“Therefore, anyone who confesses Me before men, I will confess him also before My Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 10:32-33).
“If you ask for forgiveness at every door, you will not become more humble, for Humility is Christ. If you read mountains of books, you will not become wiser, for Wisdom is Christ. If you go to the ends of the earth in search of Freedom, you will not become freer, for Freedom is Christ. Search the whole world, look into yourself: both the world and yourself are nothing, for there is no one and nothing better than Christ. Whether there is a world, whether there is no world, it doesn't matter - there is only one unforgettable Happiness - Christ. 
You ask and ask tirelessly - why this or that is so, and not otherwise, and you do not find an answer. – Find Christ, and all your questions will end by themselves. Whatever you judge - whether it is so or not, it does not matter, your heart will only be at peace when it finds Christ. (With)
Teach me, God, to love
With all your mind, with all your thoughts,
To devote my soul to You
And all my life with every heartbeat.
Teach me to keep
Only Your merciful will,
Learn to never complain
To your hard lot.
All who came to redeem
You, with Your Pure Blood,
Selfless deep love
Teach me, God, to love...
(Prince K. Romanov)
(The Lord) also said to some who were sure of themselves that they were righteous, and humiliated others, the following parable: two people entered the temple to pray: one Pharisee, and the other publican. The Pharisee, standing up, prayed in himself like this: God! I thank You that I am not like other people, robbers, offenders, adulterers, or like this publican: I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of everything that I get. The publican, standing afar off, did not even dare to raise his eyes to heaven; but, striking his chest, he said: God! be merciful to me a sinner! I tell you that this one went to his house justified rather than that one: for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted. (Lk 18)
Father Sergiy Kisilev:
Oh, how can I not be a Pharisee,
How to become a humble publican?
I look close to salvation
But is it so in my heart?
A humble look, a good word
Not worth a lot of work
But how to remove the shackles from the soul,
Her languishing years? Her languishing always?
After all, there, in the depths of the heart,
In the darkness, a treasure hidden by me,
And in it is the beginning of eternal death,
Treasures of sins lie.
They hurt my heart
And the conscience is always tormented,
But repentance will not get
To this abyss without difficulty,
And maybe never...
After all, earthly life is dearer to me,
Earth dust beckons me
And the poor heart, suffering,
He keeps all this dirt in himself.
Oh, how can I not be a Pharisee,
How to become a humble publican
To unfalse salvation
Have I found in my Lord?
My only hope is in Him!
God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Give, Lord!
O.E. Braz. Portrait of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich
Prayer
Teach me, God, to love
With all your mind, with all your thoughts,
To devote my soul to You
And all my life with every heartbeat.
Teach me to keep
Only Your merciful will,
Learn to never complain
To your hard lot.
All who came to redeem
You, with Your Pure Blood -
Selfless, deep love
Teach me, God, to love!
bells
The good news is rushing ... How sad and depressing
Bells ring on the foreign side.
Again I remembered the edge of my dear homeland,
And the old longing on the heart leaned.
I see my north with its snowy plain,
And as if I hear our village
Familiar blessing ... And affectionately and gently
Bells are ringing from a distant homeland.
Watercolor of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna Romanova
Faith
Oh, faith is pure, holy,
You are the door of the soul to the abode of paradise,
You are the life of the future dawn,
Burn in me, lamp of faith,
Burn brighter, don't fade away
Be my faithful companion everywhere
And enlighten the way for me.
Watercolor of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna Romanova
Gospel inscription
May this book be sacred
Your constant companion
It will be everywhere and always.
May this book of salvation
Gives you comfort
During the years of struggle and labor.
Let them pour into your heart -
And the skies match
With your pure soul.
Watercolor of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna Romanova
***
When, foreseeing a close parting,
The soul hurts with despondency and longing,
I say, squeezing your hand:
Christ is with you!
When in excess of unearthly happiness
The heart beats with joy at times,
Then I repeat to you again:
Christ is with you!
And if sadness, sadness and grief
Your own timid soul,
Then I tell you in consolation:
Christ is with you!
Loving, hoping, meekly and humbly
Accomplish, oh friend, you are this earthly path
And believe that always and unchanging
Christ is with you!
Watercolor of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna Romanova
love is eternal
Will the heart burn with love,
Oh, don't put out her fire!
Isn't it your life that lives,
How bright is the day by the light of the sun?
Love endlessly, selflessly
With all the fullness of spiritual strength,
Even if love is reciprocated
Nobody repaid you.
Let them say: like everything in creation,
Your love will die with you
Do not believe in wrong doctrine:
The flesh will decay, the blood will cool,
Extinguish within a specified time
Our world, the darkness of worlds will fade away,
But that flame, kindled by the Creator,
Remain in eternity of ages.
I.E. Repin. Portrait of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich
***
Don't say to heaven
Your prayer is not profitable;
Believe like fragrant incense
She is pleasing to the Creator.
When you pray don't waste
redundant words; but with all my heart
Try to recognize with faith
What He hears, that He is with you.
What are words for Him? - About what,
Happy at heart or grieving,
You wouldn't even think about
Does the All-Seeing not know?
Love for the Creator in your soul
It would only burn invariably,
As before the sacred icon
Oil lamps glow.
Watercolor of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna Romanova
(Click on the picture to see the description of the book)
Alexander Babalikov works at the Donetsk Metallurgical Plant. He has been writing poetry since childhood. At first, he dedicated many of them to his mother, and when he believed in God at the end of the last century, he began to describe his spiritual experiences and quests in a poetic form.
Thirst for God
Foggy breath of consciousness
I'm flying high
And beyond the vain life
I breathe in God's beauty.
And weary of recklessness
Mind-filling ideas,
I hasten to touch Him
With all the thirst for his weakness.
O abyss of tender breath
Warmth, care, cleanliness,
Gives knowledge to the soul
And grace from nakedness.
And the heart trembles,
Hearing: "Time is like water ...
Life, like the color of foliage, passes,
Only God will remain forever.
Keep what you have from Him -
The shepherd is coming to gather his flocks!
In Him you reap life, if you sow life,
Entering through the narrow gate!
new birth
God, give me a different start
Where the whole essence is not from dust to dust,
So that with my earthly life
Praise Jehovah in heaven.
So that in a book started from the beginning,
No more dirty pages
And the soul, trembling, rejoiced,
Having no borders in flight.
Create me not from gold,
And from the sun's clear rays,
And perfume my spirit
Juice poured spicy fields.
Like crystal mountain waters
My thoughts, Father, create,
And sprouted holiness shoots
Irrigate with your grace.
Carve my heart out of bread
What, like life, Christ commanded,
Let your eyes become stars from the sky
And the winds are like strands of hair.
Give me ice for sin to turn,
And for Truth - a hot fire,
And, having wasted himself, to remain
The richest in the world at the same time.
Awake!
Wake up from sleep, people of the Living God!
Prepare the way for the One to come from heaven!
Destroying the fortress of wretched pride,
Erase to dust all the idols of hearts.
And don't be proud of your blindness,
Let the spirit of conviction into the heart.
Walking through thorns, make sure
As, lulling to sleep, sin closes the circle.
We sow lies, but we crave truth,
Not heeding the truth, we value duplicity,
Waiting for the storm, we build crossings,
Cherishing flattery, we run from conscience.
Tasting wisdom, we spew stupidity.
Its more expensive - dust sticks to the ashes.
We honor God, and curse our brother,
We build temples of pride in our hearts.
The blind man often serves as our guide,
The mute teaches us to speak loudly.
The beggar showers us with imaginary gold,
The lazy person wants to provide for the future with diligence.
We dive into the mud, being washed,
When we return, we leave again forever.
We go through the walls, seeing the door open.
There is no truth in the heart, love does not reign.
Repent, return your heart to God,
Humble pride by desiring the Creator
And, taking up your cross, step on the road,
Giving Christ both souls and hearts!
Seek wisdom, heart,
Call everywhere,
Read more than gold
And fill all the vessels
Living water from the bowels of the Father.
Look for purity, heart,
And in the midst of sin architecture,
Sculpture holiness sculpture
And bright truth nature
To the glory of the beauty of the Creator.
Look for kindness, hearts,
Opening the door, invite
Wash the wounds with tears
And fill the dead with life,
Giving yourself to the end.
Hurry up to do good
Like a sprout in a life-giving stream
Filled with vital juice
So living under the shelter of the Savior
It feeds on the wisdom of God.
Our life is like a fast-flowing river,
Our destinies are the flowers of the field.
How often, intoxicated, careless,
We burn dear days.
I didn’t finish it, I didn’t understand, I didn’t listen,
Didn't notice, didn't give, didn't say.
And once before the throne of the Most High
Suddenly you find out that you are too late to live.
And guilt, like an endless desert,
Dries up the torments of conscience,
Remaining scars of remorse
In the heart, like a seal of hopelessness.
Hurry up to do good.
Do not stick to gold with your heart,
Do not try to save silver,
Give your soul for Jesus.
Hurry up to give care,
Praise and awards not wanting
Let God appreciate your work
And repay by opening the heavens.
We do not know where the century is the limit,
And we can't turn back time
But we live, knowing life's lot -
Find your strength in God!
At the crossroads
At the crossroads from time to eternity
Two roads are given to mankind:
And one of them is death in carelessness,
And the other is the desire for the Fatherland.
How spacious and how seductive
The road that is covered with lies
The bluff of easy wins is intoxicating
And bleached with blind indifference.
And the other path is a test,
It starts at Golgotha
And in hearts that burn with hope,
Often grief bites with a greedy sting.
But to everyone at the crossroads standing
The spirit calls: "Step on the road,
Where the blind become sighted again
And dumb - loudly praising God.
Where there is no strength, no power, no time,
Neither depth nor height
They will not destroy the flowering seed,
What has risen at the Lord's cross!
Prayer
Teach me, God, to love,
Even if the whole world despises
Teach me to keep my heart
From the nets that temptation sets up.
Teach me, God, to be silent,
When the abomination of the mouth defiles,
teach me to bless
Those who, looking after the trail, curses.
Teach me, God, to stand
When the soil at your feet floats away,
Teach me compassion with all my heart
When my enemy groans in pain.
Teach me, God, to forgive,
When bitterness grips the throat,
Teach me to seek the truth
When hearts are poisoned with lies.
Teach me, God, to dream
In poverty and in great abundance.
Teach me, God, to fly,
Even if the wings are broken off.
Teach me to honor righteousness
Turn the flesh of rebellion into humility,
Teach me to be grateful
Knowing the price of the blood of redemption.
Great God
Nature is so incomprehensible
And the power of your majesty,
What is before You all the nations -
Like dust in the desert of being...
You are a term in a timeless space
Your face is holy in a world without faces,
You are the Milky Way among eternal wanderings,
You are a fence without borders!
You are the light in the darkness,
You are a voice in the midst of dead silence,
You are the shores for the boundless waters,
You are the sweetness of the heart, the peak of the dream!
But here's the question, what century from century
Everyone tries in vain to understand:
Why do you love a person
What came down from heaven to save him?
That night from the throne of glorious power
Truth appeared then
She poured light from the sky with a seal
On the Savior a new star ...
How great, wise and marvelous,
Holy Lord, your works!
Who could fathom their depths,
Who was the counselor of love?
In the hearts of a wonderful elixir,
Breathing tender love
You flow, and the blissful world
The soul is overflowing.
Soar to heaven the soul breaks,
To hear how in the rays of dawn
Glorified by a laudatory ode
Birth of the New Testament!
I would like to be born at dawn
Dissolving the dreams of the night
And sparkle with pearl dew
On life-filled kidneys.
I would like to be born as the sun
To warm the cold with warmth,
To be a well with clear water,
Washing dry lips.
I would like to become a rainbow in the field
Over the intoxicating fragrance of flowers,
Be a testament to God's will
For those saved in the ark once.
I thirst, Lord, with my life
From Your sources to be filled,
Walk through the wilderness with Moses
Climb the great mountain.
Oh doubts, sins and unfaithfulness
Heart, like tablets, breaking,
Again, clinging to God's jealousy,
I hasten to the Fatherland, ashamed.
Healed with oil and truth,
Again from the top into the desert I rush
And, straying from God's herd,
I wander as a sinful prisoner in sorrow.
But my Lord is good again with His love,
Without hesitation, he stretched out his hands to me,
And again oil flows into my wounds,
Healing me from separation.
How often in a vain stream
We swim, forgetting You,
And in the juice intoxicating worries
In rapture we drown ourselves.
Your call for us -
Thunder before the storm
We do not heed him, but we run,
Like Jonah in the womb, deaf,
And from fear "Oh God!" shout!
And standing on the ruins of the temple
Our life, broken by fate,
We hear a voice through the visible drama:
"I love! Come back home!
Will I leave you?
Look at Calvary - I'm here
He erected a new temple in the Spirit of Glory,
It has a haven for the lost.
Do not wander you no longer homeless
And do not dry from thirst in the sands.
I consider myself the foundation
In your peace-hungry hearts."
And from now on the destroyer will not be able
Those who are redeemed by Christ should be humiliated.
God has built a home for us
And Satan can't get there!
As I wish, my Lord is beautiful,
To drown in Your grace
A quivering heart with passionate fidelity
About your love to compose lines.
Praise the goodness in spiritual excitement,
Honor wisdom with a beggarly mind.
Teach me, God, in humility
Wait, hope, believe, love!
Alexander Babalikov
Donetsk
6. What is the peculiarity of the Vladimir Cathedral on the Central city hill in Sevastopol?
A. In the fact that it is the tomb of admirals
"Teach me, God, to love
With all your mind, with all your thoughts,
To devote my soul to You
And all my life with every heartbeat"?
V. Grand Duke K.K. Romanov (K.R.)
8. What is another name for St. Basil's Cathedral, located near the Moscow Kremlin?
B. Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat
9. Which of the concepts does not refer to the type of iconography of the Most Holy Theotokos?
G. Mitra
ten. " The ceremony of consecrating the foundation of the Grand Livadia Palace was timed to coincide with April 23 (old style) - the name day of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. What is another name for this day?
A. Name days
Grading system:
For every correct answer in task 1 accrued 1 point.
Maximum 10 points for task 1.
TASK 2.
Consider two images: an icon and a photograph taken in the Ascension Church on Gorodok.
What moment of the Gospel story is depicted on the icon?
Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
What moment of the Liturgy is reflected in the photograph?
Moment before Communion (Permissible variant Communion)
In one or two sentences, describe how the two images are related.
Just as the Most Holy Theotokos humbly accepted the news that a Savior would be born from Her, so also believers, folding their hands on their chests in a sign of humility, accept the Holy Gifts (the Body and Blood of the Savior). They accept Grace with humility through the most important Sacrament.
Grading system:
For the correct answer to the question "What moment of the Gospel story is depicted on the icon?" accrued 1 point.
For the correct answer to the question “What moment of the Liturgy is reflected in the photograph?” accrued 1 point.
For the correct description of the connection between the picture and the icon, from 1 to 3 points, depending on the accuracy of the description.
Maximum 5 points for task 2.
TASK 3.
Read carefully the passage from the poem by A.L. Mey "Blindborn". Answer the questions.
Seeing the people, the teacher sat down
On an elevated hill in the middle of the field;
At the behest of his hand
The disciples came to him
And he opened his mouth to speak...
Can't put into people's words
His divine speeches:
There is no human speech before them ...
But all the people, listening to him,
He also knew the blessings of earthly vanity,
He also knew the vanity of the world,
He also knew the perfection of the spirit,
I knew that true bliss
Only he inherits
Who is poor in spirit, who sheds tears,
Who hungers for the truth, longs for the truth,
Who was meek and gentle,
Who is pure in heart, peaceful,
Who suffers innocently from people,
Who is slandered
And insult with an evil word,
Who is exiled for the truth -
They will be rewarded in heaven!..
3.1. What commandments are mentioned in the poem?
About the Beatitudes
3.2. By whom and under what circumstances were these commandments given?
The Beatitudes were given by Jesus Christ during the Sermon on the Mount.
3.3. What is the number of these commandments?
Nine
3.4. Using the text of the poem, try to restore the text of the commandments as it is written in the Holy Scriptures.
I am a command. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
I am a command. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
I am a command. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
I am a command. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
You can often meet people who, looking back, remember their youth, the atmosphere of love in their father's house, as something irretrievably gone. Many admit that their life, if not broken, then crippled. The pictures of distant childhood resurrecting in our memory, when everything was so bright, so beautiful, when communication with people made us happy, warmed our soul - this is something that will never come, will not happen again.
Is the world really arranged in such a way that we change from the best to the worse? First we find a pearl, and then we lose it forever in the dust and ashes of passions ... No, of course the world is not like that! But the very moral feeling, the very desire to be simpler, better, cleaner and kinder - which, I hope, all our readers feel - is God's gift.
And true love is the same gift. In no case should one lose this bright, peaceful, joyful state, characteristic of believers and good children. This is not love - something fleeting, surging, and then disappeared, melted like a predawn fog that disappears when the day comes into its own ... A pure-hearted person knows how to rejoice at the coming day, meet people with a smile; he collects love drop by drop and grows in it. We are talking about such people as harmonious, whole natures.
What for a flower is the warm rays of the sun that bring life, then for true friendship and true love God. And if the eternal Sun of Love, Christ, fades in the consciousness of a lover, human feelings, beautiful in themselves, inevitably darken, grow thin. The soul, in the end, can feel a terrible emptiness and will no longer be able to be satisfied with communication, which, it seems, just yesterday brought so much joy. Turning away from God, we lose the understanding of true friendship and love. When we become too attached to the person we love, he can obscure Christ the Savior for us. And then sympathies turn into antipathies, then our friendship runs the risk, like a ship, of stumbling upon a dangerous reef - a sense of ownership, a desire to possess, to own another. Here begins the true torment, "a million torments." We are never satisfied with minutes and even hours of being in the company of a person dear to us, because we want to appropriate what is the property of the One God.
How important it is that our children, having entered adolescence, should not be disfigured by coarse passions, but should take care of their purity of heart - so that the Sun of Love, Christ, never sets in their souls! We - parents, educators, elders - must ourselves be able to love and teach our children to love, so that they can give alms with cordiality, strive to visit the sick with us, considering such a visit the most important and responsible thing for ourselves ... We are called, day after day in the daytime to put love into a child's heart, so that the lamp of this Christian virtue, barely lit up, would never be extinguished by the wind of lust, selfishness and selfishness.
Is it because children are so playful, restless - and some are nervous, shy, unbalanced - that we teach them anything (“feeding” them with our not very wise adult love), but we don’t teach them to love, we don’t cultivate in them this sprout; maybe because we don't know how to do it ourselves... The poet said:
Love endlessly, selflessly
With all the fullness of spiritual strength,
Even if love is reciprocated
Nobody repaid you.
Thus, love is something unselfish, something that makes a person like God... He who truly loves is always cautious, helpful, afraid of being intrusive, always feels himself serving a person for the sake of Christ.
In the light of Christ's love, it is so easy to see the darkness and lack of enlightenment of passion, lust, which, awakening inevitably in the hearts of youths, young men and maidens, will deprive them of peace; which, with its characteristic perseverance, impudence, even impudence, will demand its own, will make our children disobedient - as unbroken trotters are disobedient, ready to break off the leash and rush off to no one knows where, in an open field ... Truly, it is not easy for a young and inexperienced creature! And all girls and boys are like that: no matter how much they read, no matter how much they hear (and now they don’t see) stories “on this topic,” they really don’t know anything.
How easy it is to make a mistake and take something dark, fatal for the “star of captivating happiness”, something that will twist all our spiritual strength, empty the heart, put us above the abyss, cripple our moral being ... Such is the lecherous passion that defiles the mind and heart with ugly images, dreams - she is indifferent even to the human face, she longs for possession and says: I do not need you, I need yours! Each of us should be able to recognize in time this proud, selfish, base feeling in ourselves; through prayer and repentance, try to subordinate him to the moral ideal. This moral ideal is called matrimony. For if in your thoughts you call a girl your bride, then how dare you offend the great happiness that God will give you in a crowned marriage with perseverance, demanding passion? This passion wants to deprive you of rest and peace, this passion is like a madman who saws the branch on which he sits!
Superficial, weak, selfish natures (and now family life is especially difficult for young people, because they have not learned to love and do not even know what true love is) break easily ... Fragile human destinies are crumbling; people disperse each in his own direction, into the darkness of loneliness, impurity and vice. In order to prevent this from happening, you need to feel in yourself a calling to the labors of love. And if we remember that we ourselves desired these labors, we ourselves said to the Lord: “Yes, I have this intention, yes, I will accept this cross,” then these labors, bitter at first, will turn into sweetness as we resolve. Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, who knew how to love her Husband and Children so much, left us notes on family life, invaluable in terms of moral wealth and variety of spiritual experience, in which she teaches us to cultivate love, brick by brick to build the building of family happiness, never despairing, never lowering hands - even if life destroys what has been created, again and again take up your work in the hope of God's help.
We do not need to be ashamed of small good deeds. Unfortunately, it is so difficult for spouses to remember this science of Christian love: a bright face, an attentive word, a warning gesture, a cup served on time ... Strange as it may seem, monks - people who voluntarily renounce the happiness of family love - understand and feel this well. Why? Because the big is seen from a distance. People who have aggravated themselves to God, reflecting on what they have left, begin, of course, without regret, without contrition - in the true light of Christian love, to feel the true height of family love. They see how good the Creator, who created Adam and Eve, joined their hands, how great this treasure is: to have a person close to you both in soul and in body, who is of one mind with you; the one who is given to you as an everlasting earthly comforter.
When we overcome ourselves, overcoming fatigue and suppressing irritation, when, renouncing our own despondency, we reach out to those who expect sacrifice from us, we die to sin and give up our "I". But to the extent that we die, we are spiritually reborn, because sacrificial, disinterested labors make the human soul lighter, brighter and enlighten it completely ... Alas, in this life you almost never meet people who are so able to give themselves to love. But God Himself is called Love! In order to preserve love, very great wisdom is needed, which manifests itself in prudence and complacency. Spouses are weak people. The irritability of one immediately, like fire, spreads into the soul of another. The village will light up on one side, the wind will spread the flames in the blink of an eye - and now everything around is blazing ...
The spouses are obsequious - in the communicating vessels the liquid level is the same. And therefore, if the husband is constantly gloomy, irritable, then the wife is nervous. If the spouse is excessively playful, frivolous, then the husband often takes revenge on his girlfriend in the same way.
As a rule, we infect each other only with vices, transmit only the bad, darkening the soul that has trusted us. On the contrary, how great before God is the person to whom the words of Scripture refer: “... if any of you deviates from the truth, and one turns him, let him know that he who turns a sinner from his false path will save his soul [his] from death and cover a multitude of sins "(James 5:19-20). If you, although this requires infinite patience and infinite wisdom, able to see the best in your loved one, you will stand ... The soul of your loved one will really overheat, be reborn, more under the influence of your life and secret prayer than your words. This is of great value before God.
Wisdom in marriage lies in seeing the light side in every phenomenon, not the dark side. If you truly love, then you must accept even an unfair reproach - much less a justified complaint or reproach - with all your heart, with all your soul, saying inwardly: "Lord, I deserve much worse." When we suddenly see before us the face of a loved one distorted by anger and irritation, let us think: if my neighbor - and who is closer than a husband, closer than a wife? - so angry at me, then how much more God, forgetting about Whose service I became a tempter for this infinitely dear soul to me ...
Unfortunately, there are few spouses who are so high-minded, so philosophical. But each of us should try not to let everyday troubles, like sulfuric acid, eat up, turn into nothing a bright, beautiful, joyful feeling that once made us make a marriage proposal or accept it. Only a soul that has asked God for patience and long-suffering, ready to work endlessly, becomes wise, strong and victorious in the feat of love.
To the extent that love is defiled by jealousy - this grasping feeling, the feeling of unrighteous property - so much is love adorned with sacrifice and disinterestedness, which are based on trust ... Indeed, a real punishment is a jealous husband, ready for every roadside post, for every shadow from the post to be jealous of his beloved wife. An unbearable burden - a jealous wife! She sees betrayals where they do not exist, her nerves are like a bare wire, she pursues her husband with constant reproaches.
Jealousy is a disease that can even lead to murder and suicide ... He who truly loves trusts. We reason about the heart of our neighbor in accordance with our own feelings - and just as a true lover himself is a stranger to dirty thoughts, afraid to tarnish the ideal of love with a single wrong look, so he judges the object of his love. On the example of our wonderful folk songs (remember the well-known “Steppe and steppe all around ...”), one can see that not only grand dukes and princesses, not only knights, but also completely ordinary people who, it would seem, are capable of such sacrifice they thought about the “destinies of the world”, did not think highly of themselves ... For this gift of disinterested love is determined not by a noble origin and not by property, but by the depth of the Christian faith.
From childhood, listening to a song about a dying coachman, I thought about the future fate of his wife. And until now it seems to me that she did not give the ring to anyone - because true love happens only under the sign of eternity. And earthly life is so short that it seems impossible to exchange this gift for something else ... Somehow I can’t believe that she got married again. And you?
They say that turtledoves and swans never change their chosen half. And in the families of priests, it is also arranged: the father and mother do not give the engagement ring to anyone. In essence, this should be the case for everyone, for God created Adam and Eve for mutual love and did not provide for anyone else.
And earthly life is really very fleeting. Ten, twenty years of marriage pass, and if it is overshadowed by God's blessing, then every day is experienced as the first. Feelings are not undermined, but, on the contrary, are becoming stronger: after all, God Himself is their source. Here, the once ruddy wife already has the first gray strand in her hair. And the groom, who jumped so high, ran so far, already short of breath ... Finally, a wand appears in the house, on which either the husband or the wife lean. They go out arm in arm to bask under the rays of the gentle spring sun... Like pebbles in the sea surf, they rubbed against each other for a long time and even outwardly became similar: one soul, one body, one mouth, one eye, the same thoughts... This is, of course, a gift God's ideal, to which none of us married people are forbidden to strive.
Does time have power over human love? Is love, like everything else in this sinful world, doomed to disappear? No, of course: love is stronger than death. That is why the wife, having lost her beloved husband, with whom she has lived for fifty (or maybe more) years, chooses the grave mound on which she plants flowers in the spring as the most cherished place - the meeting place. Here she breathes especially easily; she does not want to see anyone else, a stranger. Here she communicates with her husband ... Loving spouses often fail to survive each other for a long time. You look: a week, two, a month, the second has passed - and the orphaned spouse, the wife suddenly begins to melt, like a candle ... The flame of love flares up brighter, the soul prays and feels the embrace of the one who has long left the mortal body. There is nothing on earth stronger than love. Even spouses carry illnesses together: if one of them does not get up, the Lord, as a rule, gives strength to another so that he appears as a comforting angel and from his hands the weak can take a glass of cold water.
Deprivations and sorrows only harden love, purify it from harmful impurities. Love is tested like gold in a furnace... In the sacrament of the wedding, the Orthodox bride and groom drink the strong and sweet wine of marriage from a golden cup, testifying to their readiness to accept together from the hand of God everything that the Providence of the Lord sends them, be it joy or sorrow. This is united by one name - “happiness”, if the life cross of the spouse is carried together. And God forbid that we all be captivated, wounded, kindled with a thirst to love sincerely and tenderly, holy and sublimely, and most importantly - sacrificially, not embarrassed by the fact that there are fewer and fewer examples of love around us ... God grant us to truly believe and love so that, under the influence of faith, love grows warmer, and love raises faith to a degree of boldness.
Here on earth, we have a special reverence for people endowed with the ability to love. You can learn from them even without guidance from them. Such a person, who received from God the gift of sacrificial love, always leaves a bright trace in our memory; moreover, it inspires us even when it is full night, twilight has fallen over our heads… But let us remember that people rise to great love, the ability to contain everyone and everything in their hearts gradually, not suddenly and not immediately. If you look at it, then the Lord breathed into us filial love - a never-ceasing feeling of gratitude to the mother; parental love - the desire to serve and work for the well-being of children that never changes us; breathed friendship into us - the desire to be close to a person who understands and supports us without words when we do not even ask for it; conjugal love, for the sake of which we leave our father and mother and cling to our half ... All this is for the sake of ascending from various small experiences of earthly Christian love to truly spiritual love.
You love your wife badly if, reveling in feeling, you become deaf and indifferent to the sufferings of this world! You love your children badly if, laying down your life for them in the exploits of parental love, you look indifferently at strangers: restless, orphans, unwarmed, unkindled ... And only then do we love correctly - children, friend, wife - when we ascend from the lower to the higher . And the highest for us is the Gospel commandment: "... be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5, 48). As the sun sends its rays on the good and the bad, as the rain irrigates the face without distinguishing the innocent from the deserving of punishment, we must love sacrificially, leaving nothing for ourselves.
But let's not delude ourselves, friends. Let's not think that if we really choose love as our guiding star, we will be understood in this life, appreciated and praised, our names will be written on the tablets of history. Let's not think that descendants will bow low to us... The Cross of Jesus Christ testifies that true love in this life is often misunderstood, slandered, it is crucified, it is turned away from it in indignation, it is slandered. The One Lord grants His support to a person who walks the paths of Gospel love, filling the heart of a zealous Christian with spiritual consolation. It is a great blessing to see the spiritual sky above oneself and to be in living communion with the saints of God, each of whom has triumphed over the strife of the world and perfected in love. We are also comforted by our relatives, whose souls, like stars, twinkle above our heads, watch over us from eternity, and pray for us. With them we will find, if we only carry the candle of faith and love to the grave, an eternal and imperishable union.
On this note, I would like to complete the spiritual and lyrical meditation on love: because where there is love, there is God, where the earth merges with the sky, the eternal with the temporal, and our life itself becomes a paradise, placing before the Throne of the Most High, whose name - Love.
