Only Christ can save man himself
As a rule, people come to confession and all unanimously say: "I can not do anything. I confess to everything, in fact, the same thing." Clear. Because you can not do it. And you can not do anything. This can not happen not only because you are lazy, negligent or stupid, or because you have all sorts of passions in your heart. Not at all. But because it is impossible for a person. To save man is impossible. If it were possible to be saved by pilgrimage, reading the rule, fasting, studying the Holy Scripture, creating good deeds, everyone would be saved. And why did Christ come then? Only Christ can save man himself. Only He. And if He wants. And that He wanted to save one of us, we need to become acceptable in His eyes. Therefore, those people whom Christ saved, we call the saints of God.
That's how to live life, so that, as the Mother of God said to St. Seraphim: "This is from our generation," that Christ, looking at you, should not mourn, but rejoice. Here you live such a life to please Him. Here you think, feel, do this, the other, the third. Now if you please Christ, He will save you. Is he. In the meantime, you'll be yourself ... It's written, it's not I who invented: "It's impossible for men, everything is possible to God" (Matthew 19, 26). Greedy to make generous He can, dead alive - all can God. Therefore, while a person himself, as long as he has the self, has a hope for himself, he can not have a hope for God. And you need to put all your hope for your salvation on God. After all, what is eternal life? Eternal life, as Christ Himself said, "let them know thee the only true God" (John 17, 3). The knowledge of God is what eternal life is. It is possible only when the Lord enters your heart. And there, in your heart, by the grace of God, He will make His abode. It will live there, as the Apostle Paul says: "it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2, 20). And I am not led by African passions, but Christ leads me. His Spirit, the Christ. As the apostle says: "If we live in the spirit, then by the Spirit also must we walk" (Gal. 5, 25). Not by our own will, guided by passions, but by the spirit of Christ, which we must absorb into ourselves, having learned: "Learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and will find rest for your souls" (Mt. 11, 29). In God, because rest is only in God.
Seraphim of Sarov, our great saint, said: I am from merchants (and his name was Moshnin, Moshna means a purse with money, his parents were rich people, a big cathedral was built in the city of Kursk), and it is necessary to acquire such a spiritual life as The merchant trades: let the money go, where the profit is greater. Because one person is more reserved, and the other, on the contrary, is more sociable. One more morose, silent, another talkative. Everyone has his own character, and each in his own character, in his own dispensation, can choose such a thing in order to serve himself in the best possible way, both to people and to God. That's to think, to shake your brains, who better. Who better get good deeds - let's take care of the sick, help large families, follow the old ones; who better get some more work: fasting or prayer, the more you work. Whoever gets what, he must and live, this virtue, which he better turns out, to perform.
But best of all, Seraphim of Sarov says, prayer. In prison, whether you are at liberty, standing in line, traveling by bus or doing something at work, you can always pray. As you call God, the Lord is near. Therefore, the most convenient for salvation is always to turn to God with prayer. And so you can gradually acquire a treasure. You see in yourself what a disadvantage - pray to God all the time, hourly, so that the Lord will correct you, because you yourself can not correct yourself. Only God, if he will, can make you generous from the greedy, from the stupid - to the clever, from the evil - to the good. The Lord can arrange everything. And if you keep crying all the time, then the Lord will help. And so collecting it, collecting this oil for ourselves, we will light our lamps and meet the future Bridegroom.
Only Christ can save man himself
As a rule, people come to confession and all unanimously say: "I can not do anything. I confess to everything, in fact, the same thing." Clear. Because you can not do it. And you can not do anything. This can not happen not only because you are lazy, negligent or stupid, or because you have all sorts of passions in your heart. Not at all. But because it is impossible for a person. To save man is impossible. If it were possible to be saved by pilgrimage, reading the rule, fasting, studying the Holy Scripture, creating good deeds, everyone would be saved. And why did Christ come then? Only Christ can save man himself. Only He. And if He wants. And that He wanted to save one of us, we need to become acceptable in His eyes. Therefore, those people whom Christ saved, we call the saints of God.
That's how to live life, so that, as the Mother of God said to St. Seraphim: "This is from our generation," that Christ, looking at you, should not mourn, but rejoice. Here you live such a life to please Him. Here you think, feel, do this, the other, the third. Now if you please Christ, He will save you. Is he. In the meantime, you'll be yourself ... It's written, it's not I who invented: "It's impossible for men, everything is possible to God" (Matthew 19, 26). Greedy to make generous He can, dead alive - all can God. Therefore, while a person himself, as long as he has the self, has a hope for himself, he can not have a hope for God. And you need to put all your hope for your salvation on God. After all, what is eternal life? Eternal life, as Christ Himself said, "let them know thee the only true God" (John 17, 3). The knowledge of God is what eternal life is. It is possible only when the Lord enters your heart. And there, in your heart, by the grace of God, He will make His abode. It will live there, as the Apostle Paul says: "it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2, 20). And I am not led by African passions, but Christ leads me. His Spirit, the Christ. As the apostle says: "If we live in the spirit, then b
y the Spirit also must we walk" (Gal. 5, 25). Not by our own will, guided by passions, but by the spirit of Christ, which we must absorb into ourselves, having learned: "Learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and will find rest for your souls" (Mt. 11, 29). In God, because rest is only in God.
Seraphim of Sarov, our great saint, said: I am from merchants (and his name was Moshnin, Moshna means a purse with money, his parents were rich people, a big cathedral was built in the city of Kursk), and it is necessary to acquire such a spiritual life as The merchant trades: let the money go, where the profit is greater. Because one person is more reserved, and the other, on the contrary, is more sociable. One more morose, silent, another talkative. Everyone has his own character, and each in his own character, in his own dispensation, can choose such a thing in order to serve himself in the best possible way, both to people and to God. That's to think, to shake your brains, who better. Who better get good deeds - let's take care of the sick, help large families, follow the old ones; who better get some more work: fasting or prayer, the more you work. Whoever gets what, he must and live, this virtue, which he better turns out, to perform.
But best of all, Seraphim of Sarov says, prayer. In prison, whether you are at liberty, standing in line, traveling by bus or doing something at work, you can always pray. As you call God, the Lord is near. Therefore, the most convenient for salvation is always to turn to God with prayer. And so you can gradually acquire a treasure. You see in yourself what a disadvantage - pray to God all the time, hourly, so that the Lord will correct you, because you yourself can not correct yourself. Only God, if he will, can make you generous from the greedy, from the stupid - to the clever, from the evil - to the good. The Lord can arrange everything. And if you keep crying all the time, then the Lord will help. And so collecting it, collecting this oil for ourselves, we will light our lamps and meet the future Bridegroom.