By Bishop Ignatiy Brianchaninov
Part Two
The desire to see and even perform miracles in contemporary Christian society should not be ignored. This aspiration needs careful consideration. The desire to perform miracles is strongly condemned by the Holy Fathers: such a desire reveals the self-deception that lives and reigns in the soul, based on conceit and vanity. The great mentor of the monks, St. Isaac the Syrian, reflected on this matter in this way: “The Lord is at all times a close Intercessor of His saints, but without need He does not manifest His power in any visible way or through a sign evident to the senses, so that His intercession in something ordinary for us, lest we lose the necessary reverence for Him and this cause us harm. This is what He does, considering the saints. God allows them, under all circumstances, to perform a feat corresponding to their strength and to labor in prayer, but at the same time shows them that not for an hour does His secret care for them cease. If the difficulty of the circumstance exceeds the measure of their reason, if they grow weary and are unable to act because of their natural infirmity, then He Himself does what is necessary to help them according to the greatness of His power, as is fitting and as He knows. Whenever possible He secretly strengthens them, putting in them strength to overcome their sorrows. He frees them from their sorrow and perplexity by reason, which He Himself bestows upon them, and by making them aware of His providence, calls forth in them a glorification that benefits them in every way. When the circumstances require clear assistance, He does this according to the need. His means and ways of helping are wisest. They help in times of scarcity, in case of need, but not pointlessly. He who dares and asks God to do something extraordinary, without any necessity forcing him to do it, who wants miracles to be done by his hands, allows himself to be tempted in his mind by the devil, who laughs at him. Such a person appears vain and has a sick (damaged) conscience. It is proper to ask God for help in grief. To tempt God needlessly is dangerous. Unrighteous indeed is he who desires this. In the lives of the saints we find examples of the Lord fulfilling similar wishes of theirs, expressing His displeasure. The seeker and desirer of miracles of his own accord, without being forced to do so, falls away from the state in which he can keep himself, and by his hidden aspirations moves away from the understanding of the truth. If the petitioner for something extraordinary is heard, the wicked one finds a place in him, as one who walks before God without reverence, with boldness, and in doing so, the wicked one throws him into even greater hidden aspirations.
The truly righteous not only do not wish to be miracle workers, but when they are given the gift of miracle work they refuse it. They do not want this not only in front of people, but also in themselves, in the secrets of their hearts. A holy father, because of his purity, received from God a gracious gift to know about those who came to him, but he begged God, begging his friends to ask the same – that this gift be taken away from him. If some of the saints accepted the gifts, it was either out of necessity or because of their simple-heartedness, others accepted them at the direction of the Spirit of God working in them, but in no case by chance, without need… The true righteous live constantly with the thought, that they are unworthy of God. That they consider themselves wretched, unworthy of God’s care, is a testimony that they are truly righteous [16].
From this holy reflection follows the conclusion that those who wish to perform signs desire it because of carnal heat, carried away by passions incomprehensible to them, although it seems to them that they are guided by zeal for the works of God. Those who want to see signs are also in such a state of self-deception and heat. To tempt God and violate reverence for Him is forbidden in all cases, to beg God’s help is allowed in extreme need, when one’s own means to get out of it are lacking. However, we must leave the choice of means of support to God, surrendering to His will and mercy. The Lord will always send us a soul-helping means. It will bring both the help we need and a taste of holy humility through that same help. It is not connected with outward splendor, as the same carnal wisdom would have it, lest the soul be corrupted by the gratification of its vanity. Both in the work of God and in the ministry of the Church itself, God’s blessing and God’s help must be invoked unceasingly, it must be believed that only Divine spiritual means can be useful for faith and piety, but in no case those means which carnal wisdom offers us.
It is difficult for a man to bear glory without harming his soul [17]. This is difficult not only for the passionate (slaves of the passions), but also for those who have conquered the passions, for the saints. Although victory over sin has been granted to them, fickleness has not been removed from them, the possibility of returning to sin and the yoke of passions has not been taken away. This has indeed happened to some with insufficient attention to themselves, when they trusted too much only to themselves, to their spiritual condition. The tendency to pride is present even in the most purified souls, as noted by Reverend Macarius the Great [18]. This same inclination becomes the beginning of deviation (from the right path) and entrainment (of sin). For this reason the gift of healing and other visible gifts are very dangerous to those to whom they are given, for they are highly valued by the carnally minded who glorify them. The invisible gifts of grace, such as the gift of leading souls to salvation and healing them from passions, are incomparably superior to the visible, but they are not understood or noticed by the world. He not only does not glorify the servants of God who have these gifts, but even persecutes them, as acting against the principles of the world, as slandering the authority of the prince of this world [19]. The Merciful God gives people what is essential and useful to them, even though they do not understand and value it. It does not give that which in any case is of little use, and can often turn out to be very harmful, although carnal wisdom and ignorance insatiably crave and seek precisely it. “Many – says St. Isaac the Syrian – performed signs, raised the dead, labored to convert the lost, performed great miracles, brought others to the knowledge of God, and then they themselves, having revived others, have fallen into impure and abominable passions, which have killed themselves” [20]. Rev. Macarius the Great tells of an ascetic who lived with him and received such an abundant gift of healing that he healed the sick only by laying on of hands, but after being glorified by the people he became proud and fell into the deepest sinfulness [21]. In the life of St. Anthony the Great, it is mentioned about a young monk who commanded the wild donkeys in the desert. When the great ascetic heard about this miracle, he expressed disbelief in the state of mind of the miracle worker, and indeed, not long after that, news came of the monk’s tragic fall [22]. In the 4th century, a holy old man lived in Egypt, who had a particularly great gift of miracle-working and, because of this, great fame among men. He soon noticed that pride was getting the better of him and that he could not defeat it by his own efforts. The old man turned to God with the most fervent prayers to be given over to the possession of the demons, so that he would humble himself. God fulfilled the humble and wise request of His servant and allowed Satan to enter him. The old man was given up to a frenzy for five months, had to be chained, and the people, who flocked to him in great crowds and glorified him as a great saint, abandoned him, proclaiming that he had lost his mind. Thus the old man got rid of human glory and thanked God, who saved him from destruction. Salvation took place through insignificant torture and dishonor before carnal people, who did not understand that through the signs the devil arranged disaster for the old man, and through the open rage, the old man was returned to the safe path by God’s wonderful mercy.
From this it becomes clear why the great fathers Sisoi, Pimen and others, who had abundant gifts of healing, began to hide them. They did not trust themselves, because they knew the ability of man to change easily, and through humility they protected themselves from dangers to the soul [23]. The holy apostles were given the gift of miracles to aid the preaching, but together with this, God’s providence allowed heavy sorrows and persecutions upon them precisely for this purpose – to keep them from self-exaltation. St. Isaac the Syrian says: “A gift without temptation is ruinous for the one who receives it.” If what you are doing is pleasing to God and He has given you a gift – ask Him to give you wisdom in what way to humble yourself with this gift or ask Him to place a guard at the gift (guards of the gifts of the holy apostles were the calamities allowed upon them), or else the gift may be taken from you, which may become the cause of your destruction, for not all can keep the wealth without harming themselves.” [24]
The spiritual mind’s view of bodily diseases and their miraculous cures is entirely different from that of carnal wisdom. Carnal wisdom regards sickness as a calamity, and its cure, especially when it is miraculously effected, as the greatest welfare, without caring whether such healing is associated with benefit or harm to the soul. The spiritual mind sees both in the handicaps sent by God’s providence and in the healings bestowed by Divine grace, God’s mercy to man. Illuminated by the light of the word of God, spiritual reason teaches us godly and soul-saving behavior in both cases. He teaches us that it is permissible to ask and ask God for healing from illness with the firm intention to use the recovered health and strength for the service of God and in no case for the service of vanity and sin. Otherwise, the miraculous healing will only serve to further condemnation and become the cause of even greater punishment in both temporal and eternal life. This has been witnessed by the Lord Himself. When He healed the weakness, He said to him: Behold, you are healed, sin no more, lest something worse befall you (John 5:14). Man is weak and easily inclined to sin. Since some saints, having the gracious gift of healing and the abundant gift of spiritual reasoning, have been tempted and fallen into sin, so much more easily can the gift of God be abused by carnal people who have no clear concepts of spiritual things. And many have abused! After being miraculously healed of their illness, they did not pay attention to God’s beneficence and their duty to be thankful for it, and began a sinful life. They turned God’s gift to their own detriment and by moving away from God, they lost salvation. Therefore, miraculous healings of bodily infirmities rarely occur, although carnal wisdom greatly honors and desires them. You ask and do not receive, because you ask badly – to squander it on your lusts (James 4:3).
Spiritual reason teaches us that diseases and other afflictions that God sends to people are sent by God’s special mercy. As bitter healing medicines help the sick, so they work for our salvation, for our eternal well-being far more surely than miraculous cures. Often, quite often, the handicap turns out to be a much greater boon than its cure. Disease is so essential a necessary good that to take it away by healing would be to take away a greatest good, incomparable to that temporary good which the healing of bodily infirmity will bring. The poor and sick Lazarus, who is mentioned in the Gospel, was not cured of his serious illness, was not delivered from poverty and died in the same position in which he suffered for a long time, but because of his patience he was taken up by the angels to Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16:22). The Holy Scripture everywhere testifies that God sends various afflictions, among them bodily infirmities, to those people whom He has loved (Heb. 10:6ff.). The Holy Scriptures confirm that all God’s saints, without exception, made their earthly pilgrimage along the narrow, steep and thorny path, filled with various sorrows and deprivations (Heb. 12:3). Based on such an understanding of sorrows, the true servants of God treated the sorrows that befell them with the greatest prudence and self-sacrifice. The tribulation that was sent them, whatever it was, they welcomed as something deserved, [25] believing with all their souls that the tribulation would not have been sent if it had not been allowed by the Just and All-Good God according to the needs of man. Their first job when grief befell them was to realize that they deserved it. They sought and always found within themselves the cause of sorrow. Then, if they saw that their sorrow was an obstacle to their pleasing God, they prayed to God to deliver them from it, submitting the fulfillment of their request to the will of God, and in no case did they consider their understanding of sorrow to be correct. It cannot be completely correct: the judgment of even a holy person is limited, it cannot encompass and see all the causes of sorrows, as the all-seeing eye of God, allowing sorrows for His beloved servants, encompasses and sees them. St. app. Paul three times prayed to God to remove the satanic angel who was hindering him in the preaching of Christianity. Paul was not heard: God judged this matter otherwise, not as the inspired apostle (2 Cor. 12:7-10).
Surrendering oneself to the will of God with a sincere reverent desire to do it is a natural consequence of true, spiritual reasoning. When the holy monks fell ill, they accepted the illness as God’s greatest beneficence, tried to spend that time in glorification and gratitude to God, did not wish for healing, although miraculous healings were performed mainly among them. They wanted to patiently and humbly endure what God allowed, believing and confessing that it was more beneficial for the soul than any arbitrary feat. Venerable Pimen the Great said: “There are three monastic deeds (ways of spiritual asceticism), equal in their dignity – when someone correctly resides in silence, when someone is sick and gives thanks to God, and when someone performs obedience with pure thoughts” [26]. Rev. Benjamin lived in the Egyptian hermitage, where the most holy monks lived. Because of his virtuous life, the Lord granted him an abundant gift of healing. Having this gift, he himself fell ill with a severe and prolonged illness, from which his whole body swelled. He swelled unusually much. They were forced to move him from his own cell to another, more spacious one. For this, they had to remove the entire door of his cell. In the new room, they made a special place for him to lie down, or rather to sit, because he could not lie on the bed. Being in such a position, the monk continued to heal others, and those who saw his sufferings and expressed sympathy for him, he exhorted to pray for his soul and not to worry about his body. “When my body is healthy,” he said, “then I have no particular use for it.” Now, given over to the disease, it does me no harm” [27]. Abba Peter told that once when he visited Rev. Isaiah the Hermit and found him suffering from a severe illness, he expressed regret. To this the reverend replied: “Although so oppressed by the disease, I can barely retain in my memory the terrible time (of death and God’s judgment). If my body were healthy, the memory of that time would be completely foreign to me. When the body is healthy, then it tends to cause enmity towards God. And sorrows serve us as a means of keeping God’s commandments.” [28] St. fathers, when diseases and other sorrows befell them, first of all tried to show patience themselves according to their strength, resorting to self-condemnation and self-reproach and thus exerting pressure on the heart, forcing it to patience [29]. They remembered the death, the God’s judgment, the eternal torments, the memory of which weakens the meaning and feeling of earthly sorrows (Mat. 28:20). They raised their thoughts to God’s providence, they remembered the promise of the Son of God to be unyieldingly with His followers and to protect them, and with this they encouraged their hearts to kindness and courage (Matt. 28:20). They forced themselves to glorify God and thank Him for the sorrow, they forced themselves to realize their sinfulness, which required punishment and admonition because of the justice of God and because of God’s goodness itself. To their strenuous labors to acquire patience they added this: they intensified their diligent prayers to God to send them the spiritual gift of gracious patience, inseparable from other spiritual gifts, as well as gracious humility, serving together with it as a sure pledge of salvation and eternal bliss.
The great standard-bearer fathers did not perform healings, which was very easy for them, on their disciples, given over to diseases due to God’s permission or God’s providence, so as not to deprive them of spiritual success, which they must have achieved through the illness endured according to the original moral laws of the Church. The abbot of the dormitory monastery in Gaza, Reverend Serid, a disciple of Varsanufius the Great, who was silent in the same dormitory, was ill for a long time. Some of the senior brothers asked the great old man to heal the abbot. St. Varsanufius answered: “For the health of my son, several of the saints present here may pray, as I have told him, and he will not be sick for a single day, but then he would not receive the fruits of patience.” This disease is very useful for him to acquire patience and gratitude” [30]. Explaining the need for sorrows for Christ’s ascetic, St. Isaac the Syrian says: “Temptation is useful for every person. If it was useful to St. Ap. Paul, that all mouths be stopped, and the whole world become guilty before God (Rom. 3:19). The ascetics undergo temptation in order to increase their wealth, the weak – in order to protect themselves from what is harmful to them, the sleeping – in order to wake up, the faraway – in order to get closer to God, their own – in order to become even closer. An uneducated son does not enter into his right to dispose of his father’s wealth, because he will not be able to dispose of it usefully. For this reason, God first tempts and torments, and then gives the gifts. Glory to the Bishop, Who with bitter medicines gives us to enjoy health! There is no person who does not grieve during the training. There is no man who does not find the time during which he has to drink the cup of temptation bitter. But without them it is not possible to acquire spiritual strength. And that we can suffer is not our merit. How can a vessel made of earth hold water unless first strengthened by divine fire? If we humbly ask God for him with reverence and a constant desire for patience, we will receive everything in Christ Jesus, our Lord” [31].
Part Three
Before the Second Coming of Christ, there will be omens on the sun and the moon and on the stars, and on the earth sadness among the peoples from bewilderment and from the noise and excitement of the sea (Luke 21:25). How are these signs to be distinguished from the signs of the antichrist, for he too will give signs in the sun, moon, stars, and in the air? [32] The former will be genuine and will therefore be completely different from the signs of the antichrist, which will consist of sensory-deceiving phenomena. The executors of the signs of the antichrist will be the antichrist himself and his “apostles”, and the signs on the sun, moon and stars announcing the Second Coming of Christ will happen by themselves, without any mediation. The heavenly luminaries will fulfill their purpose, for which they shone in the sky at the command of the Creator (Gen. 1:14). They have already fulfilled this purpose at the birth of Christ with the miraculous star (Matt. 2:2), they fulfilled it at the crucifixion of the God-man, when the sun was covered with the dark veil of darkness at noon (Matt. 27:45). St. evangelist Matthew says that after the tribulation caused by the rule of the antichrist has passed, the coming of Christ will immediately occur and it will begin with the fact that the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky (Matt. 29 :25). These lights will remain in their places, notes Blaj. Theophylact Bulgarian, but they will be darkened, and to human sight it will seem that they have disappeared from heaven, because of the abundant heavenly light, with which the world will be illuminated, prepared to receive the Lord in His glory.
The doctrine of miracles and signs that we offer you, we dare to call the doctrine of the holy Orthodox Church, the doctrine of its holy fathers. The essential need for an accurate and if possible detailed exposition of this teaching is obvious. The true signs were helpers of the true knowledge of God and the salvation it gave; false signs have been helpers of error and consequent destruction. In particular, the effect of the signs that the antichrist will perform will be extensive and powerful, it will enthrall hapless mankind and make them recognize the messenger of Satan as a god. Devout contemplation of the miracles of our Lord Jesus Christ is edifying, comforting and soul-saving. What a holy simplicity there is in them! How through them the knowledge of God has become easier for people! What kindness, what humility, and what irrefutable power of conviction lies in them! Contemplation of Christ’s miracles raises us to the Word, Who is God. In order to restore communion with mankind, which had fallen from Him, God pleased His Word to take on human flesh, to appear and communicate with men, to enter into the closest relations with them, and, having won them to Himself, to exalt them in the sky. Having clothed himself in human flesh, the Word continued to be the Word of God and to act as a word, according to His divine dignity. It sits at the right hand of the Father with assumed human nature and as God continues to be everywhere. It is written on paper, it is clothed in sounds, but being Spirit and Life (Jn. b:63), It enters the minds and hearts, regenerates those who unite with Him in spirit, attracting for spiritual life the body as well. From the contemplation of Christ’s miracles, we rise to the knowledge of this great meaning, which is concluded in the Word of God, the only thing necessary (Luke 10:42) for our salvation, to the Word, which serves for salvation and accomplishes salvation in full measure. The knowledge of the Word of God from the Holy Scriptures, pronounced and clarified by the Holy Spirit, together with the knowledge gained from the activity directed according to the Word of God, overshadowed finally by the knowledge that is taught to us by the grace of God, give the Christian purity of mind and heart.
In this purity the spiritual mind shines, like the sun in a clear cloudless sky. At the dawn of day, after the darkness of night, the clarity of material objects changes: some of them, which have not been seen until now, become visible, some, which were seen dimly and merged with other objects, separate from them and become outline more clearly. This is not because the objects have changed, but because the clarity of human vision in relation to them changes as the darkness of night replaces the light of day. So it is with the human mind in regard to moral and spiritual objects, when the mind is enlightened by the spiritual knowledge proceeding from the Holy Spirit. Only in the light of spiritual reason can the soul see the holy way to God. Only in the light of spiritual reason can the invisible march of the mind and heart to God be carried out infallibly! It is only in the light of spiritual reason that we can avoid delusions, the wilds of perdition and abysses. Where this light is absent, there is no knowledge of the truth, no God-pleasing virtue, saving man, to introduce him to the heavenly abodes [33]. With the light of spiritual reason our soul’s eyes must be enlightened when we look at signs and wonders. Thus we shall avoid the calamities into which we may be drawn by perceiving them through carnal wisdom. We have seen the nature of the God-man’s miracles; we have seen what their purpose consists of. The signs, having fulfilled their purpose, have left the field of their ministry, leaving the true doer, the Word, to act. It is He who abides and will abide as a doer until the end of the world, as He Himself announced about Himself: behold, I am with you to the end of the age (Matt. 28:20). After the universal performance of signs, which accompanied the sowing of Christianity through the preaching of the apostles and equally apostolic men, signs were performed in separate places, by selected vessels of the Holy Spirit. In course of time, with the gradual weakening of Christianity and the corruption of morality, the holy men performing signs became few [34] and finally disappeared altogether. Meanwhile, men, having lost reverence and respect for all that is sacred, having lost the humility with which they could see their unworthiness not only to perform but also to see signs, now crave miracles more than ever. Intoxicated by self-conceit, by conceit, by ignorance, they pursue indiscriminately, hastily, and boldly everything that pertains to miracles, not refusing to participate in the working of miracles themselves, they resolve to do so, without in the least think about it. But this course of action is more dangerous than ever. We are gradually approaching the time when the great spectacle of the numerous and astonishing lying miracles will be revealed before us, and the wretched disciples of carnal wisdom, who will be seduced and deceived by these miracles, will be drawn away to destruction.
The revitalization of the soul through the Word of God leads to living faith in Christ. Living faith seems to see Christ (Heb. 11:27). For her view, Christianity, being secret, becomes open, being unattainable, becomes clear and understood, no longer hidden by the thick, impenetrable veil that hides it from dead faith. Living faith is spiritual intelligence [35]. She no longer needs signs, since she is completely satisfied with Christ’s signs and above all with the greatest of them, the crown of signs – His word. The desire to see signs is a sign of unbelief, and signs were given to unbelief to convert it to faith. Let us cling with all our souls to the Word of God, let us unite with Him in one spirit, and the signs of the antichrist will not even attract our attention. With contempt and hatred, we shall turn our eyes from them as from the spectacle of demons, as from the actions of the fierce enemies of God, as from the blasphemy of God, as from a deadly poison and contagion. Let us remember the following particularly important observation drawn from the experience of the ascetics.
All demonic phenomena have this property that even the slightest attention to them is dangerous. From one such attention, allowed even without any sympathy for the phenomenon, we can leave the most harmful impression, we can be subjected to the most severe temptations.
Humility is inseparable from spiritual intelligence. St. Isaac the Syrian says: “Only he who has humility can be considered wise. He who does not have humility will never have reason” [36]. Living faith opens the eyes of the soul to God, the Word of God unites the soul to God. He who has seen God in such a way, who has felt God in such a way, sees his nothingness, is filled with unspeakable reverence for God, for all His works, for all His commandments, for all His teaching, and preserves humble wisdom. And the humble and wise will not even dare to be curious about what is happening outside the will of God and which was condemned in due time by the Word of God. Therefore, the signs of the antichrist will remain foreign to the humble, having no relation to them.
The knowledge of one’s own weakness and insignificance, the knowledge of God, of His majesty, omnipotence and infinite goodness prompts the soul to aspire to God in prayer. All the hope of such a soul is centered in God, and therefore there is no reason for him to be distracted in prayer; she prays by uniting her forces and aspiring to God with her whole being, she resorts to prayer at every opportunity, she prays unceasingly. When the great tribulations come in the time of the antichrist, all who truly believe in God will turn to Him with intense prayer [37]. They will cry for help, for intercession, they will ask that the grace of God be sent to them for support and guidance. Men’s own strength, though faithful to God, will be insufficient to resist the combined forces of the rejected angels and men who will act with impetuousness and despair, foreboding their impending doom (Rev. 12:12). The divine grace that will cover God’s elect will make the deceits of the deceiver void, his threats fearless, his miracles despised. She will give them manhood to confess the Savior, Who accomplished the salvation of people, and to denounce the false messiah who came to destroy people, she will bring them to the scaffolds as on royal thrones, as at a wedding feast. The feeling of love for God is sweeter than the feeling of life [38]. Just as the pre-death and accompanying death sufferings represent the beginning of the eternal torments of the sinner [39], so the sufferings for Christ and the violent death for Him represent the beginning of the eternal joys of paradise. This we see plainly from the operations of God’s grace in regard to the martyrs of the first centuries: they were at first given an opportunity to show their free will; even with the first torments, help came down to them from above and made both torture and death for Christ desirable for them. Foretelling the tribulations that must precede His Second Coming, the Lord commanded His disciples to be alert and to pray: Watch, be awake and pray, for you do not know when the time will come (Mark 13:33).
Prayer is always necessary and useful for man – it maintains his communion with God and keeps him under God’s protection, protects him from self-conceit, from deceitful conceit and pride – both from his own, arising from the fallen nature, and from those who are brought into his thoughts and imagination from the world of fallen spirits. Prayer is especially necessary in times of sorrows and dangers, be they visible or invisible, for it is an expression of the rejection of conceit, an expression of our hope in God, it draws God’s help upon us. Almighty God acts for the supplicant in difficult circumstances and brings His servant out of them by His wondrous providence.
Knowledge of God, living faith, gracious humility, pure prayer – these are the appurtenances of the spiritual mind, they are its constituent parts. On the contrary, ignorance of God, unbelief, spiritual blindness, pride, conceit, and self-conceit make up the accessories of carnal wisdom. Not knowing God, not accepting and not understanding the means offered by God for obtaining God-knowledge, it is in itself a wrong, soul-destroying way of acquiring God-knowledge, according to its constitution: it wants signs from heaven. Amen!
Notes:
16. St. Isaac the Syrian. Word 36.
17. St. Isaac the Syrian. Word 1.
18. Rev. Macarius the Great. Lecture 7, ch. 4.
19. St. Tikhon Voronezh. Works, item 15, letter 103, item 4.
20. St. Isaac the Syrian. Word 56.
21. Rev. Macarius the Great. Lecture 27, ch. 1.
22. Alphabetical crutch.
23. There.
24. St. Isaac the Syrian. Word 34.
25. Rev. Mark Podviznik. 226 chapters for those who think to justify themselves by works, ch. 6.
26. Alphabetical crutch.
27. There.
28. Rev. Isaiah the Hermit. Word 27.
29. Rev. Abba Dorotheus. Lesson 7.
30. Answer 130.
31. St. Isaac the Syrian. Word 37.
32. Evangelist. Interpretation of the Gospel according to Mark, ch. 8, paragraphs 11-12.
33. St. Isaac the Syrian. Words 25, 26, 27 and 28.
34. Rev. John Ladder. Ladder, word 26:52.
35. St. Isaac the Syrian. Word 28.
36. St. Isaac the Syrian. Word 89.
37. St. Ephraim the Syrian. Word 106.
38. St. Isaac the Syrian. Word 38.
39. This thought belongs to the holy martyr James the Persian. – see Lives of the Saints, November 26.
Source: The writings of Bishop Ignatiy Bryanchaninov. Volume IV. Ascetic preaching and letters to the laity, St. Petersburg, 1905, pp. 292–326 (in Russian).
Discussion about this post