Christians are sentries who stand guard. Their guard is sobriety and prayer, which does not stop even for a minute. This is hard work and great responsibility.
Today, more than ever, the world needs prayer, so I appeal to you, and through you to all Christians: do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent (boiling, glowing) in the Spirit (Rom. 12:11) and be faithful to your calling.
I would like to warn you, my dear children, against plunging into the whirlpool of the world that distracts from God and interferes with prayer, which is the main weapon of a Christian.
I can say for myself, when you work 12 hours a day, and then you think, after all I still need to pray, sometimes you don’t have enough strength for prayer. And when you stand for prayer your attention is not focused. And it turns out that the most important thing is on the periphery, because your agenda becomes the main thing. Of course, it is completely connected with the service of the Church, there can be no extraneous goals and tasks. But prayer, even in this stream of life aimed at serving the Church, occupies a very small place for many of us. And you need to learn how to match the performance of duties - honest, sacrificial - with prayer. In our particularly turbulent times, I think that this is an indispensable condition for the success of our ministry. Therefore, I would like to warn all of us against plunging into the maelstrom of the world that distracts us from God. Without prayer, the Christian becomes unable to wage invisible warfare and inevitably falls into passions, often becoming a temptation for others who want to see in the life of a Christian a role model.
Humility, patience, compassion and sacrifice, which Christians should cultivate in their hearts, are necessary components of spiritual life along with prayer. Humility, patience, compassion and sacrifice. Everything is difficult, but it is especially difficult to sympathize and sacrifice.
Humility is what we consider good for ourselves. A wise person is a strong person. But compassion and sacrifice are what we give away; and giving is always more difficult than receiving. All Christians pray in one way or another, but prayer can be varied. It should not be limited to reading and attending services. The prayer to which we are called is the mind and heart directed towards God, remembering that all our deeds and thoughts are open to the Lord. This is walking with God as the holy fathers said and as it is said in the word of God - both in the Old and in the New Testament. "The righteous walked before God” means that he constantly put himself under God’s judgment, controlling his thoughts and actions, realizing that these thoughts and actions are visible to the Lord, and a person will answer for them before God.
The success of a Christian is not measured by external achievements. You can follow all the rules and go to church every day, but in fact never become a Christian. Because Christianity is, first of all, the fulfillment of God's commands, it is patient, bearing each other's burdens, and finally, through gentleness and compassion, the acquisition of the love for one's neighbor.
Many people do not understand what love for one's neighbor is. Love for a husband, for a wife, for children, for parents, for friends - yes, of course. What is love for our neighbor? Love begins with compassion, and only a person who is capable of compassion can achieve love for his neighbor.
The result of our labors brought to the Lord is the spiritual fruit that the Apostle Paul listed in the Epistle to the Galatians: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance (Gal. 5:22-23). The life of prayer provides a wonderful opportunity to acquire these fruits. And how does love manifest itself? In a kind and sincere attitude towards your neighbor, readiness to sacrifice for him what is dear to you. Is joy genuine and spiritual? What is this, if not the ability to rejoice for others and be comforted not by something earthly and external, but by the knowledge of God?
And what is meekness? Again, this is not something external, not downcast eyes, but the ability to endure everything unpleasant without grumbling and anger. This is an inner deep work, based both on the power of faith and on the power of will. Isn't this the most important concern of a Christian and the subject of his spiritual reflections? Keeping himself from temptations, keeping his faith pure, constantly striving in the fight against sin, the monk acquires real strength - peace of mind, the peace of Christ, conquering all enmity and hatred.
Christians striving to bring spiritual fruit, create around them a fertile atmosphere of joy, peace and silence, which is why people love to be around them. After all, they feel peace and tranquility in their hearts, and from there joy arises. Next to a Christian, with a Christian community, people gain faith and embark on the path of salvation. Thus, not only the Christian himself, but also his neighbors come to the goal of the Christian life - the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, which the great saint of God, Seraphim said, all of you, of course, know these words: Acquire a spirit of peace, and thousands around you will be saved. This is how Christians can and should serve the world, and this is what those who come to churches are waiting for today.
Every believer must inwardly always stand before God. Unceasing spiritual vigilance is a science of sciences and in this all of us must acquire real skill.
The venerable fathers have left us a great legacy ”” their numerous works reflect the rich experience of their spiritual life and this treasury is open to us. Once upon a time, Christians could only dream of such books which are now available to everyone. At one time there were very few books of the Holy Fathers available and they were very expensive and the teachings or the words were not translated at all.
Let's look at the recent past. Just a few decades ago, (in our Fatherland) the Holy Scriptures and the books of the holy Fathers were banned and with great difficulty it was possible to find a copy. Compare all this with what we have now. The books of the Holy Fathers are published in large quantities - not only previously known, but also those that did not previously exist. Today, this entire treasure is open to us and everyone has the opportunity to read and learn the science of the Christian life.
Of course, it's not enough just to read the books. Reading should be accompanied by reflection and the desire to implement what is read. What we read in such wonderful texts, we must pass through ourselves: where am I in the system of values that is described on these pages? What is my reaction to what the author describes as dangerous or seductive? Passing through what we read, we actualize the text, it becomes alive, effective, it becomes a part of our life.
I would also like to say that Simeon the New Theologian compares such labors with a treasure full of gold and precious stones. Whoever simply reads books has taken possession of the treasure, but as long as the treasure is locked, there is no use from it. You need to open this treasure, penetrate inside, into the depths of patristic works. To do this, you need to try to actually fulfill what is written, gaining through this doing both the knowledge of God, and spiritual wisdom, and dispassion (apatheia) and other gifts.
This doing should be the doing of a lifetime. This is what I said earlier, using a different combination of words. I said that one should pass what was written through oneself, trying to actualize it both in consciousness and in feelings, and ask oneself the question: how much does this concern me? How ready am I to do all this? Am I doing what is written here? And if I don't, why not? And what should I do to try to follow the path suggested by the holy fathers?
And it all starts with a simple thing, which these books also talk about. Whatever you open, you will see two basic instructions: obedience and prayer. These are the cornerstones on which everything is built.
In obedience is the beauty and strength of a Christian. Sometimes they ask: why go to a monastery (place of prayer) when you can pray, work, fulfill the commands in the world? Yes, all this can be done in the world but to fully concentrate on achieving the set goal, to cut off one's will, surrendering to the will of God, is possible only in a place of prayer. If you strive for perfection, this striving must be accompanied by a complete concentration of thought and will. To do this in the world is very difficult, almost impossible, but it can and should be done, in the monastic (Christian) community.
The strength of the venerable fathers is not in a special choice. For example, Archimandrite John (Krestyankin) from his youth loved obedience and until the end of his days (and he lived 95 years) willingly obeyed, not claiming primacy, not striving to gain authority and not considering his opinion to be the ultimate truth. When the brothers of the monastery came to him for a blessing for some work, he always first asked if the governor had blessed it. I remember Father John (Krestyankin) well, not yet a monk, but a priest. He was on friendly terms with my father, they often talked, and I also happened to meet Father John when he was still a simple priest. But meeting with him always left a very bright, peaceful trace in the soul, and it was felt that this was a person with some special spiritual potential. And this potential then developed.
Obedience is the basis of sobriety and smart work, because the Savior Himself said: If anyone wants to follow Me, he must deny himself (Matthew 16:24). This self-denial is fulfilled precisely through obedience, through which the monk renounces his will and entrusts himself to God and the spiritual mentor.
Now we are not talking about such acts that are beyond the limits of our capabilities. We are not talking about superhuman feats, for example, standing on a pillar, or sleeping one hour a day, or eating only crackers (like the Egyptian hermits). None of this is necessary to qualify for a high monastic (Christian) calling. What is obligatory is what is available to everyone: obedience and prayer and deeds of love. Little is required, but, as you know, great efforts must be directed to this little, and then this little becomes great.
I know many zealous Christians who love Christ and His Church, show obedience and succeed in prayer and good deeds. God grant that everyone who has taken on an angelic image always keeps the fire of love for the Lord and his neighbors and tries so that no earthly winds extinguish this flame.
In our day there is a dangerous temptation that can extinguish the strongest spiritual fire. I would like to say a few words about this temptation. These are numerous information flows that fall on a person from all sides, and therefore a special kind of asceticism is now required from Christians, which can be defined as refraining from excessive information, from excessive involvement in virtual life. A few years ago, we could not even imagine that there could be such a temptation that virtual life would burst into our inner space, that in some sense a person would be unprotected. Because he uses all these gadgets in order to do a huge number of things, without these devices, modern life is already unthinkable; but through these convenient devices, the outer world invades our inner life.
Andronik (Lukash), the Glinsk elder, said: A monk who has left the monastery even for a short time will not return the same as he left. But now, to go out into the world, just take a smartphone and press one button. And what kind of world do you immediately find yourself in - a world full of passions, clashes, deceit and everything that can very easily destroy the spiritual world of a Christian. The person who picks up a smartphone enters the World Wide Web and returns from it most often not the same as he entered. This is what you need to remember. We are not aware of what happened during this time of our stay in the virtual space, but it affected us, and the extent of this impact is incredibly difficult to assess, maybe even impossible. Often all this is latent, somewhere in the depths of consciousness or even in the subconscious, but this impact is carried out. Thousands of images are imprinted in the mind from contact with this space, and the internal state of a person becomes different - even if by some millimeters or milligrams, relatively speaking, but different. The Internet, as you know, is by no means a harmless thing, and a Christian needs certain limits.
When a Christian visits the Internet space, he must be aware that he finds himself in a raging world that lies in the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19). And I would also add: it is on thin ice. Before you touch the screen, you need to think very carefully whether the information is really necessary, which most often destroys peace and brings confusion to the heart. If reading and viewing Internet materials provokes sinful thoughts, then there may be a danger of becoming captives of passions - both carnal, and less noticeable, such as vanity, conceit, lies, exaltation over others, and so on.
Therefore, it must be remembered that Christians have a different way of influencing the world, a different guard that we carry. Even if there is an urgent need to use the Internet, I return to this topic again, then the time for such use should be strictly limited.
The use of the Internet, if possible, should be outside the monastic (prayer) cell. As everyone knows, Sergius of Radonezh, after Compline, went around the cells and watched what the monks were doing. If he saw that they were praying, reading the holy fathers and doing needlework, then he rejoiced. And if he caught someone else doing something, he was upset and knocked on the window. If he saw a monk who, within the walls of his cell, goes out into the world and lives in the spirit of this world, do you think he would be delighted or knock on the window? The answer is obvious. Therefore, I wish all of you in your cells to fulfill your rule of prayer, to read the Holy Scriptures, the Psalter, patristic writings, and the lives of the saints. And not only to read, but then to do what you learn in solitude, to excel in the virtues. The world will benefit from this more than from the most brilliant Internet discussions.
In general, any wandering of thoughts, all fantasies and sensual representations, inspired by external impressions or generated by passions and sinful inclinations, also tear the monk away from God and de-energize his heart.
We will continue to make efforts for spiritual growth and do good deeds. Whatever difficulties and trials we meet on our way, let us firmly trust in the Lord, knowing that if He has entrusted something to us, He Himself will give strength to do it.
Today, at the Liturgy, the Gospel was read about how the disciples were afraid of a storm during the voyage and how the Lord came to them on the waters. The raging element, in the midst of which Christ comes on the waves to help man, is the image of our whole life. Whatever happens, let us believe: the Savior is with us ”” the Living One, delivering us from every danger, calming every storm.
Let us heed the admonition of the holy Apostle Paul: Stay vigilant; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Let everything be done in love. (1 Cor. 16:13-14). This call must be followed by all Christians, since it is from their piety and ability to love, to overcome enmity and discord that the spiritual well-being of the world largely depends. Amen.
Address of Patriarch Kirill at the Meeting of Abbots and Abbesses of Monasteries of the Russian Orthodox Church (September 23, 2022).
Adapted from the original to address Christians in general rather than only the monastic community.