Book: Spiritual life. The first stage: churching.

A sure sign of a properly passable life is the alternation of some sorrows and burdens with others, with continued hope. Difficulties threaten to become false and pernicious when despair follows. At this point, there is a threat that the labors will perish without giving fruit. Where there are labors, there will be joys and sorrows. And if there is no despair in grief, but there is hope, then this is a sign of a properly passed life. A grieving person does not fall into charm. He may become embittered, but it will not be lovely, but a kind of nervousness. But when everything is always good, then there are serious reasons for alarm. Here we must be afraid of spiritual charm..

In prayer, fruit is first given, and then work is required. According to human reasoning, the sequence of the process is broken here. After all, in ordinary life first - work, and then - the fruit. And then first the fruit was eaten, then you need fruitless, dry work in the hope of obtaining a future fruit. It's a divine thing.
In the psalm, which is singed at the wedding, there are such words: "Bear down your fruits: blessed is he, and good will be to you." You will not eat the fruits of labor, but the labors of fruits. In other words, the fruit is given in advance, and then there will be labors, and you will be satisfied with the "labors of fruits." And this is not a mistake, and not a play on words, as many translators thought. Indeed, the fruits are given before labor. When people marry, they first eat sweets, and only then - bitter. What is this? Maybe all my life worked out those quickly eaten sweet fruits? No. This is different - so the spouses prepare for the gifts of the future. At the beginning of marriage, intimacy and joy are given, and then labor begins - to give birth, work, educate, endure, get sick, grieve. In the end, the spouses expect genuine fruits, much larger than the first.

The book itself is a moral phenomenon. The writer either shares knowledge or rings the bells, worrying about some problem of the world, sharing his anxiety with the reader.
Creating a book is a mysterious process. Therefore, I repeat again, I think that it is easier for people who are generally immersed in reading to become interested in the truth and find Christ. Until that time, they are in search.

Russian people who read a lot are in an active search for a living God. For me it is beyond doubt.

The greatest occupation on earth is praying to God.

A person who is open to teaching is a very interesting person. He consults with everyone, looks at everyone as potential teachers, but does not open his heart to everyone. And rightly so.

So you need to learn from everyone you can, even everyday things: lay a brick wall or cook dishes from peas or rutabagas. But to open your heart - to one in a thousand.

We, simply by communicating with each other on serious topics, can put an important word in a person's heart. Therefore, you need to be attentive to the circumstances of life and love to obey those who are smarter than you.

In general, you need to listen to people. The nature of human communication is such that people sometimes sentence great things in everyday life, for simple conversations.

By and large, each of us would have to understand for himself that life will still have to live with a suffering heart, and consolation - holistic, complete, pure - awaits a person, but - in the life of the next century. We kind of understand that... and we don't understand at the same time.

Everything that is given to man is given from God, not from man. The circumstances of life are certain movements of the hands of God, which both raise barriers and remove barriers, touch a person or shake him by the shoulders.

To live with faith in conditions of constant labor is asceticism.

Essentially, all the problems that modern man solves are ascetic problems. Asceticism should not be seen only in putting on chains. If we see an accountant in chains, we must understand that this is a crazy person, especially if he goes up to the roof at lunchtime and stands there, pummeling.

Before embarking on exploits, small or large, a person must get to know himself. Each person is unique.