule of prayer or send him on a pilgrimage to a distant monastery, but first find out the circumstances of his life and do not announce the penance like a prophet, but apply healing with intelligence.

We will probably return to penances, but now it is appropriate to mention that despondency and despair in penitents should be feared no less than stony insensibility. These feelings oppress them after sins that cannot be put right, such as infanticide or abortion, causing someone irremediable harm or misfortune, and sometimes people succumb to despondency simply by reason of their own afflictions — the death of children, seen as a punishment from God for former sins, or other perplexing events. Healing spiritual children of these demonic temptations — despondency and despair — is achieved not so much through explaining the truths of God (such as recalling the saving of the Wise Robber on the cross, Zaccheus, the harlot and so on), as by showing brotherly sympathy and compassion. "If I am sorry for you, then will not your Heavenly Father have pity on you? Know, brother, that despondency is from the devil; that is why we pray during Lent with prostrations to the ground that God will not let us descend to despondency. Bear in mind that despondency and despair always have the poison of pride or self-love hidden them, the seed of a certain grumbling and reproach of Providence, which has let one fall into misfortune or sin. Drive away from yourself such embittered feelings against God or people and admit that you are yourself entirely to blame for having given yourself up to the evil suggestions of the devil or of evil people, and have let yourself slip — that it is not God Who has offended you, but you yourself have offended God, sinned against Him and many times turned away from His all-powerful right hand. Then the heavy stone of embitterment will fall from your heart, and with it despondency will also fall away, and you will raise up prayers of repentance to the Lord with compunction and contrition, and after that joyful thanksgiving."

The opposite of despair is carelessness and stony insensibility. People experience this more often and, like despair, it is not easily cured. Of course it borders closely on weak faith, although less decisively than the conscious doubts of a philosopher or reasoner, but it is certainly no less stubborn, if not more so. Leo Tolstoy writes in his Confession that he only began to think about questions of conscience and eternity in the fiftieth year of his life, and previously he had not gotten round to this. He lived a "life like a drinking bout," passing from one attraction to another, and never thought deeply about questions of eternity. Thus in confession people admit to committing adultery, to offending their wives and parents, to deception, to total removal of their life from God’s temple, but so lightheartedly that you will clearly see this means nothing to them, and that they are not even thinking of beginning to struggle with these sins. This is what you must tell them: "Although your sins are serious in themselves and would require exclusion from Holy Communion for so many years — yet more terrible is this stupefaction of your con- science, in the power of which you clearly experience no repentant grief over your sins. You must know that Holy Communion can be given to you only after you promise to hate these sins and begin to struggle with them. Otherwise you will not only not be worthy of Holy Communion (which perhaps will not distress you very much in your present state), but also, you will not remain at your present level of sinfulness. You see, none of the world’s evildoers or criminals were born murderers or robbers, but before their first offenses they differed from ordinary sinners only in that they did not take their sins and mistakes to heart at all, did not repent of the offenses they had caused to others, and whenever they were reproached by their elders or comrades they blamed someone else for what had happened, like Adam and Eve after their fall into sin. And so you, while you were innocent, despised adulterers, but after you fell, you began to justify yourself, and then, when you were used to this abomination, you even boasted of it and, going even further, you began to mock those who preserve their chastity. In a similar way the conscience is lulled to sleep by worldly dissipation and corrupt comradeship, and it grows ever deeper and deeper into other sins, desires and passions, and you are soon near to daring calmly to commit criminal offenses."

When he is admonishing such unconcerned people, both during confession and while edifying his flock as a whole, the priest must warn them particularly persistently against the spirit of self-justification, which is one of the principal enemies of our salvation. Some people accepted the preaching of our Saviour and His Apostles, and others rejected it. Within both groups there were great sinners and people of righteous life. What were the spiritual qualities which caused them to accept or reject the Gospel of salvation? It was almost always this: whoever had the spirit of self-justification and considered himself a decent enough person rejected the preaching of repentance, the preaching of the Gospel; and whoever considered himself a guilty sinner before God and men accepted it and was saved, like Zaccheus, like the Wise Robber on the cross.

It is the same with Christians who have come to believe. The difference between those who are being saved and those who are perishing, or are far from salvation, lies not so much in the number of their sins, but in the inclination, or lack of it, to admit that they are guilty and sinful. "You feel bitterly offended by your neighbour, you are convinced, and perhaps correctly, that you are being unjustly deprived of your employment or promotion; that you are being slandered, that your merits are unrecognized. Let us agree that this is so. At present it is not possible to demand that you should be completely insensitive towards all this. But, although you take these offenses to heart, remember even more strongly and lament in your soul over the side of these events in which you yourself sinned through laziness, malice, lying, obstinacy and so on. You will not be justified before God by offenses that others commit against you, but you will have to answer for your own guilt, especially if you do not wish to admit to it with repentance. Let the Lord justify you for your repentance; do not justify yourself before Him, but accuse yourself. Once, someone was talking to St. Tikhon of Zadonsk and could not find any words with which to oppose his arguments about the faith, so he struck the saint in the face. Then St. Tikhon himself fell at his feet and asked forgiveness for not warning him against such a sin as striking one of God’s bishops in the face. Readiness to condemn oneself and not others is a great virtue, which not only exalts people in the eyes of God, but also attracts the hearts of men." Convince your spiritual children that they must fight above all against the spirit of self-justification and condemnation of others, and explain that if anyone comes to confession in such a spirit he will not receive any benefit from the Holy Mystery. The benefit received from this depends on the degree of contrition of heart. Let no one reassure himself that he is honourable or faithful to his wife or even that he has preserved his virginity. Perhaps he is free from serious falls, but what would he be like if he had undergone such temptations as his fallen brothers have, if he had not received such good influences from people and books and such gifts from God, of which others are deprived? "It is possible that in your condition they would have shown incomparably more of their own good will towards spiritual perfection, and flourished in various virtues and spiritual struggles. Behold those who seem to be poorer than you, and behold those who struggle more earnestly than you for the salvation of their souls and even pour forth constant tears of repentance. If even the great Ephraim the Syrian, who was granted visions from God, wept profusely, then how can we sinners be strangers to a spirit of constant repentance and self-reproach?" Admonish all your flock with such words, but especially those who stand before you at holy confession without repentant contrition. It is possible to be saved without many virtues, says St. Simeon the New Theologian, but nobody has been saved who has not attained a spirit of compunction — that is, of compunctionate repentance for one’s sins and joy over the mercy of God.

Weak faith and carelessness are expressions of people’s irreligion, but even a pious person is not protected from spiritual sickness if he does not have a wise guide, either a living person or a spiritual writer. This sickness is called prelest, or spiritual delusion, imagining oneself to be near to God and to the realm of the divine and supernatural. Even zealous ascetics in monasteries are sometimes subject to this delusion, but of course, lay people who are zealous in outward ascetic struggles undergo it much more frequently. Surpassing their acquaintainces in feats of prayer and fasting, they imagine that they are seers of divine visions, or at least of dreams inspired by grace. In all events in their lives they see special, intentional directions from God or their Guardian Angel, and then they start imagining that they are God’s elect, and not infrequently try to foretell the future. The Holy Fathers armed themselves against nothing so fiercely as against this sickness — spiritual delusion.

Prelest endangers a man’s soul if it lurks in him alone; but it is dangerous and imperilling also for the whole of local church life, if a whole society is seized in its grasp, if it makes its appearance anywhere as a spiritual epidemic and the life of a whole parish or diocese is oriented entirely towards it. This is exactly what has happened in the Russian Church, both in Great Russia and in the Ukraine, both among the simple people and in the so-called "enlightened society." This plague, under various names, began to develop in strength throughout the local Russian Church some thirty years ago, and by the time of the last war it had seized almost all parts of the former Russian Empire in its grasp. In St. Petersburg, in Moscow and on the lower reaches of the Volga appeared the Johannites, who declared the late Fr. John of Kronstadt to be a reincarnation of Christ and a certain Matrona Kisileva to be the Mother of God. To replace one Christ, others appeared — Chursikov in Petrograd, Koloskov in Moscow and Samara, and so on. The Ukraine created Stephan Podgorny, a wanderer who later became a monk and claimed to be God. Podolia and Bessarabia declared a semi-literate and drunken Moldavian hieromonk, Innokenty, to be Christ. In Kiev another uneducated monk called Spiridon, who had attained to the rank of archimandrite during the war, started to preach a new faith. In Siberia Johannism took on an especially fanatical character, and, alas, even on Mt. Athos an extremely harmful movement of delusion, called imenobozhnichestvo, has started spreading.

In high society Rasputin gave himself out as Christ, and the teaching of reincarnation, or neobuddhism, with its extremely easy methods of imaginary communication with the supernatural world, can almost be called the ruling trend of thought in contemporary society. The way was prepared for this by the writings of L. Tolstoy and Vladimir Soloviev. A certain female writer, Schmidt, all but imagined the latter a reincarnation of the Saviour. For a long time now the majority of our writers have been decadents, and although they are themselves atheists or pantheists, they also give themselves out, with considerable success, as intermediaries with the Godhead or even with the gods.

The war, and especially the revolution, have significantly cooled the ardour both of these self-deluded people and also of those who were consciously and slyly deluding others. But such a spiritual epidemic goes too deep to be completely destroyed even by the most radical political upheavals. This disease will continue, especially because not one people provides such fertile soil for the activity of self-styled seers and prophets as does the Russian people. The hero of one of Ostrovsky’s plays ("There Is Enough Simplicity to Deal with Every Wise Man") said quite correctly that in Russia anyone can give himself out as a prophet, provided that he is not lazy, nor ashamed to do so. No matter how much people are let down by his predictions, they will not stop believing in his special knowledge, but will explain the failure of the prophecy by their own lack of understanding. But the false prophet or christ will have honour, glory and every possible kind of gift heaped upon him as before. Everyone knows how destructive are the consequences of being carried away by this "Khlystism"; it begins with feats of prayer and fasting and ends with shameless depravity, or fornication.

Of course, a spiritual father cannot struggle with this sin or with Khlystism in general in its entirety. He can only advise individual Christians and warn them against falling over this spiritual precipice, as soon as he notices even the slightest inclination towards visions, predictions and things of this sort. Apart from confession itself, he must explain in sermons what delusion and Khlystism are (my circular letter about this was printed in the periodical "Light of Petchersk" in the summer of 1918). If a priest notices that the person confessing to him a Khlyst or a Johannite or, in general, someone inclined towards delusion, then he should briefly explain to him how the devil deludes Christians and even monks by suggesting the thought that they have been granted visions. Then he constantly blinds their conscience, convincing them of their apparent sanctity and promising them the power of working miracles. (These can be illustrated by referring to the life of "Svyatogorets" about the Holy Mountain Athos, Abba Dorotheus, St. John of the Ladder, or the Synaxarion). He leads such ascetics to the summit of a mountain or roof of a church and shows them a fiery chariot on which they will be taken at once to Heaven. The deluded ascetic then steps on to it and falls headlong into the abyss, and is dashed to death without repentance. If the person confessing tells of visions he has seen, then ask him if the person who appeared had a cross with him or blessed him with the sign of the Cross; if not, the visions were all from the devil; this is explained by the fathers and spiritual writers we have just mentioned. The Apostle Paul also wrote that Satan takes the form of an angel of light (I Cor. 11:14). You must also bear in mind that, when the Khlysti find out about this sign for distinguishing true visions from false ones, then, in their future accounts they will be careful to mention that the person who appeared had a cross with him and even blessed them with the cross. However, if you continue raising objections they will not be able to restrain themselves from anger. At this point immediately explain that, according to the teaching of the Fathers, anger or irritation when telling about a vision is a sure sign that the person who saw it is in delusion and that the visions themselves are false. "Angels and demons appear to the saints, but we sinners can only deceive ourselves and others if we recount our ‘visions’."

In order to open the eyes of a person who has fallen or is falling into delusion, you must show him examples of this fatal sickness taken from the above-mentioned books, and also of its invariable sign — disturbance and even irritability in the face of accusations. Should they be admitted to Communion? If they directly affirm some absurd belief, such as in the divinity of Stephan Podgorny or Matrona Kiseleva, then of course they should not be admitted. But if they offer repentance for all their sins and promise to test their visions or dreams with the sign of the Cross and to conceal nothing from the priest, then they can be admitted.

Twenty years ago, the Russian Holy Synod gave orders for priests to demand that all Khlysts known to them solemnly curse the Khlyst errors, in front of the Cross and Gospels. This was the only means of diagnosing the Khlyst heresy, as its followers are told not to reveal their secrets "either to father or mother or spiritual father." Only before an actual cursing of the Khlyst heresy will a secret Khlyst hesitate, and then the priest will understand with whom he is dealing and, of course, will not give him absolution of sins or Holy Communion unless he condemns the heresy. However, even an admission of this sort can be obtained from a Khlyst, although not in its entirety. He will swear that he does not belong to any Khlyst society and does not share their errors, but not one word of this can be believed until he has anathematized the main points of the Khlyst heresy. These are set forth in the circular published by the Holy Synod and printed in the "Church Bulletin" ("Tserkovniya Vedomosti").

Such, then, are the varied difficulties facing a priest which arise from the convictions of his flock: from their unbelief, weak faith, false beliefs and various types of delusion or, on the other hand, from despondency and despair. Most of these ailments have appeared recently, not more than 50 or 60 years ago, and have spread throughout the Russian Empire only in the last 25 to 30 years. These sicknesses are still almost completely unknown to the other local Orthodox Churches which have been under the power of the Turks.

Now it is time to move on to the discussion of sicknesses of the will and heart, that is to say, the sicknesses of Christians within the society of the Church. (Almost all the sicknesses of the soul which have been mentioned thus far place people outside the Church, and such people have, in effect, to be received back into the Church if they offer repentance.)

The ancient Fathers usually expound the teaching about healing the soul according to the eight or nine basic passions. All the holy teachers of asceticism give an almost identical list of the passions. Such a diagnosis of our spiritual infirmities and approach to healing them is incomparably more correct than the enumeration of sins or sinful acts, which is accepted by the Latins. To wage war only with the sins that make their appearance as actual deeds would be just as unsuccessful as cutting down weeds in a garden instead of digging them up at the root and throwing them out. Sins appear as inevitable outgrowths from their roots, the passions of the soul. Spiritual fathers must explain to their flocks in their sermons, and especially in the sermon before confession, that their struggle must be waged against the passion itself, against the sinful disposition, and that limiting repentance to sinful acts is far from sufficient. On exactly the same principles, it is impossible to set one’s mind at ease by the fact that one allows oneself to commit relatively few sinful acts: Christian perfection consists of constant good inclinations and dispositions, and it is essential to cultivate these in oneself. The Ten Commandments of the Old Testament prohibit sinful deeds, but the Beatitudes of Christ concern not deeds, but dispositions. Of these, surely only peacemaking can be called a deed, but even this is only attainable for those faithful who have nourished their souls with heartfelt good will towards people. The endless dispute of the theologians of Europe as to whether a Christian is saved by faith or by good deeds reveals in both camps a common lack of understanding of our salvation. If these theologians do not wish to learn a correct understanding of this from the Saviour, then the Apostle Paul depicts it even more clearly: "The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance" (Gal. 5:22). It is not the deeds by themselves that have value in the eyes of God, but the constant state of soul which these words describe. Of course, one must force oneself to perform deeds both of piety and of brotherly love, but their value is only relative, as a means of maintaining and increasing the intensity of one’s virtuous and grace-filled state, which will be extinguished without corresponding struggles and inner warfare, like a fire without fuel. Stephan Yavorsky was, therefore, quite correct when he wrote in his Rock of Faith that faith, contrary to the teaching of the Protestants, does not of itself compel anyone to do good deeds, except in certain isolated instances. These instances, I will add myself, will be less and less frequently repeated if a Christian does not carry out the two exercises of spiritual warfare or asceticism, self-opposition and self-compulsion: otherwise he will undergo a "shipwreck of faith," as the Apostle Paul puts it, for only "by works is faith made perfect" (James 2:22). Thus faith is not a "merit," faith by itself does not save, but it is an essential condition for spiritual perfection, through which salvation is attained; and it is in this sense that the Apostle says that without faith it is impossible to please God. Pleasing God consists precisely in these fruits of the spirit, about which St. Paul speaks, and which are cultivated by inner warfare and labours of piety; not by one’s own strength alone, but with the assistance of the grace of God, given in answer to the prayer of a believer.

A spiritual father must interrogate and advise those coming to confession from this point of view, so that they will understand that they sin against God and their salvation not only by allowing themselves sinful actions or repeating them many times, but also by not being concerned to implant Christian virtues in their souls, and not struggling against the passions which are concealed in the soul and drive it towards sinful thoughts, feelings, words and actions.

Now let us approach mere closely the question as to what sort of advice a priest should give to penitents. He must open their eyes to the passions and sinful tendencies arising from them, which will be a constant and unstemmable source of sins until the cause itself is taken away. Thus, for example, a Christian laments to you that she (or he) is constantly quarrelling with the people at home, cannot live in harmony with her husband or other relations and admits that she herself is to blame for this: she constantly "gets cross" whenever her instructions are not fulfilled and whenever she is addressed or otherwise treated with insufficient respect. In this case it must be explained that she (or he) does not "get cross," but is angry because of a sinful tendency towards anger, one of the eight chief passions which lead us away from salvation. Once one has realized how sinful and destructive this passion is (for almost none of the world’s most terrible crimes would occur if people did not give themselves up to anger), the first step in healing it is to admit that one is suffering from this passion, or its inception: to admit that one is spiritually sick and needs to be healed. According to the teaching of the Holy Fathers, the second medicine against this passion, as against every other passion, should be our "righteous anger" against the passion that is afflicting us, in this case, against our anger itself. The Creator placed the faculty of anger in us so that we can direct this feeling against our own sins, against passions and the devil, but certainly not for use against our neighbors or enemies. Jesus the son of Sirach says, "The very action of anger is already a fall." But, of course, these methods of struggle are still insufficient. The passion is weakened by half when this is realized, but it is not killed. It remains to strive gradually after perfect angerlessness. It will be understood that the principal means is to pray about this morning and evening, and also whenever you meet a person with whom you habitually become irritated. Then struggle with the actual appearance of your passion, and if you cannot restrain your tongue from angry and offensive words, then stop the conversation: either go away from the place where it began, or stop talking, or lead the conversation on to another subject. In most cases it will be sufficient for you to do this two or three times for the other person to follow your lead; and the first rays of mutual friendship shining forth will strike the soul with such joy that both will be amazed at themselves, as to why they quarreled and tormented themselves and each other, depriving themselves of the joy of holy friendship. Certainly it is not always possible to remove the spirit of anger and arguing from one’s family or society. It sometimes happens that, at the inspiration of the devil, one of your neighbors becomes even more argumentative when he notices that you have humbled yourself in your heart. Instead of emulating you, he might well be imbued with malicious envy of your meekness, and will become even more daring and increase his malicious words and acts. Then you should know that this cross comes to you from God, and if you cannot go away from such a person or, as it is said in spiritual books, "give place to anger," then at least try to preserve peace and good will toward such a person, as it says in the Psalm: ‘I was peaceful with those who hated peace." Preserve your soul from anger and malicious revenge and give special consideration as to what attitude to take towards your malicious neighbour, praying to God and asking the advice of your superiors. To some people it is not even useful to show a constant and meek submission, especially to a malicious wife or conceited son. One should be punished and the other separated from oneself. God will guide you in this, and if, wishing the best, you make a mistake, you will not be to blame for this before God, provided only that anger did not penetrate into your heart and rule over it.

Angerlessness is a great acquisition: you will obtain a multitude of friends with this gift, both in heaven and on earth. If we thought more about our souls and the value of spiritual gifts, we would understand how much joy the latter obtain for us even on earth in comparison with the material treasures that most people chase after. Thus they forget God and their conscience but, when they have acquired them, all they have is disillusionment.

Angerlessness and the meekness which comes with it is a life-giving light which pours itself out, without any effort on the part of the person bearing it, on those around, and fills them with zeal to emulate it. This very freedom from anger was one of the most important reasons for the spread of Christianity, both in its earliest period and in the lives of the more recent preachers of the faith — Leonty of Rostov, Stephan of Perm and others. This was the meaning of the words of the Saviour, and even earlier, of the Psalmist — "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth" (Ps. 36). But if you do not manage to acquire freedom from anger so successfully, and this passion, to which you have long been enslaved, again and again overcomes you in the form of angry outbursts against your neighbours, then offer tearful repentance over this, lest anger should turn into hatred, the most repulsive sin in God’s eyes: "He who hates his brother is a murderer," as the Apostle John writes in his first epistle. The most effective medicine against anger and irritability, although it is also the most bitter at the first draught, is to ask forgiveness after a quarrel. It is bitter for human pride but, if it is bitter, hasten even more to make use of it, for it is bitter only for the proud, and if it seems so intolerable to you, then know that you have within you yet another serious disease, pride. Sit down and think over your own soul, and pray that the Lord help you to master yourself and to ask forgiveness and peace from the person you have offended, even if he is more to blame than you.

Is it necessary to speak of the joyful fruits of such a victory over yourself and over the devil? Once your heart has been softened, how easy it will be the second time, even without any struggle to ask forgiveness! This is like the ability to swim: until a person has made himself to float on the water and swim it seems impossible to him; he is terrified and struggles with himself. But when he has swum even once, he will subsequently jump in and swim without any fear. Pay attention also to the opposite side of things: if you do not make peace with your neighbour, your prayers will be in vain and your repentance fruitless, and receiving Communion will be to your judgement. This is why a priest must unfailingly ask all those coming to confession whether they harbor any malice against their neighbors and if they have made peace with all those with whom they have quarreled — or, if unable to see them personally, if they have made peace with them in their hearts. Explain at this point that on Mount Athos spiritual fathers not only do not permit monks who bear malice against their neighbour to serve in church or commune the Holy Mysteries; but also, when they read their rule of prayer, they have to omit from the Lord’s Prayer the words "forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors," so as not to be liars before God. Thus the monk is made to realize that he is no longer a Christian, if he cannot even say the Lord’s Prayer.

We have already mentioned that anger is often linked with another passion — pride. Now we will go so far as to say that anger does not often appear as an independent or fundamental passion in the human heart. Most often anger expresses the dissatisfaction of another passion, or even of the casual desires that a person may have from time to time. In the latter case, anger is called impatience or obstinacy, which in turn are expressions of a general self-love, lack of brotherly love and lack of desire to attend to oneself and struggle with oneself. The stronger a passion is in a person, the quicker and more fiercely it turns into anger when it is not satisfied. Thus the vainglorious and lovers of money become envious, the lustful become jealous, the gluttonous become over-critical and irritable, and so on. In general, anger is an indication of various sinful passions, and one can find out about these by noticing when a person begins to get angry: if it is during a conversation about fasting and sobriety, then he sins with the passion of overeating and drunkenness; if it is on occasions when he loses money — love of money; if during talks about the saints’ feats of humility — he is proud, and so on. This is why we began our instructions to spiritual fathers with the struggle against anger, as it is an involuntary indicator of other passions. A person’s enslavement to them is expressed first of all as enslavement to anger, which bursts out even with very cunning people who are otherwise able to hide their passions and keep quiet about their bad habits.

Perhaps it will seem to the reader that we have spoken too long about anger and its sinfulness; but here we have also given some indications about struggle with all passions in general, and so perhaps we will be able to express our thoughts about other passions more briefly. However, we must forestall one objection that priests will probably raise: "Is it possible, even in a confession lasting ten minutes, to enter into such depths of the human soul? People talk about their sins, sinful deeds, and am I going to explain to them about passions?" Yes, explain this to them beforehand in sermons, then at confession they will understand what you mean from only a few words. These subjects are very close and comprehensible to the soul of an Orthodox Christian, even of an illiterate one. But it should be understood that in confession, since it is so short, you should say as much as you can manage, and leave the rest for sermons in church (without personal allusions, of course) — and for private conversations with your parishioners. Here it is a great thing if you can direct the spiritual gaze of your parishioner into his soul and its infirmities — its sinful passions, dispositions, and not to deeds alone.

While adducing reasons for the struggle with the passions of anger and malice, we touched on pride and vainglory, which are closely linked with them. However, this enemy of God and our salvation will not be crushed unless the warrior of Christ, having come to his spiritual father with repentance, is given a weapon aimed precisely at this enemy. With our contemporaries, educated and half-educated and, of late, even with the uneducated, the sin of pride does not appear as a fall, a stumbling, but it is their constant state. Consequently they do not consider it to be a sin. But what are "noble self-love," "a feeling of one’s own worth," "honor" — if not this pride which is repugnant to God. People call these feelings "noble pride," "lawful pride," but there is only one sort of pride — demonic. The Elder Makary of the Optina Hermitage explained this to a landlord, who was bewailing to him that his son had married a serf girl, and thus offended the "noble pride" of the whole family. I have written and spoken much against this spiritual blindness which, alas, has even made its way into textbooks of moral theology and adduces an uncomprehending reference to the words of St. Paul, who said that it would be better for him to die than that any man should make his glorying void (1 Cor. 9:15). But anyone who has taken the trouble to read this statement will see that the glory is here understood to be from God, and that in the future life.

Of course, it is not only our contemporaries who suffer from pride: only the saints are free of it, but those of Adam’s descendents who have not crucified their passions bear this burden in themselves and have to struggle with it until they are freed from its weight. But the disaster of our contemporaries is that they do not consider it to be a sin, although it is cursed by God — just as those deeply sunk in a life of dissolution do not consider either lust or adultery to be sins. On the contrary, if a young person is distinguished by a forgiving nature and does not seek revenge on those who offend him, he not infrequently has reproaches and mockery hurled at him even by his own parents, being called a worthless person who does not even defend his own honor. Probably our own contemporaries would treat Christ the Savior with the same contempt, as well as the Apostles and Martyrs who unmurmuringly endured beatings and every kind of humiliation.

A spiritual father must at least try to ensure that the penitent recognizes as sinful every word and act instigated by this feeling. There are two different kinds of pride — vainglory and inner or spiritual pride. The first passion seeks after human praise and fame but the second, a subtler and more dangerous feeling, makes people so full of confidence about their own virtues that they do not even wish to seek human praise, but are satisfied by the pleasure of contemplating their own imagined virtues. Of this type are Byronism as well as Mephistopheles and the demons beloved by European writers.

Vainglory is the more amusing feeling, in that people laugh at it, and so it is easier, if not to overcome it, then at least to understand that it is shameful and start struggling with it. But how? The penitent should be reminded of Christ’s words in the Sermon on the Mount, when He said that the struggles of a vainglorious man are not pleasing to God (Mt., Ch. 6); and also of the condemnation of the Pharisees (in the twenty-third chapter of St. Matthew). This is the way in which thoughtless people who do not notice the sinfulness of their motives should be brought to their senses. But we must also be very careful about something of which, alas, we take no care at all, and this applies not just to spiritual fathers but to all members of the clergy. We must be very careful that we ourselves do not motivate people with vainglory, especially those giving money to the Church. Indeed, we cannot but admit that a good half of the most abundant offerings on which churches, schools, orphanages and hospitals are built, are made at the instigation of vainglory, stirred up in rich people by the clergy, not infrequently even those in bishop’s orders. Vainglory which has been humbled or is struggling with humility in the soul of a Christian, deserves incomparably greater condolence or heartfelt sympathy. Frequently people who are reverent and humble-hearted will confess to you that they are haunted by thoughts of vainglory when making donations, serving the sick, or even when showing a good, loving attitude towards them, and finally, when they sing or read well in church and people praise them for it; when they preach sermons, study diligently at school, and so on, and so on. Often good monks, noticing such thoughts in themselves, ask their elder’s or spiritual father’s permission to stop their useful service on the kliros (i.e. singing and reading) or in the altar; and lay people — to stop their social and philanthropic activities.

This, of course, was one of the principal motives that hermits had in refusing to be made bishops and even fleeing from people when they became famous among them. For this same reason even now several educated archimandrites refuse to become bishops, and monks refuse to be ordained to the priesthood. What, then, should a spiritual father say when a Christian puts forward such ideas? Exactly the same answer as the famous elders of Optina, Makary and Amvrossy, gave to such a question. One should not refuse an obedience which is useful to the Church, in accordance with God’s commandments and to which you are called by your superiors and by the gifts that God has given you. Do a useful job, and as for the thoughts of vainglory which force their way into your heart, reproach yourself and oppose them — but not by abandoning the job. Carry on with the useful work, but not with the sinful thought, even when the work demands one thing and the thought demands the opposite, which will unfailingly happen soon and frequently. Not only the Lord, but also people who observe life intelligently can always see who is genuinely working for the sake of what has to be done and who is working out of vainglory: which teacher is loving towards his pupils, trying to inspire them to labour and struggles, and which is trying to obtain glory for himself or, as they say, "popularity": which writer is writing for the triumph of right and in order to teach people what is good, and which is writing to please the crowd, for his own vainglory and "for filthy luchre’s sake" (Titus 1:11). And so teach people to test their consciences after every special feat and even after every obligatory labour; for example, was the motive of vainglory present during prayer, and to what extent? Then offer repentance for this sin, but do not abandon the work. If he does this, a Christian will soon see that he often has to choose between the demands of his work (and duty) and the demands of vainglory, that he must constantly choose the first and suppress the second. Besides this, as he becomes strengthened in struggling for the good, a Christian is gradually freed from self-love in general and, consequently, from all kinds of vainglory.

What should be said to people who are proud in the strict sense of the word, who think so highly of themselves that they do not even seek praise from people? "What are you proud of: your mind, beauty, noble birth, talents? But surely all this is not from yourself, but from the Creator, and the Creator can take all this away from you, as He has taken away everything from the "great" people in the present revolution. But what is most terrible of all, He can take away even your mind. Remember Nebuchadnezzar’s punishment and humble yourself before God, before the fate of Napoleon and Wilhelm overtakes you. And let every Christian who excels above others in something keep a watch on himself and struggle with every kind of self-exultation, remembering his sins and passions and the humble dispositions of the Holy Apostles and others who pleased God. It is useful to mention an account like this from the Spiritual Meadow (or another patristic book). "I saw," recounts an elder, "in a monastery a brother who was still young, but renowned for his struggles and for his gentleness. Before my eyes he was offended and even insulted, but he calmly kept silent throughout and even the expression of his face did not change in the slightest. ‘Brother, who taught you to be so gentle?’ I asked, moved to compunction.

‘Are they really worth my anger?’ he answered. ‘These are not people, they are just beautiful dogs, and they are not worthy of my being upset by them’. Then my joy (continues the elder) changed into deep grief for this perishing brother, and I went away from him in horror, praying for him and for myself."

It is also necessary to fight against pride by acts which are opposed to it. It is especially important in this case to force oneself, as we have said, to ask forgiveness of those we have offended, and also to bear punishments at school unmurmuringly.

It is hardly necessary to mention that a priest has to listen to the confession of sins against chastity more than any other kind of sin, and give corresponding advice as to how to struggle with it. In these times, when unbelief is triumphant and the faith is despised, only people who want to save their souls come to confession. Many, if not the majority of these courageous souls who remain faithful to God and the Church, have humbled themselves before the Lord, do not offend anyone, and try to do good. Such Christians, who of their own accord are going towards God, are usually free from malice, love of money and envy, but they are still pursued by temptations of the flesh, even in monasteries and hermitages. If they are free from the enticements of female beauty and alluring female society, then sinful desires make their appearance in the form of the crudest animal lust, or if the Christian separates himself completely from women, as temptation to secret and unnatural sins. These inclinations will not depart from such a Christian, or even from an ascetic who struggles intensely with himself and hates the sin from the very depths of his soul, ardently desiring to lead a perfectly cha