Conscience
Two gifts that God has given to man for the good of himself and others and which he should multiply are conscience and faith. The conscience is an invisible judge sitting inside of everyone, either praising or scolding us for this or that action. Anyone who wants to more clearly envision what the conscience is should recall what unspeakable joy and pleasure he felt when doing some good deed, and conversely, what a burning sense of shame seized him when he committed some reprehensible or evil act. That’s why God gave man a conscience—that it might be a good mentor for the virtuous and a bridle for the evil and those who do wrong.
To increase this gift, a man must strive in every way possible to make his conscience firm and sensitive. The conscience in the human heart is like a fire that illuminates and warms. It’s impossible to completely extinguish this fire. But anyone can ignite and strengthen it, if he wants. And whoever acts this way multiplies the gift given him and has the right to hope to hear from the Lord as a good, kind, and loyal servant. And he who, on the contrary, has so reduced this divine fire so that it doesn’t bother him at all and doesn’t prevent him from sinning is like that slave who buried the talent he received from his master. It was for this that he deserved God’s reprimand as a cunning and lazy servant…
He who enlightens himself with Scripture thereby helps his conscience, but he who doesn’t nourish himself with teaching is forced to rely only on himself. And if his conscience is darkened, he’ll have no other means of distinguishing between good and evil.
At least once a day, a man should take a look in that mirror that is always invisibly with him, known as the conscience. If he looks into it thoughtfully and attentively, he’ll discover a layer of dirt that has formed on its surface. Therefore, at minimum twice a day, morning and evening, through prayer, tears, and repentance, a man should clean this mirror of his soul, the conscience.
Family
Every man, above all, acquires basic everyday habits and skills in his family— there his views and beliefs are formed. In a family, he learns good or bad behavior; his character is formed there, be it good or evil. Therefore, a God-fearing and morally pure family gives rise to a good and kind man, and vice versa. A peaceful family life and atmosphere of mutual respect and love are the foundation of firm Christian morality and a pledge that it’s precisely in his family, in his home that a Christian will be able to fulfill the commandments of Christ most consistently.
The first commandment of Christ is love. Where can it be manifested better, stronger, and more clearly than in a family? It’s precisely in a family that a man’s heart is most clearly revealed, showing whether he’s capable of loving his neighbor. If he’s not able to sincerely, wholeheartedly love his parents, brothers, sisters, and other relatives, then how can he love others?
Patience is a great virtue and dignity that a man must first of all be taught, again, in his family. It’s in the family that a man must every second, every day, show patience and generosity. If people don’t forgive each other’s flaws and mistakes, they simply won’t be able to get along with each other. The rejection of egotism, that is, the ability to sacrifice your own interests for the sake of another, is an important and highly necessary virtue. The best place to manifest this virtue, this commandment, is also in the bosom of the family. Likewise, purity, generosity, peacefulness, and other Christian virtues are most fully developed and strengthened in a family.
Thirdly, nowhere is a man’s character more clearly, well, and fully manifested than in his own family, among his own loved ones. If a man somehow hides his true face outside the home and tries to present himself to others as a completely positive person, then in his family he’s in plain view every second and every act reveals his true face, what he’s really like, good or evil. Home and family life are a mirror reflecting the true character and nature of a man. For a Christian, his home and family is a second church. Both in church and in his family, a man should act purely, modestly, and virtuously.
Worshiping the Lord
The Savior teaches that God is spiritual, and therefore our worship of the Lord must manifest itself in spiritual acts and service to the truth. Pagan worship was only carnal, because the pagans didn’t know the unseen God; they worshiped only what they could see—the sun, moon, or stars. The Savior taught us that God is an unseen Spirit, and therefore, worship and service to Him should also be spiritual. That means a man must worship the Lord spiritually—in truth and righteousness, with good morals and conduct. He who always remembers that God is everywhere present, seeing and hearing all things, and therefore fears to anger Him with his bad deeds and actions truly honors the Lord.
For the most part, we try to serve the Lord with the flesh, forgetting about spiritual service and worship. So, it’s not very difficult to endure fasting, but it’s a much greater virtue and labor if you’re able to cleanse your heart from all sins, if you serve the Lord with truth and good deeds. Fasting means nothing in and of itself if it isn’t reinforced by other virtues. There are no better examples of spiritual worship and the fulfillment of God’s commandments on this earth than parents giving their children a good upbringing and children showing obedience and respect for their elders. Today, this divine union between parents and children has been broken. Children who fast but at the same time feel burdened by taking care of old and infirm parents commit a terrible sin, because they violate the first and foundational covenant given by God and fulfill the least and last of them. Is this really spiritual worship of the Lord? There are many more examples that demonstrate how far we are from spiritually worshiping God.
Sincere believers worship the Lord spiritually and truly. Spiritual worship is turning to and striving for the Lord with all our soul and thoughts, that is, complete submission to the Lord with our thoughts and feelings, all the inner movements of the soul; spiritual worship is reverence, the fear of God, and love.
Our worship of the Lord also has external manifestations: Baptism, kneeling, Church singing, praying aloud, fasting, celebrating feasts, building churches, and so on. All of this is good and useful if it comes from and is based on spiritual worship. Without an inner experience of the Lord, external manifestations of our faith alone bring no benefit, but on the contrary, only harm. Try to arrange your life such that your every word and deed, large or small, would be a manifestation of true worship, respect, and love for God. Take human nourishment, for example. This is a matter of the flesh, but if a man eats intentionally, not to indulge his body, and always thanks God for providing food and uses the energy he receives to glorify the Lord and do God-pleasing works, then eating can also turn into service of the Lord. Similarly, other simple earthly deeds, if performed with hope and love, will be grace-filled and God-pleasing.
Prayer in church
A man who wants to go to church should prepare ahead of time. On Sunday, before going to church, he should try to attune his heart and mind to prayer. If he brings his worldly worries with him to church, then of course he won’t be able to pray well and with benefit for his soul. Before crossing the threshold of the church, stop for a moment, sit down in the yard, collect your thoughts, and ask yourself: “Where are you going?” In church, you must stand before God, with the angels and the saints as your witnesses. And first of all, you have to try, before entering the church, to reconcile with everyone in your soul, not holding a grudge against anyone. If you go to church overflowing with empty worldly worries and cares, only your body will be there, while your heart and soul will be somewhere else altogether.
When entering a church, don’t think about taking a place at the front, but stand silently and modestly, remembering where you are. It’s unacceptable and considered a sin to talk in church, to look around (and even more so to walk around), to look each other up and down. Try to listen carefully to the prayers and passages from Holy Scripture that are being read. The Christian faith and teaching are expressed in those prayers and hymns that are read and sung in church. Therefore, those who listen to them carefully will know what our faith and teaching are.
At the same time, the heart of the one praying in church mustn’t remain cold. You should feel either fear for your sins and your unworthiness, or sorrow, or love for the Lord, or sweetness and consolation, or some other spiritual feeling. If a man is indifferent or feels nothing while in church, then his prayer will be cool and fruitless. A man should love prayer as much as a hungry man loves food. The result of true and fervent prayer is spiritual growth. True prayer warms a man’s heart and improves his character; it melts the passions of an evil heart, like the rays of the bright sun melt snow and ice.
If your heart feels peace, calm, and tranquility after prayer, if your love for the Lord and others increases, that means your prayer was good and proper. If your prayer was truly fervent and full of grace, then when you leave the church, you’ll feel pity for even your enemy and will be ready to embrace him. But if you still feel hostility or an aversion to your enemy, then know that your prayer was false and fruitless. As for those Christians who immediately upon leaving the church, right there in the churchyard, start shouting and fighting, we can say that they didn’t pray at all, that they only made some mechanical actions with their hands and body.
Love of God
Love of God is the most important precept of Christian teaching and the foundation of a Christian’s life. Therefore, we must work tirelessly to ensure that this feeling doesn’t waver in us, and with it our entire spiritual life. When we love someone, we always want to be with them, to see them and feel joy and comfort from them. But God is unseen, and therefore we can’t wish for Him to be physically near to us. So then how can we love God? Love for the Lord is manifested through love for what is good, pure, and true within or without a man; God is supreme goodness, purity, and truth. Therefore, whoever has the desire and longing for these three qualities in his heart has love for the Lord.
Love for God is manifested in the constant struggle between good and evil, purity and impurity in a man’s heart, and that he tries to set truth and grace against lies and every impurity and thereby defeat them. The same struggle between grace and sin is playing out in the world, and only those who take the side of the former and are at enmity with the latter truly love God. Love for the Lord is also manifested through love for others. As St. John the Theologian teaches, if a man can’t love his neighbor, who is ever before him, even less will he be able to love God, Whom he’s never seen. Holy Scripture teaches that the main name for God is love, and he who has no love will never be able to know Him. Holy Scripture therefore calls us to love the Lord, because it’s necessary and useful first of all for us, not for the Lord. If the thought of God constantly lives in the heart, then a man can hope for the Lord’s love for him. These thoughts, aspirations, and efforts purify, enrich, and elevate a man.
When we love someone, then we praise him and rejoice when he’s praised by others, and conversely, we’re vexed if he becomes an object of abuse and vilification. It’s the same with regard to the Lord—he who sincerely loves Him always rejoices in His praise and is also glad to meet those who bear love for God in their hearts. And conversely, when he hears someone’s blasphemous speech, he’s deeply saddened.
Love for God is manifested in the fulfillment of His covenants. The Gospel commandment to love the Lord with all thy heart doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t love anyone in this world other than God, but only that the love we have for the Lord in our heart must be stronger, more durable, and higher than all other feelings. Love for God alone should govern our entire lives. The Gospel also requires us to love the Lord with all our soul and mind. The first indicates the difference between love for the Lord and all other feelings, because love for the Lord is pure, purely spiritual, and completely devoid of anything carnal. A man loves the Lord with his mind only when he often thinks of Him, contemplating His will and greatness. If we want our love for the Lord to be strengthened in our hearts however possible, then we must often think about how much He loves us and how much He’s done for our enlightenment and salvation.
