Orthodox faith - love of money - alphabet. The passion of greed, prayer for the sin of love of money. Prayers recited for the love of money and memory of malice.

1. What is love of money

The love of money is one of the main passions; it is the love of money, property, wealth, and enrichment.

St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) writes about how the passion of love of money is expressed:

The love of money, in general the love of property, movable and immovable. The desire to get rich. Thinking about the means to get rich. Dreaming of wealth. Fear of old age, unexpected poverty, illness, exile. Stinginess. Selfishness. Disbelief in God, lack of trust in His providence. Addictions or painful excessive love for various perishable objects, depriving the soul of freedom. Passion for vain concerns. Loving gifts. Appropriation of someone else's. Likhva. Cruelty towards the poor brethren and all those in need. Theft. Robbery.

Saint Basil the Great:

What is covetousness? The fact is that the limit of the law is violated, and a person cares more about himself than about his neighbor.

The passion of the love of money refers to idolatry, which the holy fathers explain:

The Holy Scripture calls the love of money idolatry: the love of money transfers the love of the heart (in faith and hope) from God to money, makes money a god, destroys the true God for man...

Ava Heremon:

“Whoever does not give what is necessary to the poor, and prefers his money, which he saves out of mistrustful stinginess, to the commandments of Christ, falls into the vice of idolatry, since he prefers the love of worldly things to the love of God.”

“...the holy apostle, having in mind the evil hell of this disease, called it not only the root of all evil (1 Tim. 6:10), but also idolatry, saying: put to death... covetousness (in Greek - love of money), which is idolatry ( Col 3, 5). So, you see to what vice this passion gradually increases, so that the apostle calls it idolatry, because, having abandoned the image and likeness of God (which he who reverently serves God must keep pure in himself), he wants instead of God to love and preserve the images of people imprinted on gold."

Priest Pavel Gumerov writes:

The love of money, the service of material things is idolatry in its purest form, the worship of the “golden calf” (although, of course, any passion is an idol): “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24), that is, wealth.

Not only the rich can suffer from the love of money, and a poor person can be subject to it if his heart is possessed by the desire for money, property, wealth, - the holy fathers teach:

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk:

The love of money, like any passion, nests in the human heart and has a heart. Consequently, not only is he a lover of money who, in fact, collects wealth in every way and keeps it for himself, without giving to those who demand it, but also one who, although he does not collect and does not have it, still insatiably desires it. Not only the covetous and predator who actually steals someone else’s property, but also the one who unrighteously covets someone else’s property, which is a sin against the tenth commandment: “Thou shalt not covet...”. For in his will he covets and steals someone else’s property, and if he does not do this in practice, it does not depend on him, but on the external obstacle that does not allow him to steal someone else’s property.

Venerable Simeon the New Theologian:

Anyone who lusts for money is condemned as a lover of money, even if he had absolutely nothing.

St. John Chrysostom:

The love of money is not only about loving a lot of money, but also about loving money in general. To desire more than is necessary is a great love of money. Did the talents of gold sway the traitor? There are thirty pieces of silver in total; for thirty pieces of silver he sold the Vladyka.

2. Types of love of money

The love of money includes the following passions: greed, stinginess, extravagance, greed, covetousness, covetousness, money-grubbing, covetousness, foul profitability, addiction to objects.

Priest Pavel Gumerov:

"Love of money has two types: extravagance, squandering and, conversely, stinginess, greed. In the first case, a person, having wealth, madly spends it on entertainment, satisfying his needs, a luxurious life. In the second case, he can live very poorly, in everything deny yourself, but serve wealth as an idol, hoard, collect and not share with anyone.”

Self-interest is the desire for personal gain, enrichment, profit, greed for money.

Covetousness is a passionate concern for acquiring property that exceeds the measure necessary for life, greed for wealth, greed, insatiability.

Covetousness - hoarding, addiction to an abundance of property, insatiability in acquiring wealth.

Bribery is a passion for collecting property, acquiring and hoarding superfluous, unnecessary things, as well as bribery, greed (from mshel - (Old Russian) - profit, thing, property; mshel - self-interest).

Priest Pavel Gumerov:

“The passion for hoarding, stinginess is a trait inherent not only in the rich. Quite often people ask the question: “What is money-gathering?”, which we read about in the confessional evening prayer. Money-gathering is the acquisition of things that are unnecessary for us when they have been stored for a long time and inaction becomes, as it were, covered with moss. Very poor people can also suffer from this sin, purchasing and hoarding dishes, clothes, and any other items, filling all the cabinets, shelves and closets with them, and often even forgetting what is where.”

Extortion - bribery, bribery, usury, demand and collection of interest on a loan, extortion of gifts, “when, under the guise of some right, but in fact in violation of justice and philanthropy, they turn to their advantage someone else’s property or someone else’s labor, or even the very misfortunes of their neighbors , for example, when lenders burden debtors with interest, when owners exhaust those who depend on them with unnecessary work, if during a famine they sell bread at an inflated price" ( Orthodox Catechism).

Nasty profitability- “bad acquisition”, criminal gain, making a profit, profit in a nasty, unjust way. This concept includes any measure, weight, deception, but also any income that brings evil to people - for example, based on satisfying or inciting sinful passions. Forgery of any documents or use of counterfeit documents (for example, travel tickets), buying stolen goods cheaply is also bad profit. This also includes parasitism, “when they receive a salary for a position or payment for a task, but do not perform the position or task, and thus steal both the salary or payment, and the benefit that they could bring to society or the one for whom they should have worked.” work" ( Orthodox Catechism).

3. Holy Scripture about the love of money

What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? or what ransom will a man give for his soul?
(Matthew 16:26)

19 Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal,
20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal,
21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
22 The lamp of the body is the eye. So, if your eye is clean, then your whole body will be bright;
23 But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be dark. So, if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness?
24 No one can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other; or he will be zealous for one and neglectful of the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
25 Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will wear. Is not the life more than food, and the body than clothing?
26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns; and your Father in heaven feeds them. Aren't you much better than them?
27 And which of you, by worrying, can add even one cubit to his stature?
28 And why are you concerned about clothing? Look at the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;
29 But I tell you that Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like any of these;
30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today exists and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more than you, O you of little faith!
31 So do not be anxious and say, “What shall we eat?” or what to drink? or what to wear?
32 Because the Gentiles seek all these things, and because your Father in heaven knows that you need all these things.
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:24-25)
(Matthew 6)

Jesus said to His disciples: Truly I say to you, it is difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven; And again I tell you: it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Hearing this, His disciples were greatly amazed and said: So who can be saved? And Jesus looked up and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
(Matt. 19, 23-26)

23 And Jesus, looking around, said to His disciples, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God!”
24 The disciples were horrified at His words. But Jesus answers them again: children! How difficult it is for those who hope for wealth to enter the Kingdom of God!
25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
26 And they were exceedingly amazed, and said to one another, “Who can be saved?”
27 Jesus looked at them and said, “This is impossible with men, but not with God, for all things are possible with God.”
(Mark 10)

Jesus answered and said to her: Martha! Marfa! you care and fuss about many things, but only one thing is needed; Mary chose the good part, which will not be taken away from her.
(Luke 10:41–42)

13 One of the people said to Him: Teacher! tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.
14 And he said to the man, “Who made me a judge or a divider between you?”
15 At the same time he said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for a person’s life does not depend on the abundance of his possessions.”
16 And he told them a parable: A certain rich man had a good harvest in his field;
17 And he reasoned with himself: What should I do? I have nowhere to gather my fruits?
18 And he said, “This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and all my goods,
19 And I will say to my soul: soul! you have a lot of good things lying around for many years: rest, eat, drink, be merry.
20 But God said to him: You fool! this night your soul will be taken from you; who will get what you have prepared?
21 This is what happens to those who store up treasures for themselves and are not rich toward God.
22 And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear.
23 The soul is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.
24 Look at the ravens: they neither sow nor reap; They have neither storehouses nor granaries, and God feeds them; How much better are you than the birds?
25 And which of you, by caring, can add even one cubit to his height?
26 So, if you cannot do the least, why are you anxious about the rest?
27 Look at the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you that Solomon in all his glory did not dress like any of them.
28 But if God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the oven tomorrow, how much more so than you, O you of little faith!
29 So do not seek what you will eat or what you will drink, and do not be anxious;
30 For all these things the people of this world seek; but your Father knows that you have need;
31 Seek above all the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you.
(Luke 12)

Therefore, mortify your members on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil lust and covetousness, which is idolatry, for which the wrath of God will come on the sons of disobedience...
(Col. 3, 5-6)

6 It is great gain to be godly and content.
7 For we have brought nothing into the world; It’s obvious that we can’t take anything out of it.
8 Having food and clothing, let us be content.
9 But those who desire to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and harmful lusts, which plunge people into disaster and destruction;
10 For the love of money is the root of all evil, to which some have abandoned the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.
(1 Tim 6)

And even though they did not care to have God in their minds, God gave them over to a depraved mind - to do lewd things, so that they are filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, greed, malice, filled with envy, murder, strife, deception, evil spirits...
(Rom. 1:28-29)

But fornication and all uncleanness and covetousness should not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints.
...for know that no fornicator, or unclean person, or covetous person, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
(Eph. 5, 3, 5)

For there are many who are disobedient, idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose lips must be stopped: they corrupt entire houses, teaching what they should not, for shameful gain.
(Tit. 1, 10-11)

When wealth increases, do not put your heart on it.
(Ps. 61:11).

He who loves gold will not be right.
(Sir. 31, 5)

A little of a righteous man is better than the riches of many wicked people.
(Ps. 36:16)

4. Sources of love of money

The Holy Fathers teach that the love of money has no basis in human nature and arises from unbelief, lack of faith, inability to rely on God's Providence, lack of hope in God, pride, unreason, vanity, carelessness.

Rev. Neil Sorsky:

The disease of love of money comes from outside of nature, it comes from lack of faith and unreason, the fathers said. Therefore, the feat [of struggle] against it is small for those who listen to themselves with the fear of God and truly want to be saved. When [this illness] takes hold in us, it turns out to be the most evil of all, and if we submit to it, it leads us into such destruction that the Apostle not only called it “the root of all evil” (1 Tim. 6:10): anger, sorrow, and other things. , - but also called it idolatry (Col. 3:5). For many, because of the love of money, not only fell away from a pious life, but also sinned in the faith, suffering mentally and physically, as is related in the Holy Scriptures. It was said by the fathers that he who collects gold and silver and trusts in them does not believe that there is a God who cares about him. And this is what Holy Scripture says: if someone is enslaved by pride or love of money - any one of these passions - then the demon no longer fights him with another passion, because this one is enough for him to perish. Therefore, it is fitting for us to protect ourselves from this destructive and soul-destroying passion and to pray to the Lord God to drive away the spirit of love of money from us.

Rev. Ambrose Optinsky:

Stinginess comes from unbelief and pride.

Ancient patericon:

The elder was asked: what is love of money? - And he answered: distrust of God in that He cares about you, and lack of hope in the promises of God, and love for harmful pleasures.

Saint Gregory Palamas:

The passions generated by the love of money make disbelief in Divine Providence difficult to overcome. Anyone who does not believe in this Providence relies on wealth for his hope. Such, although he hears the words of the Lord that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24), regarding the Kingdom of Heaven and Eternal as nothing, he desires earthly and transitory wealth. Even if this wealth is not yet in the hands, by the very fact that it is coveted, it brings the greatest harm. For “those who desire to be rich fall into temptation,” as the Apostle Paul says (1 Tim. 6:9), and into the snares of the devil... This unhappy passion is not from poverty, but rather the consciousness of poverty from it, and it itself is from madness, for rightly The Lord of all, Christ, called the one foolish who said: “I will tear down my barns and build greater ones” (Luke 12:18). For how crazy is he who, for the sake of things that cannot bring any significant benefit, “for a person’s life does not depend on the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15), betrays what is most useful (eternal blessings) for the sake of such things.

Rev. John Cassian the Roman writes about “what vices does the love of money give rise to”:

“So, this passion, having prevailed over the relaxed and cold soul of the monk, first prompts him to small acquisitions, providing some fair and, as it were, reasonable pretexts for which he should save or acquire a little money. For he complains that what the monastery provides is not enough, it can hardly be bearable even with a healthy, strong body. What will be necessary to do if a disease of the body occurs and a little money is not hidden to support the weakness? The maintenance of the monastery is meager, negligence towards the sick is very great. about the body, then you will have to die in a miserable way. And the clothes provided by the monastery are insufficient, if you do not take care to get yourself something else from somewhere. Finally, you cannot live for a long time in the same place or monastery, and if the monk does not prepare money for himself. travel expenses and crossing the sea, he will not be able to move when he wants, and being constrained by extreme poverty, he will constantly lead a working and miserable life, without any success; always poor and naked, he will be forced to be supported in disgrace by someone else. So, when his mind is deceived by such thoughts, he ponders how he can acquire at least one denarius. Then, with a caring mind, he looks for a private matter that he could do without the knowledge of the abbot. Then, having sold its fruits secretly and received the desired coin, he is very worried about how to double it (the coin), rather, he is perplexed where to put it or to whom to entrust it. Then he often worries about what he could buy with it and what kind of trade he could use to double it. When he succeeds in this, then a strong greed for gold arises and becomes more excited the more profit he makes. For as money increases, so does the fury of passion. Then one imagines a long life, advanced old age, various long-term illnesses that cannot be tolerated in old age unless more money is prepared in youth. Thus, the soul becomes pitiful, bound by serpentine bonds, when with obscene diligence it wants to multiply the poorly collected savings, giving rise to an ulcer for itself, which cruelly inflames, and is completely occupied with thoughts of profit, and sees nothing else with the gaze of the heart, as soon as it comes from I wish I could get money with which I could quickly leave the monastery to where there would be some hope of receiving money."

Abba Daniel explains that the love of money is “alien to our nature, and what is the difference between it and natural vices”:

“Love of money and anger, although not of the same nature (for the first is outside our nature, and the second, apparently, has the initial seed in us), nevertheless occur in a similar way: for the most part, the causes of excitement are received from outside. For those who are still weak often complain that they fell into these vices due to irritation or instigation of some, and excuse themselves by saying that, at the challenge of others, they indulged in anger or love of money. That the love of money is outside of nature is clearly evident; because there is no main principle in us that would relate to the participation of the soul or the flesh, or the essence of life. For it is known that nothing belongs to the needs of our nature except daily food and drink; all other things, no matter how carefully and lovingly they are stored, are alien to human need, as can be seen from their use in life itself; therefore, the love of money, as existing outside our nature, tempts only cold and ill-disposed monks. And the passions inherent in our nature never cease to tempt even the most experienced monks and those living in solitude. That this is completely true is proven by the fact that we know some pagans who are completely free from the passion of love of money. It is also conquered in each of us, with true self-sacrifice, without any difficulty, when, having left all our property, we so adhere to the rules of the monastery that we do not allow ourselves to keep a single denarius. We can present as witnesses many thousands of people who, having in a short time squandered all their property, have so destroyed this passion that they are no longer exposed to any temptation from it. But they cannot protect themselves from gluttony unless they fight with special caution of the heart and restraint of the body.”

St. John Chrysostom:

“The love of wealth is not a natural passion... Why did it intensify? From vanity and extreme carelessness."

Abba Evagrius describes the spiritual process of the emergence and development of the passion of love of money - those thoughts with which the demon of love of money deceives the soul:

“...The love of money presupposes long old age, impotence for needlework, hunger, illness, the sadness of poverty and how difficult it is to accept from others what is necessary for bodily needs.

... It seems to me that the demon of the love of money is very skillful and inventive in seduction. He often, oppressed by extreme renunciation of everything, takes on the appearance of a steward and a beggar-lover, cordially welcomes strangers who are not there at all, sends what is needed to others in need, visits city dungeons, redeems those who are being sold, cleaves to rich women and indicates to whom they owe to be compassionate, and to others, whose vagina is full, he inspires to renounce the world, and thus little by little, having seduced the soul, he overloads it with thoughts of the love of money and transfers it to the thought of vanity. This one introduces many who glorify the Lord for such orders of him (the hermit), and forces some to quietly talk among themselves about the priesthood, predicts the death of the real priest and adds that he cannot avoid (election), no matter what he does for it. So the poor mind, entangled in such thoughts, argues with those who do not accept it, diligently distributes gifts to those who do accept it and welcomes them with gratitude, and betrays some stubborn (opponents) to the judges and demands that they be expelled from the city. While such thoughts are spinning inside, the demon of pride appears, plows through the air of the cell with frequent lightning bolts, unleashes winged serpents and, the final evil, deprives him of his mind. But we, praying that such thoughts may disappear, will try, in a grateful disposition, to get used to poverty. “For we brought nothing into this world, for we see that we can endure what we can: but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these” (1 Tim. 6:7-8), remembering what St. said further. Paul: “The love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Tim. 6:10).”

Rev. John Climacus He also writes about the thoughts with which the demon of the love of money tempts the soul:

The love of money is the worship of idols, the daughter of unbelief, an excuse for one’s own infirmities, a predictor of old age, a harbinger of famine, a fortuneteller about lack of rain.

5. Origins of the love of money

The Holy Fathers write that the love of money is one of the main passions, on its basis many other passions and sins arise in the human soul: pride, vanity, arrogance, dislike, anger, hatred of neighbors, unmercifulness, ingratitude, envy, resentment, insolence, slander, irritability, lies, hypocrisy, theft, embezzlement, perfidy, betrayal, sadness, despondency, laziness, carelessness, intemperance, “many cares and worries that divert the mind and heart from God,” leading to oblivion of God.

Abba Dorotheus:

“...all sin comes either from the love of voluptuousness, or from the love of money, or from the love of fame.”

Abba Evagrius:

“Of the demons who oppose active life, the first in battle are those who are entrusted with lusts or desires of gluttony, and those who instill in us the love of money, and those who challenge us to seek human glory. Everyone else, walking behind them, takes successively those already wounded by them. For... he will not escape pride, this first generation of the devil, who has not plucked out the root of all evil - the love of money (1 Tim. 6:10), since, according to the word of the wise Solomon, poverty humbles a husband (Prov. 10:4), and to put it briefly , it is impossible for a person to fall under any demon unless he is first wounded by those who stand first.”

Rev. John Cassian the Roman:

“Because of this, he will not be afraid to commit the crime of lying, a false oath, theft, to break fidelity, to be inflamed with harmful anger. And if he loses hope of profit, then he will not be afraid to violate honesty, humility, and just like the womb of others, so to him gold and the hope of self-interest becomes everything instead of God. ...Therefore, the holy Apostle, having in mind the evil hell of this disease, called it not only the root of all evil (1 Tim. 6:10), but also idolatry, saying: put to death... covetousness (in Greek - love of money), which is idolatry ( Col 3, 5). So, you see to what vice this passion gradually increases, so that the apostle calls it idolatry, because, having abandoned the image and likeness of God (which he who reverently serves God must keep pure in himself), he wants instead of God to love and preserve the images of people imprinted on gold."

Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov):

Those who want to get rich fall into misfortunes and snares that their very desire to get rich prepares for them. The first fruit of this striving is a multitude of cares and worries that divert the mind and heart from God.

Venerable Neil of Sinai:

Do not rejoice in wealth, because worries about it most often and against the will separate a person from God.

Venerable Ephraim the Syrian:

With covetousness there can be no love. And what should she do? He who is addicted to money hates his brother, trying to take something away from him...

St. John Chrysostom:

“Those who are addicted to money are inevitably envious, prone to oaths, treacherous, impudent, slanderous, full of all kinds of evil, predatory and shameless, arrogant and ungrateful.

Cut off this passion; it gives rise to the following diseases: it makes people wicked, leads to oblivion of God, despite His countless benefits... This passion is no less important, it is capable of producing thousands of disastrous deaths.

He who owns wealth finds it difficult to escape from its shackles; such a multitude of ailments engulf the soul... that is, passions that, like a thick and dark cloud, obscuring the eyes of the mind, do not allow one to look at the sky, but force one to bend down and look at the ground.

The rich man, busy with many worries, arrogant with the pride that comes from wealth, given over to sloth and carelessness, does not receive the healing of hearing the Scriptures with much zeal or with much zeal.

Wealth is not only incapable of planting or cultivating anything good, but even if it finds good, it damages, stops and dries it up, while others completely destroy it and introduce the opposite - immeasurable intemperance, obscene irritability, unjust anger, pride, arrogance, madness.

Passion (love of wealth) ruined many houses, started cruel wars and forced people to end their lives by violent death. Moreover, even before these disasters, it darkens the good qualities of the soul and makes a person cowardly, weak, impudent, a deceiver, a slanderer, a predator, a covetous person, and generally having all the low qualities in himself.

He who loves wealth will not even love his brother, and yet we are commanded for the sake of the Kingdom to love even our enemies.

The soul of a rich man is filled with all evils: pride, vanity, countless desires, anger, rage, greed, untruth and the like.

Wealth for the inattentive serves as a means to vices.

Let no one pursue wealth: from it comes many evils for the inattentive - pride, laziness, envy, vanity and others, much greater.

Seeing a prisoner whose neck, arms, and often even legs are in chains, you consider him extremely unhappy; So when you see a rich person... do not call him happy, but for the same reason consider him ill-fated. In fact, in addition to the fact that he is in chains, there is also a cruel prison guard with him - evil greed, which does not allow him to leave prison, but prepares for him thousands of new shackles, dungeons, doors and locks, and, having plunged him into the inner prison still forces him to enjoy his bonds, so that he cannot even find hope of freeing himself from the evils that oppress him. And if you penetrate into the interior of his soul, you will see it not only bound, but also extremely ugly.”

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk:

“Pride, stinginess, love of money and unmercifulness invent so many reasons and excuses that it is impossible to count them. Because of these reasons, it is difficult for the rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 19:23). They trust in their wealth, and not in the living God, which is idolatry. Stinginess and love of money, pride and its daughter nest in the rich - contempt for the poor and wretched, unmercifulness towards the suffering brethren, destructive luxury, and so on. And the root of everything is pride. It is not wealth that is to blame for the death of the rich, for wealth is God’s gift and many were rich but pious... What destroys the rich is a heart that is selfish and clings to wealth and turns away from the Living God. That is why David says: “When wealth increases, do not set your heart on it” (Ps. 61:11).

Beware of luxury like a pestilence. It greatly weakens the Christian soul, teaches us to steal what belongs to others, to offend people, and to keep our hand from giving alms, which is required of a Christian. Luxury, like a belly, knows no satiety and, like an abyss, devours all good things... So luxury devours everything and relaxes the mind. Beware of luxury. Nature is content with little; a lot of lust and luxury are required.”

Rev. Mark Podvizhnik:

“Conceit and arrogance are the causes of blasphemy, while love of money and vanity are the causes of unmercifulness and hypocrisy.

The substance of vanity and bodily pleasure is the love of money, which, according to Divine Scripture, is the root of all evil (Tim. 6:10).

The mind is blinded by these three passions, the love of money, I say, vanity and the desire for pleasure.”

Rev. John Climacus:

“….anger tells us: “I have many mothers and not one father. My mothers are: vanity, love of money, gluttony, and sometimes lustful passion...

The lover of money is a blasphemer of the Gospel and a voluntary apostate. He who has acquired love squanders his money, and whoever says that he has both is deceiving himself.

He who has conquered this passion has cut off his care, and he who is bound by it never prays purely.

The love of money begins under the guise of giving alms, and ends in hatred of the poor.”

Rev. Macarius of Optina:

“The world, according to St. Isaac, is made up of passions, and especially the three main ones: the love of glory, the love of voluptuousness and the love of money. If we do not arm ourselves against these, then we inevitably fall into anger, sadness, despondency, resentment, envy, hatred and the like.

You mentioned in your writing that God does not require more from a person than to fulfill the duties of the title in which he was born, which, according to your understanding, you try to fulfill without reproach of conscience. Since this point is important, it is necessary to think about it better. This duty consists of fulfilling the commandments of God, according to the vow we made in baptism, no matter what rank one may hold; but in fulfilling them we are faced with resistance from the enemy of the human race - the devil, as the holy Apostles write about... You see what kind of invisible war we have: he always tries to fight the Christian race by opposing actions to the commandments of God, through our passions; To this end, his main weapons serve - passions: love of fame, voluptuousness and love of money. Having been defeated by these, or by one of them, we give other passions free entry to act in our hearts. From your understanding it is clear that you have an imperfect understanding of this battle or resistance and not so much caution, but only your effort, without reproach of conscience, to fulfill your duty; but they did not penetrate into this, as they should, into what it consists of. If you fulfilled all your duty without a reproach of conscience, or better yet, without humility, then there would be no benefit.

You will say: there is salvation everywhere, and in peace with women you can be saved. Truly true! but there more work is required to fulfill the commandments of God: wife, children, care for acquiring wealth, worldly glory; all this serves as a great obstacle to pleasing God. Everyone is commanded to fulfill God’s commandments, and not just monks; For monks, it is absolutely unnecessary: ​​preserving oneself in virginity and non-covetousness, which contribute to the preservation of other commandments. We do not worry about food and clothing, for in these we have no poverty through the Providence of God... In worldly life, it is more convenient to be carried away into breaking the commandments; Those who have a deposit of passions in their hearts not only do not care about eradicating them, but also do not consider them necessary, and in any case, the guilt that comes is the action of the passions. Let's talk about the love of money. Writes St. Apostle Paul (1 Tim. 6:9-10): “But those who want to get rich fall into adversity and snares, and into many senseless and destructive lusts, which plunge people into destruction and destruction. The love of money is the root of all evil.” Who escapes this evil rooting? Everyone tries to acquire money, sometimes with untruth, with covetousness, with godlessness and other unpleasing deeds. Here, don’t ask about love for your neighbor, about which the Lord Himself commanded so much in the Holy Gospel and the holy Apostles taught.

...All these three main passions: love of money, love of voluptuousness and love of glory do much to hinder the fulfillment of the commandments of Christ, and it is difficult for those who live in the world to fight them and not be hurt by them..."

Reverend Abba Isaiah:

Covetousness is the evil mother of all evils.

6. The destructiveness of the love of money

Rev. John Cassian the Roman writes that “the disease of love of money is disastrous”:

“And this disease of love of money, coming later, is imposed on the soul from the outside, and therefore it is easier to be careful and reject it; and when left without attention and once it has crept into the heart, it is the most destructive of all and more difficult to drive it away. For it becomes the root of all evil, providing numerous occasions for vices.”

“The example of Judas.

Do you want to know how disastrous, how harmful this passion is if it is not zealously exterminated; how will she multiply and produce heterogeneous shoots of vices to the destruction of the one who raised her? Look at Judas, who was one of the apostles. Since he did not want to crush the deadly head of this serpent, he poisoned him with his hell and, entangling him in the nets of lust, plunged him into such a deep abyss of vice that he convinced him to sell the Redeemer of the world and the author of the salvation of people for thirty pieces of silver. He would never have been driven to such an unholy betrayal if he had not been infected with the disease of love of money; He would not have become the wicked culprit of the murder of the Lord if he had not first become accustomed to stealing the money entrusted to him.

About the death of Ananias, Sapphira and Judas, which they suffered because of the love of money.

Finally, the supreme apostle, taught by these examples, knowing that he who has something cannot curb passion, and that it can be put an end to it not by a small or large amount of property, but only by lack of covetousness, punished with death Ananias and Sapphira (about whom we above mentioned that they withheld some of their property), so that they were destroyed for lying out of passion. And Judas himself arbitrarily destroyed himself for the guilt of betraying the Lord. What a similarity between crime and punishment in this! For there (in Judas) love of money was followed by betrayal, but here (in Ananias and Sapphira) - lies. There the truth is betrayed - here the vice of deception is allowed. Although their actions seem different, in both cases the same end followed. For he (Judas), avoiding poverty, wanted to return what he had rejected; and these, in order not to become poor, attempted to keep some of their property, which they should have brought in full to the apostles or distributed to the brothers. And therefore, in both cases, condemnation to death follows; because both vices came from the root of the love of money. ...

The love of money causes spiritual leprosy.

Money lovers are considered lepers in mind and heart, like Gehazi (2 Kings 5:27), who, having desired the corruptible money of this world, was struck by the plague of leprosy. This serves as an obvious example to us that every soul defiled by passion is struck by the spiritual leprosy of vices, and the unclean before the Lord is subject to eternal damnation.”

For carnal wisdom is death, but spiritual wisdom is life and peace (Rom. 8:6). What person would not agree with these words of the apostle? The wisdom of the flesh is indeed death. Come here, money-loving, covetous, envious, self-loving, proud, ambitious man, and let us look at you, at your actions, at your life! Reveal to us, if you want, your heartfelt thoughts! We will be convinced by you, a living example, that carnal wisdom is death: you do not live a true life, you are a spiritual dead man, in freedom you are bound internally; with the mind - like a madman, because the light that is in you is darkness (Matthew 6:23), you received from God a heart capable of enjoying the feelings of everything true, holy, good and beautiful; but through carnal wisdom you have suppressed noble feelings, noble impulses in him, you are dead, you have no stomach in yourself (John 6:53).

St. John Chrysostom:

“Strong and ready for anything, the love of acquisition, not knowing satiety, forces the captive soul to go to the extreme limit of evil. We will reflect it, especially at the very beginning, so that it does not become insurmountable.

Just as there is no sea without waves, so there is no soul immersed in worries - without sorrows, without fear; the first are followed by others, they are replaced by third ones, and before they have time to subside, new ones rise up.

Nothing subjugates us to the devil more than the desire for more and covetousness.

The soul, once captivated by covetousness, can no longer easily and comfortably restrain itself from doing or saying something that angers God, since it has become the slave of another master, who commands it everything that is contrary to God.

The higher the soul is than the body, the more severe the wounds that we inflict on ourselves every day through worries combined with fear and apprehension.

A covetous person moves away from God, just like an idolater.

The slaughter of souls is primarily carried out on the altar of covetousness.

How long will this frenzy of profit continue? How long will the unquenchable furnace burn? Don't you know that this flame turns into an eternal, unquenchable fire?

Whoever began to serve mammon has already abandoned serving Christ.

Just as drunks, the more wine they pour into themselves, the more they become inflamed with thirst, so money lovers can never stop this indomitable passion, but the more their property increases, the more they are inflamed by greed and do not lag behind this passion until they plunge into the very the abyss of evil.

Take note, money lovers, and think about what happened to the traitor Judas. How he lost his money and lost his soul. Such is the tyranny of the love of money. I didn’t use the money, nor the present life, nor the future life, but suddenly I lost everything...

What is the benefit if someone even humbles himself and observes fasts, but at the same time is a lover of money, covetous and, being tied to the earth, introduces into his soul the mother of all evils - the love of money?

Even if there were no devil, if no one worked against us, and in this case, countless paths from everywhere lead the money-lover to Gehenna.

Let us free ourselves and extinguish the addiction to money in order to ignite the desire for heavenly things. After all, these two aspirations cannot be combined in one soul.

Let us neglect money so as not to neglect our soul.

The love of wealth perverted and overthrew everything, destroyed the true fear of God. As a tyrant destroys fortresses, so she overthrows souls.

Even if we were virtuous in all respects, wealth destroys all these virtues.

Wealth combines two opposing evils: one crushes and darkens - this is care; the other is relaxing - it's luxury.

Heavenly blessings await us, but we still have an addiction to earthly things and do not think about the devil, who deprives us of great things because of small things. He gives dust to steal Heaven, shows a shadow to turn us away from the truth, deceives us with dreams (for nothing else is this earthly wealth), so that when the day (of judgment) comes, he will show us the poorest of all.

Tell me, why are you standing, looking in amazement at wealth and ready to fly towards it? What do you see in him that is surprising and worthy of catching your gaze?.. Are you attracted to expensive clothes, and in them a voluptuous soul, raised eyebrows, vanity and excitement? Is all this really worthy of surprise? How are these people different from the beggars who dance in the market and play the pipe? They ... dance their dance, which is funnier than the dance of jesters - they run and spin around luxurious dinners, then in the houses of obscene women, then in a crowd of flatterers and parasites. Although they are dressed in gold, they are especially pitiful because they care most about what has no meaning to them. Don’t look at the clothes, but open their soul and see if it is full of countless wounds, if it is dressed in rags, if it is not lonely and defenseless? What is the use of this mad predilection for externals? It is much better to live poor, but be virtuous, than to be a king, but vicious. The poor man in himself enjoys every spiritual pleasure and, due to his inner wealth, does not feel outward poverty. But the rich man, enjoying what is completely indecent for him, is deprived of what should be especially characteristic of him, and is tormented in his soul by thoughts and conscience that haunt him even among pleasures. Knowing this, let us reject golden garments and internalize virtue and the pleasure that comes from virtue. Thus, both here and there we will enjoy much joy and achieve the promised blessings.”

Venerable Isidore Pelusiot:

Because of the love of money, there is enmity, fights, wars; because of her, murders, robberies, slander; because of it, not only cities, but also deserts, not only inhabited countries, but also uninhabited ones breathe blood and murder... For the love of money, the laws of kinship are perverted, the rules of nature are shaken, the rights of the very essence are violated... No matter how many evils no one has found in public assemblies, or in courts of justice, or in houses, or in cities, he will see in them the shoots of this root.

Of the covetous and abusive people, some know, while others do not know, that they sin incurably. For the inability to feel the illness in which you are is a consequence of increased insensitivity, which ends in complete insensibility and mortification. Therefore, such people should be pitied most of all. Doing evil is more deplorable than tolerating evil. Those who do evil (offending people because of covetousness) are in extreme danger, but for those who suffer, the damage concerns only their property. Moreover, the first ones do not feel their absolute mortification... like children who do not care about what is truly scary, and can put their hands into the fire, and when they see a shadow, they come into fear and trembling. A similar thing happens with lovers of acquisitions: fearing poverty, which is not terrible, but also protects from many evils and promotes a modest way of thinking, they mistake for something great unrighteous wealth, which is worse than fire, because it turns to dust both the thoughts and hopes of those who have it. them.

Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk:

Notice here, Christian, what the love of money for your fans leads to. Judas was not afraid to sell the priceless Christ, his Benefactor and Teacher, for such a small price, and thus bought himself eternal destruction. The same will happen to other money lovers who are not afraid to do all sorts of evil in order to get rich.

The love of money and covetousness not only cause harm to others, but also plunge their zealots into disaster. Thus, Gehazi, the youth of the prophet of God Elisha, who secretly took silver and vestments from Naaman the Syrian, who was healed by God’s grace and returned to his home, was struck by this leprosy by the righteous judgment of God (2 Kings 5:20-27). Thus, Judas the traitor, who was not afraid to sell the priceless Christ, the Son of God, for thirty pieces of silver, accepts the execution worthy of the love of money, and kills himself by strangulation (Matthew 26, 15-16; 47-49)... And even if whoever escapes temporary execution, for not all lawless people are punished here according to the unknown destinies of God, will not escape eternal execution, which will certainly follow both for other lawless people and for the greedy.

Luxury and avarice are opposite sisters, but both fatally infect human hearts. One squanders, the other stores and teaches how to guard wealth, but both are for human destruction. One relaxes, the other binds a person, but both of them kill his soul.

Anyone who wants to appear before God with a pure mind, but confuses himself with worries, is like someone who has tightly chained his feet and is trying to walk quickly.

Ava Pimen:

“He also said: it is impossible for you to live according to God when you are voluptuous and money-loving.”

Abba Peter said... strive to avoid the three passions that pervert the soul, namely: love of money, curiosity and tranquility. For if these passions enter the soul, they do not allow it to succeed.

Priest Pavel Gumerov:

“Serving material wealth especially takes a person away from spiritual values. His soul is replaced by another, he becomes a materialist in the full sense of the word. Thoughts and thoughts about earthly goods and values ​​do not leave room for the spiritual. That is why it is said: “It is difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 19:23).

God needs a place in our hearts to hold on to something in a person’s soul. Then the person can be helped. What if the heart and soul are occupied only with material things? This does not mean that it is easy for the poor to be saved. Poverty can also give rise to many vices: envy, pride, despondency, grumbling, etc. But the Gospel speaks of the difficulties of salvation for the rich. And from history it is clear that both Christ and the apostles were very poor and had no place to lay their heads. There were many more poor Christians. Although among the saints there were very rich people: Abraham, kings David, Solomon, emperors, princes... It is not wealth in itself that is a sin, but the attitude towards it. Everything that the Lord gives us: talents, wealth is not ours. We are stewards, overseers of all this, this is God’s. And we must not only return what is given to us, but also return it with interest, multiply it, using these gifts to help others and to save the soul.

But this is often not the case; material values ​​occupy such a dominant position in people’s minds that they hardly remember God, the soul, or their neighbors.”

7. The fight against the love of money

The fight against the love of money is to cultivate in oneself the virtues opposite to the love of money: mercy towards those in need, alms, generosity, selflessness, indifference to wealth and reluctance to acquire, zeal for spiritual goods and gifts, and not for perishable earthly property, cultivation of good thoughts as opposed to desires for acquisition: fear of God, memory of death, love for one's neighbor.

7a. Spiritual warfare with the passion of love of money

Abba Evagrius writes about the importance of fighting thoughts in confronting passions:

“There are eight main thoughts, from which all other thoughts arise. The first thought is gluttony, and after it - fornication, the third - love of money, the fourth - sadness, the fifth - anger, the sixth - despondency, the seventh - vanity, the eighth - pride. So that these thoughts disturb the soul, or not, it does not depend on us, but so that they remain in us for a long time or do not remain, so that they set passions in motion, or do not, it depends on us.”

“When an enemy comes and wounds you, and you want, according to what is written, to turn his sword into his heart (Psalm 36:15), then do as we tell you. Decompose (analyze) the thought he put into himself, who it is, what it consists of, and what actually strikes the mind in it. What am I saying, that's what it is. Let him send the thought of love of money to you. Break it down into the mind that accepted it, into the thought of gold, into that gold itself, and into the passion for money. Finally, ask: which of all this is sin? Is it smart? But how is he the image of God? Or thoughts about gold? But who has the intelligence to say this? So isn't gold itself a sin? But why was it created? So, it remains to put sin in the fourth (i.e., in the passion for money), which is neither a thing independent in essence, nor a concept of a thing, but some kind of man-hating sweetness, born from free will and forcing the mind to use evilly the creatures of God, which sweetness the law of God commands to suppress. When you investigate this, the thought will disappear, having been dissolved into what it is, and the demon will run away as soon as your thought delights in grief, inspired by such knowledge.

Rev. Nicodemus the Svyatogorets gives lessons on spiritual warfare, cultivation of good thoughts and the use of feelings

“I will offer you general instructions for all cases, according to the guidance of the holy fathers. We have three parts or forces in our soul: mental, desirable and irritable. From these three forces, due to their damage, three types of wrong thoughts and movements are born. From mental strength thoughts are born: ingratitude to God and grumbling, forgetfulness of God, ignorance of divine things, recklessness, all kinds of blasphemous thoughts. From the force of desire, thoughts are born: lust, love of fame, love of money, with all their numerous modifications that make up the area of ​​self-indulgence. From the power of irritability thoughts are born: anger, hatred, envy, revenge, gloating, malice, and all evil thoughts in general. You should overcome all such thoughts and movements with the methods shown, trying each time to raise and plant in your heart the good feelings and dispositions opposite to them: instead of unbelief - undoubted faith in God, instead of grumbling hundred - sincere gratitude to God for everything, instead of forgetfulness of God - unceasing deep memory about God, the omnipresent and all-containing God, instead of ignorance - clear contemplation or in the mind sorting through all the saving Christian truths, instead of recklessness - feelings trained in reasoning about good and evil... instead of love of money - contentment with little and love of poverty; also, instead of anger - meekness, instead of hatred - love, instead of envy - rejoicing, instead of vengeance - forgiveness and peace, instead of gloating - compassion, instead of malice - goodwill.

It remains for me to offer you general rules on how to use external feelings so that the impressions from them do not ruin our spiritual and moral structure. Take heed!

a) Most of all, my brother, with all your might, keep your evil and quick deceivers in your hands - your eyes - and do not allow them to stretch out to curiously look at the faces of women, whether they are beautiful or ugly, as well as at the faces of men, especially young and beardless. ...For from such curiosity and passionate looking, a voluptuous lust for fornication can conveniently arise in the heart, not innocent, as the Lord said: “...everyone who looks at a woman, lusts after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5, 28). And one of the wise wrote: “Lust is born from vision.” That is why Solomon, warning us against being captivated by the eyes and from being wounded by the lust of beauty, gives a lesson: “Son, let not the lust of kindness overcome thee; Here are examples of the harmful consequences of free-spirited viewing with your eyes: the sons of God, the descendants of Seth and Enosh, were carried away by the daughters of Cain (Gen. 6); Shechem, the son of Hamor, in Sikim, seeing Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, fell with her (Gen. 34); Sampson was captivated by the beauty of Delilah (Judges 16); David fell from looking at Bathsheba (2 Sam. 11); two elders, judges of the people, were maddened by the beauty of Susanna (Dan. 13).

Be careful also to look closely at good food and drink, remembering our foremother Eve, who, looking with evil eyes at the fruit of the forbidden tree in paradise, lusted after it, picked it and tasted it, and put herself and her entire family to death. Do not look with lust at beautiful clothes, nor at silver and gold, nor at the shiny clothes of the world, so that through your eyes the passion of vanity or love of money does not enter your soul, for which Saint David prays for deliverance: “Turn away my eyes, lest see vanity..." (Ps. 119:37). And I will say in general: be careful to look at round dances, dances, feasts, pomp, disputes, quarrels, idle chatter and all other inappropriate and shameful things that the senseless world loves and the law of God prohibits.

Run and close your eyes from all this, so as not to fill your heart with passionate movements and imagination with shameful images and not arouse in yourself rebellion and warfare against yourself, stopping the continuity of the feat that you should always strive against your passions. But love to visit churches and look at holy icons, holy books, tombs, cemeteries and everything else that is reverent and holy, looking at which can have a saving effect on your soul.

Saint Hesychius writes about this in his word on sobriety and prayer: “You must look within with a sharp and intense gaze of your mind in order to recognize those entering; having learned, immediately crush the head of the serpent with contradiction, crying out with groaning at the same time to Christ the Lord. And you will receive then the experience of invisible Divine intercession" (paragraph 22).

Again: “Therefore, whenever evil thoughts happen to multiply in us, let us cast into their midst the invocation of our Lord Jesus Christ; and we will immediately see that they begin to dissipate like smoke in the air, as experience has taught us” (paragraph 98).

And again: “We will conduct mental warfare in this order: the first thing is attention; then, when we notice that an enemy thought has approached, we will cast words of oath from our hearts with anger; the third thing then is to pray against it, turning our hearts to calling on the Lord Jesus Christ, may this demonic ghost be dispelled immediately, so that otherwise the mind does not follow the trail of this dream, like a child seduced by some skillful magician" (paragraph 105).

And again: “Dispute usually blocks the further course of thoughts, and invoking the name of Jesus Christ drives them out of the heart. As soon as an argument is imagined in the soul by the presentation of a sensory object, such as a person who has offended us, or female beauty, or silver and gold, or when all this happens in our thoughts, it is immediately exposed that spirits have led our heart into such a dream - rancor, fornication, love of money and others. If our mind is experienced, trained and skillful in guarding ourselves from enemy attacks and seeing clearly as in the day. , seductive dreams and charms of the evil ones, then immediately, with rebuff, contradiction and the prayer of Jesus Christ, he easily extinguishes the kindled arrows of the devil, not allowing passionate dreams to drag ourselves and our thoughts into the trail, and these thoughts to agree with the ghost of the pretext, or to have a friendly conversation with him and go into into a lot of thought, or to formulate with it, - which is followed, with some necessity, by bad deeds, like night after day.”

And you will find many similar places at Saint Hesychius. In him you will find a complete outline of all the invisible warfare, and I would advise you to re-read his word on sobriety and prayer more often.”
(Invisible swearing)

Rev. John Cassian the Roman teaches that the love of money must be fought from its very first pretexts, because “the disease of love of money, once accepted, is driven out with great difficulty,” and at the same time it is important to fight with the very thoughts, and not just with the deeds of the love of money:

“Therefore, this disease should not seem unimportant to anyone, which could be neglected. As easily as one can evade it, once it has dominated someone, it barely allows one to use medicines for healing. For it is the repository of vices, the root of all evil and the ineradicable inciter to evil, as the apostle says: the root of all evil is the love of money, i.e. love of money (1 Tim. 6:10).

...not only must one be wary of acquiring money, but desire itself must be driven out of the soul. For it is important not so much to avoid money-loving deeds as to uproot this passion itself. For not having money will bring us any benefit if the desire for acquisition remains in us.

And he who does not have money may suffer from the disease of the love of money, and the vow of poverty will not bring any benefit to the one who could not cut off the passion of covetousness and is content only with the promise of poverty, and not with virtue itself, and he bears the burden of need not without heartfelt sorrow. For just as the Gospel word (Matthew 5:28) considers those who are not defiled in body to be unclean in heart, so those who are not burdened with the burden of money can be condemned as lovers of money in mind and heart. For they did not have only the chance to have, and not the will, which with God is always crowned with more than necessity. For it is worthy of regret to endure the trials of poverty and nakedness, and to be deprived of their fruits through the vice of vain desire.

The love of money can only be overcome by non-covetousness.

Here is a striking and obvious example of the ferocity of this passion, which does not allow the captive soul to observe any rules of honesty and cannot be satisfied by any increase in profit. For it is not wealth that can put an end to this passion, but only non-covetousness. Finally, when Judas hid the money entrusted to him, designated for alms to the poor, in order to, having had enough of the abundance of money, at least moderate his passion, he was so inflamed by a strong passion from their abundance that he wanted not only to steal the money secretly, but to sell himself Gentlemen. For the fury of this lust surpasses all riches.

There is no other way to defeat the love of money than by non-covetousness.

The perfect victory over the love of money is achieved by not allowing in our hearts the spark of desire for any and the slightest acquisition, being confident that we will no longer be able to extinguish it if we give even a little food to this spark in us.”

Rev. Neil Sorsky teaches not to have things that exceed the needs of life and to purify the soul, guarding against any desire to acquire property:

Not only should we avoid gold, silver and property, but also all things beyond the needs of life: clothing, shoes, furnishing cells, vessels, and all kinds of implements; and all this is of little value and unadorned, easily acquired and does not encourage us to vanity - so that we do not fall into worldly snares because of it. True removal from the love of money and love of things is not only not having property, but also not wanting to acquire it. This guides us towards spiritual purity.

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk also mentors to distinguish the dictates of lust from the necessary demands of nature:

“Lust and luxury desires and seeks a lot... it can never be satisfied, just as the heat of the heart cannot be quenched, no matter how much the sick person drinks. Know both lust and natural necessity and act according to the demands of nature, and not according to the desires of lust.

When you think about a blissful and painful eternity, then this reflection, like the wind of darkness, will dispel your thoughts about whims and luxury, and you will not demand anything except what is necessary. You need a lot of lust and luxury, nature is content with little.”

The Holy Fathers teach techniques of spiritual warfare against the passion of love of money and its industries:

St. rights John of Kronstadt:

“We must constantly remember that the devil is constantly trying to litter our soul with hellish rubbish, of which we have too much and which is too small and varied. So, is your heart's eye clouded by enmity, by pride, by impatience and irritability, by sparing material wealth for your brother or for yourself - I mean stinginess, - by covetousness and love of money, by the unpeaceful and offensive words of others, by despondency and despair, or by envy? Whether through doubt, lack of faith or disbelief in revealed truths, vanity, laziness towards prayer and every good deed and service in general - say in your heart with the firm confidence of the word: this is the rubbish of the devil, this is the darkness of hell. With faith and hope in the Lord, with constant sobriety and attention to yourself, you can, with God’s help, avoid the rubbish and darkness of hell. He who is born of God takes care of himself, and the evil one does not touch him.

The treatment of mental illnesses (passions) is completely different from the treatment of physical illnesses. In physical illnesses, you need to dwell on the illness, caress the sore spot with soft remedies, warm water, warm poultices, etc., but in mental illnesses it is not so: an illness has attacked you - do not dwell on it, do not caress it at all, do not indulge it , do not warm her, but beat her, crucify her; do the exact opposite of what she asks; hatred of your neighbor has attacked you - quickly crucify it and immediately love your neighbor; stinginess has attacked - be generous quickly; envy attacked - rather be kind; pride has attacked, quickly humble yourself to the ground; the love of money has attacked - rather, praise non-covetousness and be jealous of it; tormented by the spirit of enmity - love peace and love; if gluttony overcomes you, quickly become jealous of abstinence and fasting. The whole art of treating illnesses of the spirit consists in not dwelling on them at all and not in the least indulging them, but immediately cutting them off.”

Venerable Isidore Pelusiot:

If the love of money influences you, this “root of all evil” (1 Tim. 6:10), and, turning all your feelings towards itself, leads you into such a frenzy that you fall into idolatry, then firmly answer it with the right word: “it is written: To the Lord Worship your God and serve Him alone" (Matthew 4:10). And the effect of the poison will end, and you will be completely sober.

Rev. Mark Podvizhnik:

“The cause of all sin is vanity and the desire for pleasure. He who does not hate them will not stop the passions.

St. John Chrysostom:

“When an evil habit or passion for covetousness strongly seduces you, arm yourself against them with this thought: having despised temporary pleasure, I will receive a great reward. Tell your soul: you grieve that I deprive you of pleasure, but rejoice, because I am preparing Heaven is for you. You work not for man, but for God; endure a little and you will see what benefit will come from this; remain firm in this life and you will receive indescribable freedom if in this way we talk with the soul, if we present more than one burden. virtue, but also its crown, then we will soon distract it from all evil.”

“The servant of Christ will not be the slave of wealth, but its master.”

“How to extinguish the flame of covetousness? It can be extinguished even if it has risen to the sky. We just have to want it, and we will, without a doubt, overcome this flame. Just as it became stronger as a result of our desire, so it will be destroyed by desire. Was it not our free will that ignited it? Consequently, free will will be able to extinguish, only if we wish. But how can such a desire appear in us? If we pay attention to the vanity and uselessness of wealth, to the fact that it cannot accompany us into Eternal Life; that here too it leaves us; that even if it remains here, the wounds from it go with us there. If we look at how great the riches prepared there are, and if we compare earthly wealth with them, then it will seem more insignificant than dirt. If we notice that it exposes us to countless dangers, that it gives only temporary pleasure mixed with grief, if we carefully consider other wealth, that is, that which is prepared for Eternal Life, then we will be able to despise earthly wealth. If we understand that wealth does not in the least increase fame, health, or anything else, but, on the contrary, plunges us into the abyss of destruction, if we learn that despite the fact that here you are rich and have many subordinates, leaving there, you will go alone and naked - if we often repeat all this and hear from others, then perhaps our health will return to us, and we will get rid of this grave punishment.”

“You, perhaps, use beyond your needs, spend a lot of money on entertainment, on clothes and other luxury items, partly on slaves and animals, and the poor man does not ask you for anything unnecessary, but only for this to satisfy your hunger and satisfy the necessary needs - to have daily bread to support your life and not die. But you don’t want to do this either, and you don’t think that death could suddenly snatch you away, and then everything you collected will remain here and, perhaps, pass into the hands of your enemies and enemies, and you yourself will leave, taking with you only all the sins with which you collected this. And what will you say then on that terrible day? How will you justify yourself, having not cared so much about your salvation? So listen to me and, while there is still time, give away the excess money, so that, in this way, you can prepare for your salvation there and gain the reward of those eternal blessings that may we all receive through the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom the Father, with the Holy Spirit , glory, power, honor, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen".

“And those who are possessed by an insane passion and love for collecting wealth exhaust all their strength on this, and are never satisfied, because the love of money is insatiable drunkenness; and just as drunks, the more wine they pour into themselves, the more they become inflamed with thirst, so these (money lovers) can never stop this indomitable passion, but the more they see the increase in their property, the more they are inflamed by greed and do not lag behind this evil passion until they fall into the very abyss of evil. If these people manifest with such intensity this destructive passion, the culprit of all evils, then all the more should we always have in our thoughts the judgments of the Lord, which are higher than “gold and even much pure gold,” and not prefer anything to virtue, but these destructive passions to eradicate from your soul and know that this temporary pleasure usually gives rise to unceasing sorrow and endless torment, and not to deceive ourselves and not to think that our existence ends with real life. True, most people do not express this in words; on the contrary, they even say that they believe in the doctrine of the resurrection and future reward; but I pay attention not to words, but to what is done every day. If you really expect resurrection and reward, then why are you so concerned about worldly glory? Why, tell me, do you torment yourself every day, collecting more money than sand, buying villages, and houses, and baths, often acquiring it even through robbery and extortion and fulfilling the prophetic word on yourself: “Woe to you who add house to house, joining field to field, so that there is no room left for [others], as if you alone were inhabited on the earth” (Is. 5:8)? Isn’t this what we see every day?”

Saint Gregory the Theologian:

Rich! listen: “When wealth increases, do not put your heart on it” (Ps. 61:11), know that you are relying on a fragile thing. We need to lighten the ship to make it easier to sail.

7b. Hope in God overcomes the passion of love of money and delivers from troubles

Saint Theophan the Recluse writes that it is not the possession of wealth that is sinful and destructive, but the addiction to it and trust in it, and not in God:

“It is difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 19:23). This means a rich person who sees in himself many ways and many strengths for prosperity. But as soon as the one who has a lot cuts off all attachment to possessions, extinguishes in himself all hope for it and ceases to see in it his essential support, then he becomes in his heart that even if he has nothing, the road to the Kingdom is open to such a person. Wealth then not only does not hinder, but helps, because it provides a way to do good. It is not wealth that is the problem, but the reliance on it and the addiction to it. This idea can be summarized as follows: whoever puts his trust in something and is addicted to something is the one who becomes rich. He who trusts in God alone and cleaves to Him with all his heart is rich in God. He who trusts in something else and turns his heart to something other than God, is rich in these other things, and not in God. From here it follows: whoever is not rich in God has no entry into the Kingdom of God. This means family, connections, intelligence, ranks, range of actions, etc.

Saint Demetrius of Rostov teaches to trust in God:

“When wealth increases, do not put your heart on it,” says the prophet (Ps. 61:11). It is great madness to set your heart on gold and trust in disastrous covetousness. So, do not trust in perishable wealth and do not rush for gold, for, as it is said: “He who loves gold will not be right” (Sir. 31:5), but place your trust in the living God (1 Tim. 4:10), Who abides forever and created everything.

Do not be afraid of lack of anything, for before you had nothing - now you have it, and if you do not have it, you will have it. For He who created everything has not become poor, and will never become poor. Believe this firmly: He who brought everything from non-existence into being has not become impoverished; Giving food to the hungry. He who satisfies every animal is abundant in everything. Do not be stingy in giving to those who ask, and do not turn away from Him in whose name they ask you; Give everything to the One who gives you, so that you may receive from Him a hundredfold.”

Venerable John Climacus writes that faith and hope in God kill the passion of love of money:

Faith and withdrawal from the world are death for the love of money.”

Otechnik:

The brother asked the elder: “Bless me to have two gold coins with me because of the weakness of my body.” The elder, seeing that he wanted to keep them, said: “Have them.” The brother returned to his cell, and thoughts began to disturb him: “What do you think? Did the elder bless you to have money or not?” Getting up, he came again to the elder and asked him: “For God’s sake, tell me the truth, because my thoughts confuse me about the two goldsmiths.” The elder answered: “I saw your will to have them, and therefore I told you: have them, although it is not useful to have more than what is needed for the body. Two gold coins constitute your hope, as if God did not provide for us. But it may happen, If you lose them, then your hope will perish. It is better to place your hope in God, because He cares for us.”

The Tradition of the Church tells us that humble hope in God never disappoints:

Prologue in the teachings:

The monks of the monastery of Abba Theodosius told such a case. According to the charter of the founder of their monastery, they had a custom on Maundy Thursday to give a certain amount of wheat, wine and honey and five copper coins to all the poor, widows and orphans who came to them. But one day there was a crop failure in the vicinity of the monastery and bread began to be sold at high prices. Lent began, and the brethren said to the abbot: “Father, do not distribute wheat this year, because we have little of it, we will have to buy it at an expensive price and our monastery will become impoverished.” The abbot answered: “Why should we leave our father’s blessing? He will take care of our food, but it is not good for us to break his commandment.” The monks, however, did not cease to persist and said: “We don’t have enough ourselves, we won’t give it!” The saddened abbot, seeing that his admonitions were leading nowhere, said: “Well, do as you know.” The day of distribution arrived, and the poor left with nothing. But what happened? When after this the monk entered the granary, he saw to his horror that all the wheat had become moldy and spoiled. Everyone found out about it. And the abbot said: “Whoever transgresses the commandments of the abbot is punished. Previously, we distributed five hundred measures of wheat, but now we have destroyed five thousand measures and done double evil: we have transgressed the commandment of our father and placed our hope not in God, but in our granaries.”

Life of Rev. Sergius of Radonezh narrates:

“... the monk strictly forbade the monks to leave the monastery in order to ask for food from the laity: he demanded that they place their hope in God, who feeds every breath, and ask Him with faith for everything they need, and what he commanded the brethren, he did it himself without any omission.

Some other time there was a shortage of food; The monks endured this deprivation for two days; Finally, one of them, suffering greatly from hunger, began to grumble against the saint, saying:

- How long will you forbid us to leave the monastery and ask for what we need? We will endure one more night, and in the morning we will leave here so that we do not die of hunger.

The saint consoled the brethren, reminded them of the exploits of the holy fathers, pointed out how for the sake of Christ they endured hunger, thirst, and experienced many deprivations; He brought them the words of Christ: “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feeds them” (Matthew 6:26).

“If He feeds the birds,” said the saint, “then really cannot give us food?” Now is the time for patience, but we are grumbling. If we endure a short-term trial with gratitude, then this very temptation will serve us to great benefit; after all, gold cannot be pure without fire.

At the same time, he prophetically said:

“Now we have a shortage for a short time, but in the morning there will be abundance.”

And the saint’s prediction came true: the next morning, from an unknown person, a lot of freshly baked bread, fish and other recently prepared dishes were sent to the monastery. Those who delivered all this said:

- This is what the lover of Christ sent to Abba Sergius and the brethren living with him.

Then the monks began to ask those sent to eat food with them, but they refused, saying that they were ordered to immediately return back, and hastily left the monastery. The hermits, seeing the abundance of food brought, realized that the Lord had visited them with His mercy, and, having warmly thanked God, they had a meal: at this the monks were greatly amazed by the extraordinary softness and extraordinary taste of the bread. These dishes were enough for the brethren for a long time. The venerable abbot, taking advantage of this opportunity to instruct the monks, said, teaching them:

- Brethren, look and be amazed at what reward God sends for patience: “Arise, O Lord, [my] God, lift up Thy hand, do not forget the oppressed” [he will not forget his poor to the end] (Ps. 9:33). He will never leave this holy place and His servants living on it, serving Him day and night.”

Life of Saint Boniface the Merciful, Bishop of Ferentia:

“Saint Boniface was from the Tuscan region in Italy. Since childhood, he was distinguished by his love for the beggars, when he had to see someone undressed, he would take off his clothes and dress the naked person with them, therefore he came home sometimes without a tunic, sometimes without a retinue, and his mother, who herself was a poor widow, often got angry with him and said:

It is in vain that you do this, dressing the poor, while you yourself are a beggar.

One day she entered her granary, in which bread had been stored for the whole year, and found it empty: Boniface, her son, secretly distributed everything to the poor, and the mother began to cry, hitting herself in the face and exclaiming:

Woe is me, where will I get food for the whole year, and how will I feed myself and my family?

Boniface, having come to her, began to console her, but when, even after strong crying, he could not calm her down with his speeches, he began to beg her to leave the granary for a while. When the mother left, Boniface, having closed the door to the granary, fell to the ground and began to pray to God, and immediately the granary was filled with wheat. Boniface, having thanked God, called his mother, when she saw the granary full of bread, she was comforted and glorified God. From that time on, she no longer forbade her son to give to the poor as much as he wanted.”

Ancient patericon:

Some of the Greeks once came to the city of Ostratsina to give out alms. They took guards with them to show them who had the greatest need for alms. The guards led them to one mutilated man and offered him alms. He did not want to accept, saying: “Behold, I toil and eat bread from my labors.” Then they were led to the hut of a widow and her family. When they knocked on the door, her daughter answered. And my mother went to work at that time - she was a seamstress. They offered their daughter clothes and money, but she did not want to accept, saying: “When my mother went, she told me: be at peace, God willed it, and I have found work today, now we have our own food.” When the mother came, they began to ask her to accept alms, but she did not accept it either and said: “I have God as my Patron - and now you want to take Him away from me!” Hearing her faith, they glorified God.

Otechnik:

Someone brought money to the old man, saying: “Here is for your needs: you are old and sick” (he was covered with leprosy). The elder answered: “Have you come to take away from me my nourisher, who has been feeding me for sixty years? I spent so much time in my illness and did not need anything, because God provided me with everything I needed and nourished me.” The elder did not agree to take the money.

7th century Cultivating Virtues

Abba Dorotheos teaches about the importance of acquiring virtues while fighting passions:

“For the doctor of souls is Christ, who knows everything and gives a decent medicine against every passion: so against vanity He gave commandments about humility, against voluptuousness - commandments about abstinence, against love of money - commandments about almsgiving, and, in a word, every passion has a medicine the corresponding commandment.

So, we must strive, as I said, against evil habits and passions, and not only against passions, but also against their causes, which are the roots; for when the roots are not uprooted, the thorns will necessarily grow again, especially since some passions cannot do anything if a person cuts off their causes. ... And all the fathers say that every passion is born from these three: from the love of fame, the love of money and the love of voluptuousness, as I have often told you. So, one must not only cut off passions, but also their causes, then well fertilize one’s morals with repentance and crying, and then begin to sow good seed, which is good deeds; for as we said about the field, if, after clearing and cultivating it, good seed is not sown on it, then the grass sprouts and, finding the earth loose and soft from the cleansing, takes deeper roots in it; the same thing happens to a person. If he, having corrected his morals and repented of his previous deeds, does not take care of doing good deeds and acquiring virtues, then what is said in the Gospel will come true on him: “When the unclean spirit leaves a person, he passes through a waterless place, seeking rest, and does not gain. Then he says: I will return to my house, having died from nowhere: and when I come, I will find myself idle,” - obviously, from all virtue, “marked and adorned. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits that are fiercer than himself, and they enter and live; and the last will be worse to that man than the first” (Matthew 12:43-45). For it is impossible for the soul to remain in the same state, but it always succeeds either for the better or for the worse. Therefore, everyone who wants to be saved must not only not do evil, but must also do good, as it is said in the psalm: “turn away from evil and do good” (Ps. 33:15); It is not only said: “avoid evil,” but also: “do good.” For example, if someone is accustomed to offending, then he must not only not offend, but also act truthfully; if he was a fornicator, then he must not only not indulge in fornication, but also be abstinent; if you were angry, you should not only not be angry, but also acquire meekness; if someone was proud, then he should not only not be proud, but also humble himself. And this means: “Turn away from evil and do good.” For every passion has its opposite virtue: pride - humility, love of money - mercy, fornication - abstinence, cowardice - patience, anger - meekness, hatred - love and, in a word, every passion, as I said, has a virtue opposite to it.

I told you about this many times. And just as we have expelled the virtues and adopted passions instead, so we must work not only to expel the passions, but also to accept the virtues and install them in their place, because we naturally have virtues given to us by God. For when God created man, He instilled virtues in him, as He said: “Let us make man in our image and likeness” (Gen. 1:26). It is said: “in the image,” since God created the soul immortal and autocratic, and “in the likeness” refers to virtue. For the Lord says: “Be ye merciful, as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36), and in another place: “Be ye holy, for I am holy” (1 Pet. 1:16). The apostle also says: “Be kind to one another” (Eph. 4:32). And the psalm says: “The Lord is good to everyone” (Ps. 144:9), and the like; This is what “in the likeness” means. Therefore, by nature God gave us virtues. Passions do not belong to us by nature, for they do not even have any essence or composition, but just as darkness in its essence has no composition, but is a state of air, as St. Basil says, which occurs due to the impoverishment of light, so passions are not natural to us : but the soul, having deviated from virtues through voluptuousness, introduces passions into itself and strengthens them against itself. That’s why we need, as was said about the field, having completely completed the cleansing, to immediately sow good seed so that it bears good fruit.”

Abba Serapion instructs that in order to successfully combat the love of money, one must defeat the passion of fornication:

So, although these eight passions have different origins and different actions, the first six, i.e. Gluttony, fornication, love of money, anger, sadness, despondency are connected with each other by some kind of affinity or connection, so that the excess of the first passion gives rise to the next one. For from excess of gluttony, fornication necessarily comes, from fornication, love of money, from love of money, anger, from anger, sadness, from sadness, despondency; and therefore it is necessary to fight against them in the same way, in the same order, and in the fight we should always move from the previous to the subsequent. For any harmful tree will sooner wither if the roots on which it rests are exposed or dried out.

Rev. Macarius of Optina:

“...I really don’t like the petty calculations in money in you; you keep count so carefully that even someone’s ten-kopeck piece doesn’t go beyond one another; When should you engage in spiritual salvation and strive to eradicate passions, when the main passion and root of all evil - the love of money - dominates you? Considering that what is mine has not passed on to your sister, you will miss time for the most necessary things: self-reproach, humility and heart disease about your sins. Everything except this, which is not inherent in our soul, will remain here, and with us, either virtues or passions will go there, the destruction of which was not cared for here and was not purified by due repentance. So, I cannot tell you how much money to put towards the construction site; and if you are true disciples of Christ the Savior, our Lord, then acquire and be enriched by love, and the first enemy is the love of money. If you want to listen to me, then know that it will be more pleasant for me when each of you tries to spend a larger portion before the other; and in everything we must do this in order to overthrow the evil love of money, which is the cause of many evils: excessive care about calculations, thoughts deepened in it, anger, resentment, impoverishment of love and hope in God.

Where the love of money has power over us, there we count every penny so that the extra one does not pass... Passion, all passion; If not one, then the other, and they are bad mediators in friendship. Elder Vasily in the hostel calls the word “yours and mine” pekul [guardianship] of the evil one; it will not bear the good fruits of love and peace. If something had passed on to you or her, then why bother about it? Not only five, ten, but even even a hundred rubles have been transferred from someone, I do not advise you to count, and not to think that I am borrowing or do not want to lend; all this destroys love. Love is more valuable than all the treasures in the world. I advise and ask you both not to take it into account and not to be embarrassed when something goes over; is it yours? And what did you do to deserve this? Everything is God's gift, and we are God's.

You write: “friendships don’t lose count”; This is a worldly proverb, but the spiritual wisdom: “yours and mine” is the peculus [guardianship] of the evil one - and this is in relation to acquisitiveness and the love of money - the root of all evil; and you, as you yourself see, have calculations flowing from another stinking source, from pride and pride, and so does that one, and maybe something else. All this does not create friendship, but destroys it. I advise you and her to avoid small calculations as much as possible and not to harbor the passion of love of money, not wanting to be obligated to each other. This is in the full sense: “peace”! Heart peace and harmony are more valuable than all the treasures of the world; keep it more than money or pride.

... the enemies, seeing us arming ourselves against them and going to capture the Kingdom of Heaven, arm themselves more fiercely against us and fight us, arousing passions for action; and the main ones are: love of fame, love of voluptuousness and love of money, and through them other passions manifest their actions in us. We cannot get rid of the actions of passions by simply fulfilling the rules, but by doing the commandments in community with people. The commandments even extend to loving enemies. Our weakness is healed not by solitary retreat, but by doing and enduring the vexation of the cross (see the book of St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 2). When we, having been passionate, that is, sick with pride, vanity, deceit and opinion, want to approach God in solitude, we can be deceived... it is better to strive with people, from our falls we recognize our weakness and come to humility; then all our doings will be pleasing to the Lord God.

Our life is spiritual military service - warfare: with whom? - with invisible spirits of evil. Who is causing these troubles? - the enemies of our belly are demons, trying to snatch from us crowns of feats for patience, which we could receive by accepting annoyance, insults, humiliation, reproaches, contempt, etc.; and through this our cruel heart would be softened and passions would be destroyed: self-love, love of glory, love of voluptuousness and love of money, from which all passions receive strength and act.”

Rev. Ambrose Optinsky:

“These virtues: wisdom, chastity, courage and truth, with which a person must protect himself in order to repel and defeat the three main passions: voluptuousness, love of fame and love of money. When reflecting each of these three passions, it is necessary to have both a godly mind and great firmness of mind... Wisdom is characterized by not only wit, but also foresight, and forethought, and at the same time the art of how to act.
...for the worldly, the love of money is the root of all evil...

It's not about wealth, it's about ourselves. No matter how much you give to a person, you will not satisfy him.

You are wrong to think that material means would give you peace of mind. No, this idea is false. There are people with means in your eyes, but they are more worried than you. Try better to humble yourself and then you will find peace, as the Lord Himself promised through the Gospel word. If anyone sends you anything, accept it as from the hand of God, and do not be ashamed of poverty. Poverty is not a vice, but the main means to humility and salvation. The incarnate Son of God himself deigned to live in poverty on earth. Remember this and don’t be ashamed... Calm down and call on God’s help.

It is in vain that you think that wealth or abundance, or at least sufficiency, would be useful or calming for you. The rich are even more anxious than the poor and lacking. Poverty and insufficiency are closer to both humility and salvation, unless a person is faint-hearted, but places his faith and trust in the all-good Providence of God. Hitherto the Lord has nourished us and is able to do this in the future...”

Venerable John Climacus:

“Do not say that you collect money for the sake of the needy, for even a widow’s two mites bought the kingdom of heaven.

Faith and withdrawal from the world are death for the love of money.

Through almsgiving and poverty of all necessities, this courageous ascetic courageously avoided idolatry, that is, the love of money (see: Col. 3:5).”

Saint Demetrius of Rostov:

Don't chase after much, but be grateful for little. For everyone is chasing after a lot, everyone is looking for a lot, everyone is concerned about everything, however, having left everything down to the smallest, they will not be able to take anything from here with them. It is better to be grateful for little than to unreasonably pursue much. “The little of a righteous man is better than the riches of many wicked,” says the prophet (Ps. 36:16). For everything that you get here and everything you gain will remain on earth; you, having left everything, will move into the coffin with your soul naked.

St. John Chrysostom:

“Money should be owned as befits masters, so that we rule over it, and not they rule over us.

Slavery to wealth is harder than any torment, as all those who have been honored to be freed from it know well. In order for you to know this wonderful freedom, break the bonds, run away from the nets! Let it not be gold that you keep in your house, but let that which is more valuable than countless riches be alms and philanthropy. This gives us boldness before God, and gold covers us with great shame and helps the devil influence us.

The more you get rich, the more you will be slaves; if you despise what is characteristic of slaves, you will become glorious in the King’s house.

Let us despise property, so that Christ does not despise us; let us despise wealth in order to acquire (true wealth). If we take care of it here, then we will undoubtedly destroy it both here and there, and if we distribute it with much generosity, then in both lives we will enjoy great prosperity.”

“What did Christ say to this when the young man left? “It is difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 19:23). With these words, Christ condemns not wealth, but those who are addicted to it. And if it is difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, what can we say about the covetous?.. Having said that it is difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, He adds: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God” (Matthew 19 , 24). From this it is clear that a considerable reward awaits those who can live prudently with wealth! Christ recognizes this way of life as the work of God in order to show that a lot of grace is needed for those who want to live like this. When the disciples were confused when they heard His words. He said: “With men this is impossible. But with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

If you want to know how the impossible can become possible, listen. Christ did not say: “With men this is impossible. But with God all things are possible,” so that you would weaken in spirit and move away from the work of salvation as impossible, but so that, having realized the height of the subject, the sooner you would take up the work of salvation in these His exploits, having called God as his helper, received Eternal Life. So how can the impossible be made possible? If you give up your property, give away money and give up evil desires... But how, you say, can you leave it? How can one who has already been possessed by it immediately free himself from such a strong passion for wealth? Let him just begin the distribution of property, let him give away his surplus to those in need, and over time he will do more and move forward easily. So, if it is difficult for you to achieve everything at once, then do not try to get everything at once, but gradually and little by little climb this ladder leading to Heaven. Just as those sick with fever, if they take any food or drink... not only do not quench their thirst, but kindle the flame even more, so covetous people, as they satisfy their insatiable passion, which is more poisonous than bile, inflame it even more. And nothing stops this passion so easily as the gradual weakening of selfish desires, just as small consumption of food and drink destroys the harmful effects of bile... Know that it is not by increasing wealth, but by destroying the passion for it in oneself that evil ceases... So, so that we do not torment ourselves in vain, let us reject the love of wealth that constantly torments us and never calms down and, having desired heavenly treasures, let us strive for another love, which is easier for us and can make us blissful. Here the work is not great, but the benefits are countless, for he who is always awake, sober, and despises earthly goods can never lose heavenly blessings, while he who is enslaved and completely devoted to these latter will inevitably lose them.”

“Listen to how blessed Paul glorifies his faith, which he showed in himself from the very beginning: “By faith,” he says, “Abraham obeyed the call to go to the country which he had to receive as an inheritance, and he went, not knowing where he was going” ( Heb.11:8), drawing our attention to what God said - “get out of your land and go to the land that I will show you.” Do you see a strong faith, do you see a sincere spirit? Let us also imitate him, withdraw in thought and desire from the affairs of real life and direct our path to heaven. After all, we can, if we only want, even living here, be on the way there (to heaven), when we begin to do what is worthy of heaven, when we have no addiction to the goods of the world, when we do not seek vain glory in this life, but despise it , we strive to achieve another glory, true and always abiding; when we will not indulge in the luxury of clothing and worry about decorating the body, but will transfer all this concern for external decoration to the care of the soul, and will not tolerate it being naked and deprived of the clothing of virtue; when we despise luxury, flee gluttony, we will not chase after feasts and dinners, but we will be content with what is necessary, according to the apostolic instruction: “having food and clothing, we will be content with these things” (1 Tim. 6:8). And what is the benefit, tell me, in excess, in the fact that the stomach is torn from satiety, or the mind is upset from the immoderate use of wine? Isn’t this where all evil is born, both for body and soul? What causes these many different diseases and disorders? Is it because, exceeding the limit, we burden the womb with too heavy a load? What also causes adultery, fornication, theft, covetousness, murder, robbery, and all corruption of the soul? Is it because we strive for more than what is proper? Just as Paul called the love of money the root of all evil, so the one who calls immoderation and our desire to go beyond the limits of need in everything will not be mistaken. Indeed, if we wanted to not look for anything superfluous in food, clothing, housing, or other bodily needs, but only what is necessary, then the human race would be freed from many evils.

I don’t know why each of us is more or less susceptible to the disease of covetousness and never tries to limit ourselves to what is necessary, but, contrary to the apostolic instruction: “having food and clothing, we will be content with that,” we do everything as if we don’t know what everything that exceeds the necessary need, we will have to give an account and answer, as those who improperly used what was given to us from the Lord. After all, we should not use what He has given us only for our pleasure, but also to alleviate the needs of our neighbors. So, how worthy of forgiveness can those be who show delicacy in their clothes, try to clothe themselves in silk fabrics, and what is especially bad, are still proud of it, whereas they should be ashamed, afraid and trembling, because they clothe themselves in such things not out of necessity and not for benefit? clothes, but for the sake of bliss and vanity, so that they would be amazed at them in the marketplace. A person who has the same nature as you walks naked, not having even rough clothing to cover himself with; but nature itself does not attract you to compassion, nor does conscience impel you to help your neighbor, nor the thought of that (last) terrible day, nor the fear of Gehenna, nor the greatness of the promises, nor the fact that our common Lord assimilates everything we provide to our neighbors For yourself. But, as if having a heart of stone and being alien to the same nature, such people, putting on expensive clothes, think that they are already becoming above human nature, and do not think about how great a responsibility they are exposing themselves by badly disposing of what has been entrusted to them from the Lord , and more willingly allowing the moth to destroy their clothes than (wanting) to give any part of them to their fellow slaves, and thus they are already preparing for themselves the cruelest fire of Gehenna. Even if the rich shared everything they had with the poor, they would not escape punishment for what they do, luxuriously in clothes and feasts. What kind of punishment, in fact, are not worthy of those who try in every possible way, as often as possible, to clothe themselves in silk and shiny gold, or otherwise decorated clothes, and in them proudly appear in the marketplace, and leave Christ in disdain, naked and lacking even the necessary food? I especially address these words to women. Among them we find the most passion for decoration and immoderation, for dressing in gold clothes, wearing gold on the head, neck and other parts of the body, and being vain about it. How many poor people, tell me, could be fed, and how many naked bodies could be covered with only what is hung on the ears (of women) without any need and without benefit, but only to harm and damage to the soul? That is why the teacher of the universe, having said: “having food and clothing,” also addresses the word to women and says: “so that women adorn themselves not with braided hair, not with gold, not with pearls, not with costly clothing” (1 Tim. 2:9). You see how he does not want them to be adorned with such clothes, clothed in gold and valuable stones, but that they try to truly adorn the soul, elevate its beauty with good deeds, and not show it (while caring about decorating the body) in uncleanness, in dirt , in sackcloth, exhausted from hunger, exhausted from the cold. Such care for the body and such decoration of it testify to the ugliness of the soul, the luxury of the body reveals the hunger of the soul, the wealth of its clothes exposes its nakedness. It is impossible, after all, for someone who cares about the soul and values ​​its goodness and beauty to take care of external decoration, just as it is impossible for someone who is preoccupied with appearance, the beauty of clothing, or gold jewelry, to put the proper effort into caring for the soul. In fact, can a soul ever rise to the knowledge of its needs, or enter into meditation on spiritual things, completely devoted to earthly things, creeping, so to speak, on the earth, never able to be lifted up by the thought of grief, but sunk down under its own weight? countless sins? And how many misfortunes are born from this is now impossible to describe in words; This should be left to the consciousness of those who are too busy cleaning up how much sorrow they receive from here every day. So, if any golden thing is damaged, great noise and confusion will surround the whole house; if a servant steals, whips, blows and bonds fall on everyone; whether some envious people, intending evil, accidentally deprive them of their property - again great and unbearable sadness; if misfortunes happen that plunge (the rich) into extreme poverty - life becomes harder for them than death; Whether anything else happens, everything causes great sorrow. And in general it is impossible to find a calm soul in those who do such things. Just as the waves of the sea never stop and cannot be counted, since they constantly follow one after another, so it is impossible to list all the worries that arise from this. Let us, I beg you, avoid excess in everything and not exceed the limits of your needs. True wealth and inexhaustible possessions consist in desiring only what is necessary and properly using what is superfluous.”

Priest Pavel Gumerov:

“How to deal with the passion of love of money? Cultivate in yourself the opposite virtues:

– mercy towards the poor and needy;

– care not about earthly values, but about acquiring spiritual gifts;

- thinking not about mercantile, earthly issues, but about spiritual ones.

Virtue will not come by itself. A person who has a disposition towards the love of money, stinginess, greed must force himself, force himself to do deeds of mercy; use wealth to benefit your soul. For example, when we give alms, we need to give it not like this: “It’s not good for us, God,” but so that it is a real sacrifice, and not a formality. Otherwise, sometimes it turns out that we gave a beggar some small change, which is simply lining our pocket, and we still expect that he will be grateful to us for it. “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly; and whoever sows generously will also reap generously” (2 Cor. 9:6).

By forcing ourselves to share, give, and help others, we can get rid of the love of money and greed. We will understand that “it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35), that by giving we can receive greater joy and satisfaction than by hoarding and collecting valuables that sometimes bring us very little benefit.

Many people wonder: who should we give alms to, because sometimes there are doubts about the honesty of the person asking, that he will use our help for good? There is no consensus among the holy fathers here. Some believe that it is necessary to give to everyone who asks, for the Lord Himself knows whether a person asks sincerely or is deceiving, and there will be no sin on us; serve as to Christ Himself. Others say that giving alms should be done with great judgment. It seems to me that the truth is somewhere in the middle. Of course, in any case we will not sin, even if we give to a dishonest person. “Professional beggars” have existed in all centuries, and in the time of the Savior too. And yet, both the Lord and the apostles gave alms to the poor. But if we do not have confidence in a person, we can give him a small amount and provide more generous assistance to those who are truly in need. There is so much grief around us that among our friends and relatives there are probably such people. Good advice is contained in the life of the righteous Philaret the Merciful. This saint became famous for his love of poverty and mercy. He had three boxes filled separately with gold, silver and copper coins. From the first, those who were completely poor received alms, from the second, those who had lost their means, and from the third, those who hypocritically lured money out.”

The Holy Fathers say that wealth is given to a person by God so that he can help those in need, and it must be treated not as one’s own property, but as a temporary one, for a period, entrusted by God for management and good use:

Saint John Chrysostom:

“God allowed you to have more than others, not so that you would spend it on fornication, drunkenness, satiety and luxury items, but so that you could give to those in need.

God made you rich so that you could help those in need, so that you could atone for your sins by saving others; He gave you money not so that you would lock it up to your death, but so that you would squander it for your salvation.

Rich is not the one who has acquired much, but the one who has given away much.

Did the humane Lord give you a lot so that you could use what was given to you only for your own benefit? No, but so that, according to the apostolic exhortation, your abundance will make up for the lack of others (2 Cor. 8:14).”

Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov):

“The Lord commands, with the help of alms, to transform earthly possessions into heavenly ones, so that a person’s very treasure, being in Heaven, will attract him to Heaven.

Scripture... calls wealthy people stewards of property, which belongs to God and is entrusted to stewards for a time, so that they dispose of it according to His will.

In order to receive the true, inalienable property common to all, remain faithful to God when disposing of what is entrusted for a term. Do not deceive yourself, do not consider earthly possessions to be property.”

Priest Pavel Gumerov:

“In the Gospel we find many parables - short stories - about the rich and wealth. Some of them talk about the correct attitude towards wealth, and some very clearly, figuratively show the madness of people who live only on earthly, perishable values.

In the Gospel of Luke there is this story: “A certain rich man had a good harvest in his field; and he reasoned with himself: “What should I do? I have nowhere to gather my fruits.” And he said: “This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will gather all my grain and all my goods. And I will say to my soul: soul! You have a lot of good things for many years: rest, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him: “You fool! This night I will take your soul from you; who will get what you have prepared?” This is what happens to those who store up treasures for themselves, but do not grow rich toward God” (Luke 12:16-21). The holy righteous John of Kronstadt, interpreting this parable, seems to ask the rich man: Why are you crazy, saying: “I have nowhere to gather my fruits”? How can there be nowhere? Here are the granaries for you - the hands of the poor: give the gifts of God's goodness, given to many, to many poor people and receive for this from the Lord forgiveness of sins and great mercy; By doing this, you will act in accordance with the will of God, for the Lord gives us abundance to help the poor, “for those who are merciful will themselves receive mercy.”

In this parable, wealth is not condemned at all, but the rich man’s attitude towards it is condemned. He lived his whole life in revelry and joy, and even standing on the threshold of death, he still did not understand why God gave him this property. And it is given only for one thing: to transform material treasures into spiritual, imperishable ones. Help those in need, do good deeds, decorate churches and generally save the soul with the wealth given to you. But for a rich person all this is oh so difficult. A life of contentment and bliss sucks you in and makes you insensitive to the pain of others. The problems and pain of the needy and disadvantaged become infinitely far away. It is difficult for a person who has not experienced what poverty and deprivation are to understand a hungry person. It is no coincidence that the proverb “The well-fed does not understand the hungry.”

There is another parable on this subject in the Gospel. A certain man was rich; “He dressed in purple... and every day he feasted brilliantly. There was also a certain beggar named Lazarus, who lay at his gate covered with scabs and wanted to be fed with the crumbs falling from the rich man’s table; and the dogs came and licked his sores. The beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And in hell, being in torment, he raised his eyes, saw Abraham in the distance and Lazarus in his bosom and, crying out, said: “Father Abraham! Have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.” But Abraham said: “Child! Remember that you have already received your good in your life, and Lazarus received evil: now he is comforted here, but you suffer” (Luke 16: 19-25). Why did the rich man go to hell? After all, the Gospel does not say that he killed or robbed someone to get his wealth. Well, just think, he loved the daily feasts. In addition, he was a believer, knew Abraham and, probably, even read the Holy Scriptures. But, apparently, he had no good deeds, he had nothing to justify himself with; everything that was given to him as a means of saving his soul was madly spent only on himself. “You already got what you wanted!” - Abraham tells him. All these years, the sick, hungry beggar Lazarus lay at the very gate of the rich man’s house. The rich man even knew his name, but did not take any part in his fate; he was not even given crumbs from the rich man’s table. From wealth and luxury, the rich man’s heart grew fat, and he no longer noticed the suffering of another. “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also,” says Christ. The rich man's heart belonged to earthly treasure. His soul was filled only with serving bodily pleasures; there was no room in it for love for God and his creation - man. Here on earth, he made his choice: to live a spiritual life, not to think about the soul. After death a person can no longer change; if he did not need God here, then he could not be with Him there. It is not the Lord who punishes a person, but the person himself who condemns himself to torment. Heavenly life with the saints and communion with God are even more painful for a sinner than the fire of Gehenna.

I will give an example that partially explains this idea. For a believer, prayer, holiday, Sunday services, communication with brothers in faith are joy. But try to force a person who is not only unfamiliar, but also an unbeliever, to stand for three hours at a festive all-night vigil. He won’t even stand for half an hour - he’ll be exhausted and exhausted.”

8. The fight against the love of money lasts until death

According to patristic teaching, one must fight passions, including the love of money, until death, without being deceived by their weakening or imaginary disappearance.

Thus, “Ancient Patericon” narrates:

“They told about one old man that he lived fifty years without eating bread or drinking wine, and he said: I have killed fornication, love of money and vanity in myself. - Abba Abraham, hearing him say this, came to him and asked: did you say such a word? Yes,” answered the elder. Abba Abraham said to him: behold, you enter your cell and find a woman on the mat; can you not think that this is a woman? No,” answered the elder, “but I am struggling with my thoughts so as not to touch her.” Abba Abraham tells him: so, you have not killed passion, but it lives in you and is only curbed! Next: you walk along the road and see stones and shards, and among them - gold; can you imagine both in the same way in your mind? No,” answered the elder, “but I am struggling with the thought so as not to take gold.” The elder says: so passion lives, but it is only curbed! Finally Abba Abraham said: You hear about two brothers, that one loves you, and the other hates and slanderes you; if they come to you, will you accept them both equally? No,” he answered, “but I struggle with the thought of showing the same kindness to those who hate me as to those who love me.” Abba Abraham tells him: so, passions live in you, only they are curbed.

St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov):

“Death, death alone, completely frees even the saints of God from the influence of sin on them. Passions are shameless: they can arise even in someone lying on his deathbed. Even on your deathbed it is impossible to stop being vigilant over yourself. Trust the dispassion of your body when it lies in the grave.

They will not stop rising up and attacking us to the death! And we will prepare for lifelong resistance to them, in the firm conviction that we cannot be constant conquerors of passions, that by natural necessity we must be subject to involuntary victories, that these very victories contribute to success when they support and strengthen in us repentance and the humility born from it.

Let us not trust our victories over passions, let us not admire these victories. Passions, like the demons who wield them, are crafty: they appear to be defeated so that we may become exalted, and so that, due to our exaltation, victory over us will be more convenient and decisive.

Let us prepare to look at our victories and victories in the same way: courageously, coolly, impartially.”

9. Reasoning in the fight against the passion of love of money

The Holy Fathers instruct that, as in the fight against any passion, When fighting the love of money, the virtue of reasoning is necessary, which helps not to deviate from the royal, middle path of virtue, either to the right, into indulging passion, or to the left, into the extreme of jealousy not according to reason. “Extremes come from the suppression of spiritual enemies. It is foolish to be addicted to money, and it is foolish to neglect it; both are bad and lead not only to embarrassment, but even to spiritual harm.”(Venerable Ambrose of Optina).

Thus, worldly people who have a family, children, should take care of their material well-being, and Providing a reasonable family will not be a lot of money-grubbing. Also, giving alms should be done with reason., to the best of one’s ability, to the best of one’s ability, both material and spiritual, since not everyone can suffer the deprivation of what is necessary for life without damage to the soul.

St. Theophan the Recluse states " responsibilities of the head of the family»:

“The head of the family, whoever it is, must take full and comprehensive care of the entire house, in all parts, and have vigilant care for it, recognizing himself as responsible both before God and before people for his good and bad; for in his face he represents everything: for him he receives shame and approval, hurts and has fun. This concern, piece by piece, should be directed a) to a prudent, lasting and complete economy, so that everyone can have feasible contentment in everything, a painless, comfortable life. This is worldly wisdom - honest, blessed by God... In this regard, he is the manager and ruler of affairs. It determines when to start what, what to do to whom, with whom to enter into what transactions, etc. p) When paying attention to the course of material affairs, spiritual affairs are also on it. The main thing here is faith and piety. The family is the church. He is the head of this church. Let him keep it clean. The method and hours of home prayer on it: determine them and support them. Ways to educate a family in the faith on it; the religious life of everyone on it: enlighten, strengthen, settle, y) Arranging everything with one hand inside, with the other he must act outside, with one eye look inside, with the other - outside. The family is behind him. He appears in society, and society takes responsibility for the whole family directly from him. Therefore, all necessary communications and public affairs are on him. He - know, he - and bring into action what is needed. 5) Finally, he has the responsibility to preserve family customs, general and private, and in the latter case, especially to keep the spirit and morals of the ancestors in the family and pass on the memory of them from generation to generation. Each family has its own character; let him remain and hold on, in union, however, with the spirit of piety. From their heterogeneity, a harmonious and full body will be formed - a village, a city, a state."

Ancient Patericon:

They once asked Blessed Syncletikia: “Is non-covetousness a perfect good?” She answered: "Yes, it is perfect good for those who can bear it. For those who endure poverty, although they have sorrow in the flesh, are calm in soul. Just as hard linen, when wrinkled and rinsed more vigorously, is washed and cleaned, so a strong soul is strengthened even more by voluntary poverty.”

Rev. Ambrose Optinsky teaches prudence and measure in giving alms, as well as in other property matters:

“You write about a worker who has died and ask whether this is not a temptation for you, that the thought instills in you pity for her and compels you to take care of her commemoration, so that out of the five rubles that you had, you gave two to the priests so that she could be remembered? I answer: of course, this is a temptation. Holy Scripture says: “do good to your neighbor as your hand can” (cf. Deut. 15:10). And the Monk Barsanuphius the Great says that if a monk, having only what is necessary for himself, refuses the one who asks, he will not sin. Do you really live above the teachings of Barsanuphius the Great? You yourself are constantly in need: should you think about monetary charity to your neighbors? If you give away the last thing that you yourself need, then the enemy, who always fights you with concern for your insufficient funds, will hurt you even more with this. Is it good for you, through unbearable charity, to plunge yourself into confusion and care and worry, when we have the Gospel commandment: “do not worry”! Reasoning, according to the teachings of the Holy Fathers, is higher than everything. If you feel pity for the deceased, then, given your position, it is more appropriate for you not to do monetary charity for her, but, if you want, to privately pray for her, so that the Lord, as He Himself knows, will have mercy on her soul. And I think that if you do this, then your pity and zeal, all this will disappear soon.

You ask if you did well by borrowing five rubles for the wanderer and giving her P.’s new boots, which she herself needed. I answer: not good, very bad, and very unfounded. Don't do this for any reason. Nowhere is it written for alms to borrow money and do such charity, which inevitably follows embarrassment for you or for others. It seems that I wrote to you the word and advice of Pimen V. that a monk will not lie if he refuses a requester, what he does not have when he does not have excess, beyond his needs, and otherwise he must, with embarrassment, obtain for himself what he foolishly gave to another . Your position requires great caution and sound discussion.

In one of the lives of the Kiev-Pechersk saints it is said: if someone does not regret the money stolen from him, then this will be imputed to him more than arbitrary alms.

Moreover, you should not regret that in one way or another you used what you gave or took from you, otherwise you will reduce the spiritual benefit of your sacrifice.

You ask how you should deal with your family: you received advice to leave them, but yet you have no help from anyone and don’t know whether to write to them or not? I told you to stop being overly concerned about your relatives and close connections with them, and not to say not to write to them at all. You can write to them in time. In your current circumstances, you can’t ask directly, but ask them that five months have passed, how you live somehow, how they themselves live there - they eat air, or something, and do they pay for anything, or without money everyone has. - If you received what you needed from others, you might not have to remind them, but now why not ask such a question.

After everything that I wrote to you, you stubbornly stand your ground - you don’t want to write to your family, and yet, because of your silence, they are not only upset with you, but they don’t send you money, and they can’t settle things between themselves , so a general nuisance comes out through you. Well, aren't you reckless and stubborn? You have written to me more than once about some kind of power of attorney, but you have never really explained what kind of power of attorney is required from you. As I wrote to you before, I repeat again that a sensible and thorough power of attorney should be sent if your family circumstances require it. You justify yourself by saying that you promised not to write to your family. The ancient fathers renounced all kinship, but did not ask anyone for anything, but ate herbs and potions or from the labor of their hands. If you cannot imitate them, do not ask anyone for anything, work and eat from the labor of your own hands, or, perhaps, if you can feed on the air and at the same time be peaceful, do not grumble and do not reproach or blame anyone, if you can do all this , then stick to your promise. And if you can’t, then admit your weakness and unreasonable promise and humbly ask the Lord for forgiveness: “Lord, I lied, damned one, I promised something I cannot fulfill! Forgive me, a sinner! You ask: who is better to please - God or people. But you, stubbornly holding on to your reckless promise, will annoy people, but you will not please God.

To live completely silently, without any cares, without caring at all about cell or other needs, is a matter beyond our measure, when we see that the former fathers - and perfect ones - cared about their food, each according to their own measure, although they cared little, and dispassionately, but caring. How much more should we, weak and passionate, in this case, humble ourselves and take care of our flesh, according to the word of the Apostle, feeding it and warming it according to need, and not whimsically.

You write: “I don’t love money so much that it never lasts long; That’s why I’m always without money, and then I borrow.” But this is stupidity, and you should not make excuses for this, but rather reproach yourself and try to improve. If a person could eat and clothe himself with air, then he would rightly neglect money, which, as it seems, sometimes bothers him. And just as in times of cold and hunger one cannot neglect the necessary clothing and food, so one cannot neglect the means through which food and clothing are acquired. The Holy Fathers say that “the edge of demons is the essence,” that is, that extremes come from the suppression of spiritual enemies. It is foolish to be addicted to money, and it is foolish to neglect it; both are bad and lead not only to embarrassment, but even to mental harm through various confusions from improper neglect. Money in itself, or rather, for the purpose assigned by God, is a very useful thing. They replace the lack of simplicity and love between people. Without money, who would count people? There would be eternal disputes and quarrels and even fights to the point of murder, but with small coins and even insignificant pieces of paper people get rid of all this, without realizing it. The harm comes not from money, but from reckless greed, or stinginess, or from abuse - perhaps, let's say, from wrongful neglect. Use money correctly and you will be at peace.

N.’s mother asks if she can keep her sisters’ money for safekeeping. If the ancient strict order of community life were preserved, when the living were given everything they needed, then it would be indecent and could be considered improper, but at the present time, due to the general weakness of both superiors and subordinates, it is absolutely impossible to forbid this. There is a need and a necessary need for the latter.

Rev. Macarius of Optina:

“Your conscience cannot reproach you for having perishable money if you own it, and not they you; I think you know quite well how to own them.

According to the calling of God, some of those who retired from the world in ancient times, with the help of God, through exploits with humility and sharpness of life, having mortified their bodies, did not demand the riches of this world; but the fame that spread about their virtues attracted many to them who wanted to receive salvation, who could not bear the cruelty of their life, and demanded more or less indulgence for their weaknesses... Thus, often, and by God's revelation, brotherhoods were formed, monasteries were gradually established , monasteries, monasteries and laurels, for the creation of which were sent to them from God, through kings and nobles, the treasures of this world, which, if they accepted, then... not otherwise than asking for this will of God, through internal or obvious revelation, although mourning the abandonment of his silence; but, seeing the salvation of their neighbors in these abodes, even in later times, they preferred the salvation of many souls to their own benefit. The brethren who were in the monasteries, sometimes reaching up to a thousand, more or less, also demanded maintenance; although many had food from the labor of their hands, they did not reject the zeal of those who brought their righteous acquisitions, using them for monastic needs... This, it seems, is the reason that prompted the ancient fathers to accept the treasures of this world - the reason for the salvation of souls; for not everyone could be perfect like them; and again: the zeal of those who brought these gifts served to save many. They accepted these treasures dispassionately, and therefore without harm to themselves...”

10. Non-covetousness

Non-covetousness is a virtue that opposes the love of money; it defeats this passion, it gives calmness and freedom of spirit, peace and gentleness of heart, brings one closer to God and leads to salvation. The Holy Fathers teach that this virtue is achieved through many efforts.

St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) writes about what non-acquisitiveness includes:

“Satisfying yourself with one thing necessary. Hatred of luxury and bliss. Mercy for the poor. Loving the poverty of the Gospel. Trust in God's providence. Following Christ's commandments. Calmness and freedom of spirit. Carelessness. Softness of heart."

Sayings of nameless elders:

If you want to receive the Kingdom of Heaven, hate all earthly possessions, because if you are voluptuous and money-loving, you will not be able to live according to God.

Saint John Chrysostom:

Non-covetousness brings us closer to Heaven, freeing us not only from fear, worries and dangers, but also from other inconveniences.

Venerable Neil of Sinai:

Let no one think that success in non-covetousness is achieved without labor and easily.

Venerable Isidore Pelusiot:

It is known that not having the need for many things is recognized as the greatest good... but it is also recognized that a much higher well-being is to be higher than even the need to have any property. Therefore, we will take more care of the soul, but about the body - as far as it is necessary, about the external - we will not take any care at all. For in this way, here too we will achieve the highest bliss, which includes the Kingdom of Heaven.

Venerable Isaac the Syrian:

“No one can acquire real non-covetousness unless he prepares to endure temptations with joy.

Without non-acquisitiveness, the soul cannot free itself from the rebellion of thoughts and, without bringing the feelings into silence, it will not feel peace in thought.”

Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov):

“In order to acquire love for spiritual and heavenly objects, one must renounce love for earthly objects.

Non-covetousness and renunciation of the world are a necessary condition for achieving perfection. The mind and heart must be completely directed towards God, all obstacles, all reasons for entertainment must be eliminated."

Ancient Patericon:

They once asked Blessed Syncletikia: “Is non-covetousness a perfect good?” She answered: “Yes, it is a perfect blessing for those who can endure it. For those who endure poverty, although they have sorrow in the flesh, are calm in soul. Just as hard linen, when it is wrinkled and rinsed more strongly, is washed and cleansed, so a strong soul is even more strengthened by voluntary poverty."
- Reverend Father John Cassian, presbyter, to the ten fathers who were in the hermitage desert sent to Bishop Leontius and Helladius for interviews. The fifth interview of Abba Serapion. About eight main passions.

Life of Saint Boniface the Merciful, Bishop of Ferentia

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Detailed description from several sources: “Orthodox prayer against greed” - in our non-profit weekly religious magazine.

“Lord Jesus Christ, deliver your spouse from greed, let him live in joy. Amen."

You whisper it repeatedly.

“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God. Let my husband get rid of his pathetic stinginess, and his life will immediately improve seriously. He suffers famously from mortal greed, but hoards his belongings madly and quietly. It’s not for the sake of wealth that I ask you, forgive me if I’m sinning against the Testaments. Thy will be done. Amen."

Prayer Proofreading. For well-being, from want and poverty. Help in all daily matters.

It is not for the love of money that we pray to the Lord God out of poverty and need. Salaries are sometimes low. There is never enough money. Do not lose heart, but pray unceasingly.

Go to the Orthodox Church and place 1 candle at the icon of Jesus Christ, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and the Blessed Elder Matrona of Moscow.

While standing near the image of the Elder, cross yourself and say these prayer lines to yourself:

Blessed Matrona, deliver me from poverty and want, and protect me from squabbles and enmity. Amen."

Take holy water into a spacious flask.

For home prayer, buy 3 more candles and the icons listed above.

At any time convenient for you, retire to a locked room.

Light all the candles. Place Orthodox icons and a glass of holy water nearby.

Do not complain about the poor life, but mentally ask the Lord God for the remission of sins.

You begin to repeatedly read special prayers to help get rid of need.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God. Reproach me according to your faith; poverty brings me nothing but hassle. I don’t need perishable gold, I don’t forget about retribution. So that there is bread and salt in the house, there is no discord in the family. Thy will be done. Amen."

Prayers for money to Nicholas the Wonderworker:

1, Help me, Saint Nicholas, and don’t let me perish from a penniless life. I do not need sinful wealth, but send down from heaven wonderful contentment. Measure out money according to faith and need, and take away what drives you to destruction. Intercede with me in the Kingdom of Heaven and ask the Lord God for an increase in money. Thy will be done. Amen."

2, I am turning to you, Nicholas the Wonderworker, and asking for help with financial allowances. Let the increase in money be for good, not decline. Feed my children, give them something to drink, and do not punish us with hunger. I am not asking for help for the sake of wealth, but I am begging for something that does not lead to destruction. Let it be so. Amen."

3, Wonderworker Nicholas, God's Pleasant. I do not ask for rich captivity, cast away, I pray, sinful corruption. I wander around in need and poverty, trying to improve my life. Show me the way to Christ, do not punish me for the sorrow in my soul. Thy will be done. Amen."

Prayers for money to Matrona of Moscow:

1, I trust in you, O Matrona of Moscow, and I pray for help in difficult days. You stand up for the righteous and punish the sinners. Grant me monetary abundance and cleanse my soul from anger and greed. Let money arrive for food and essential expenses. Ask the Lord God for mercy and do not be angry with me for the poverty of my soul. Let it be so. Amen."

2, I beg you, Blessed Elder, and ask for financial wealth. May it not be wealth, but what is called good. According to my faith, let everything return and the hellish lack of money go away. Help me feed, drink, put on shoes and clothes, and also pay for it. Cleanse me from demonic filth and instill righteous hope for brighter days. Let it be so. Amen."

3, Blessed Elder, Matrona of Moscow. Heal me from my evil infirmity and drive away my need. Let meager poverty be abandoned, despondency disappear forever. Thy will be done. Amen."

4, Blessed Elder, Matrona of Moscow. Do not punish me for the sin of love of money, but also do not refuse financial assistance. Give me health to work, and remove the beggarly burden from my shoulders. Ask the Lord God for blessings so that I don’t perish from financial zeal. Thy will be done. Amen."

Cross yourself heartily and drink holy water.

A few days later, you again read Orthodox prayers out of poverty and need, trusting in your faith in the Savior.

Prayer to the Lord God against the greed of her husband

If your husband is stingy with gifts and money, try to instill in him the urge of generosity through prayer to the Lord God.

Religious Orthodoxy calls us to accept a person as he is.

And it may be a sin to beg your husband for the desired wealth.

What should those who cannot recover from greed do?

My wife is sick. Children are sick. Money is urgently needed. Now everything is paid!

I think these arguments are hard to resist.

Do not despair, but fight your husband’s greed with the help of a prayer addressed to Jesus Christ.

First, visit an Orthodox Church and submit a simple note about your spouse’s health.

You can include yourself, as well as other family members in need of finances.

Place 3 candles each to the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and Jesus Christ.

While standing before the image of the Savior, say these prayer lines to yourself:

Lord Jesus Christ, deliver your spouse from greed, let him live in joy. Amen.

Cross yourself diligently and leave the Temple.

Buy 3 candles and the icons listed above for home prayer. Take holy water into a spacious container.

When your husband is not at home, you retire to a locked room.

Light the candles. Place icons and a decanter of holy water nearby.

Mentally ask God for forgiveness for all sinful acts.

Imagine a generous husband, healing him from greed with a special prayer.

You whisper it repeatedly.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God. Let my husband get rid of his pathetic stinginess, and his life will immediately improve seriously. He suffers famously from mortal greed, but hoards his belongings madly and quietly. It’s not for the sake of wealth that I ask you, forgive me if I’m sinning against the Testaments. Thy will be done. Amen.

Cross yourself heartily and drink holy water.

You sneak some water into any of your husband’s drinks, periodically removing his mortal greed with a sincere prayer to the Lord God.

Peace to your home!

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Number of reviews: 4

I wanted to clarify so that everything was done correctly.

In the Church you place 3 candles at the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and Jesus Christ (Savior). Total 6.

For home prayer, buy an additional 3.

Sorry for my ignorance.

I have one more question.

Should the candles I light at home to read prayers burn out completely?

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Prayers for the money-loving and greedy: prayers

To her, pleasers of God, do not stop praying for us, who flow to you with faith: even if, due to the multitude of our sins, we are not worthy of your mercy, both of you, faithful imitators of God’s love for mankind, create, so that we may bear fruits worthy of repentance, and to eternal rest Let us reach, praising and blessing the wondrous Lord and God and our Savior Jesus Christ and His Most Pure Mother in our saints, and your warm intercession, always, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

do not reject the prayers of us, sinners, weak, who have fallen into many iniquities, and who are constantly sinning.

Deliver us from all sorrow and illness, for you have received from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ the immeasurable grace of healing, for the sake of firm faith, free healing and your martyrdom.

Even if, due to the multitude of our sins, we are unworthy of your mercy, then you, being faithful imitators of God’s love for mankind, make sure that we bear worthy fruits of repentance and achieve eternal peace, praising and blessing wondrously among the saints of our Lord and God and our Savior Jesus Christ , and His Most Pure Mother and your ardent intercession always, now and ever, and forever and ever. Amen.

Hurry to hear us, as we come to you before your revered icon!

Enlighten young children who ask for your help in book science with your prayers to God, so that, imitating your life, may they not only acquire earthly things, but most of all, continually succeed in piety and right faith.

To those who are lying on their sick beds and despairing of human help, but who are ardently running to you with faith and fervent prayer, grant a cure for illness with your merciful miraculous visit!

Also, those who have fallen into despondency, cowardice and murmuring from severe troubles, strengthen them by the grace of God given to you in patience and teach them, so that they understand the holy and perfect will of God, and become partakers of God’s saving grace.

Keep everyone who diligently comes running to you unharmed from serious illnesses, protect them from sudden death, and through your powerful intercession to God, firmly keep them in the right faith.

May we, having succeeded in piety, together with you in the next century be worthy to eternally chant and glorify the All-Holy and magnificent Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.

For we do not consider you dead: although you moved away from us bodily, you remain alive even after death. Do not give up on us in spirit, keeping us from the arrows of the enemy, and all the deception of demons, and the snares of the devil, our good shepherd. Although the relics of your cancer are always visible before our eyes, your holy soul with the angelic armies, with the disembodied faces of the saints, with the Heavenly Powers, stands at the Throne of the Almighty, rejoicing with dignity. And so, knowing that you are truly alive even after death, we fall to you and pray to you, may you pray for us to Almighty God for the benefit of our souls, and ask us time for repentance, and an unhindered transition from earth to Heaven, and deliverance from ordeals bitter, demons, air princes and eternal torment. And may we be heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven with all the righteous who have pleased our Lord Jesus Christ from all eternity. To whom befits all glory, honor and worship with His Beginning Father, and with His Most Holy, and Good, and Life-Giving Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Prayers for the money-loving and greedy

Our incorruptible treasure and inexhaustible wealth: grant to this Thy servant, created in Thy image and likeness, to know the flattery of wealth, and how the whole earth is vanity, canopy and sleepiness, and how Thou art our only wealth, peace and joy.

O servant of Christ, holy man of God Alexy! Look mercifully upon us, servant of God (names), and stretch out your honorable hands in prayer to the Lord God, and ask us from Him for forgiveness of our voluntary and involuntary sins, a peaceful and Christian death and a good answer at the Last Judgment of Christ. To her, servant of God, do not disgrace our trust, which we place in you, according to God and the Mother of God; but be our helper and protector for salvation; that through your prayers we have received grace and mercy from the Lord, let us glorify the love of mankind of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and your holy intercession, now and ever and unto ages of ages.

To you, saints without money and miracle workers Cosmo and Damiana, as to a quick helper and a warm prayer book for our salvation, we, unworthy (names), come running on bended knee and fall down earnestly crying out: do not despise the prayers of us sinners, the weak, who have fallen into many iniquities, and all the days and hours of those who sin. Pray to the Lord to add to us, His unworthy servant, His great and rich mercy: deliver us from all sorrow and illness, for you have naturally received from God and our Savior Jesus Christ the endless grace of healing, for the sake of firm faith, free healing and your martyrdom. . To her, pleasers of God, do not stop praying for us, who flow to you with faith: even if, due to the multitude of our sins, we are not worthy of your mercy, both of you, faithful imitators of God’s love for mankind, create, so that we may bear fruits worthy of repentance, and to eternal rest Let us reach, praising and blessing the wondrous Lord and God and our Savior Jesus Christ and His Most Pure Mother in our saints, and your warm intercession, always, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

O saint of Christ, our Father Ephraim! Bring our prayer to the merciful and omnipotent God and ask us, God’s servants (names), from His goodness all that is for the benefit of our souls and bodies, faith in the right, undoubted hope, unfeigned love, meekness and kindness, courage in temptations, patience in suffering May we prosper in piety, and let us not turn the gifts of the All-Good God into evil. Do not forget, miracle-working saint, that this temple (house) and our parish are sacred: preserve and protect them with your prayers from all evil. To her, Holy One of God, grant us a good end and inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, so that we may glorify the wondrous God in His saints, to Him belongs all glory, honor and power, forever and ever.

Question 3374: 20 t.

Why does one person have a passion for profit, while another lives content with what is necessary? Are there any prayers to get rid of greed and why don’t Jews use them?

There are prayers for all occasions that perfectly correspond to a specific need. Ephraim the Syrian alone has hundreds of them. In the book “Helper and Patron”, Father Grigory Dyachenko has just this. I don’t know if this prayer is suitable for Jews. They do not recognize Christ as the true God and therefore they do not need Christian prayers. Perhaps they are praying to the golden calf, as in the desert under Moses? “Helper and Patron”, page 750 .

PRAYER FOR DELIVERANCE FROM THE PASSION OF AVERAGE

Do not allow her to be united with the temporary, so that after her departure she does not remain united with Satan, the god of this world. Lord and my God! Make me trust in Your omnipotence, that You alone can help; Make me meditate on Your wisdom, that You know the means and ways to help; Make me know Your fatherly heart, that You know that we, Your children, need all this; Make me think that You are merciful in all Your works and protect people and livestock, and that You are the God of all living flesh. Everything expects You to give it food. If you give to them, they will accept; if you open your hand, they will be satisfied with the good. To you be praise, honor and glory forever. Amen.

Luke 16:14 – “ The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they laughed at Him." Hebrews 13:5 – “ Have a non-money-loving disposition, being content with what you have. For He Himself said: I will never leave you nor forsake you. ». Jer.5:27 – “ Like a cage filled with birds, their houses are full of deceit; through this they rose and became rich" Rev. 3:17 – “For you say: “I am rich, I have become rich, and I have need of nothing”; but you don’t know that you are unhappy, and pitiful, and poor, and blind, and naked».

What we call beauty in delight ,

For which you don’t mind paying generously,

A day, a year - already scrapped,

Under the back place with a heavy stirrer.

That flood will wash away, carry away,

Wrinkled adding folds.

Earthquake, terrorist attack - and there are no heights,

And there is no way for us to cope with the decaying.

Everything depreciates and loses its taste,

But to this day that bush does not burn,

He is visible, but with a spiritual gaze,

All predators will be registered as orderlies

And they heal sins frivolously?

Let's find beauty in the spiritual old,

And even in a wolf under sheep's clothing.

“Beautiful!” – we are talking about the field,

About greenery, about ripe spikelets,

When we greet you with bread and salt with a smile,

Without tiring of caressing glances.

We like super-peaceful bliss,

Prayerful attitude at the liturgy.

Beautiful invitation gestures

Choral hymns in honor of Jehovah.

Invisible, Eternal, Holy

Day by day it blooms and grows younger.

And timelessness will not wash away,

And children are blessed for their innocence.

Don't enjoy the beauty of Jesus

His teaching, forgiveness, mercy.

And His cross became the greatest advantage,

He is incomparable and will never become average in anything.

It is glorious to be a disciple of Christ,

The Father gave the Holy Spirit as a pledge,

Oh, just so as not to cool down in the burning,

Boast about God: “All beauty belongs to God!” 01.12.06. Needle

“In the light of the Bible” 2014 © Website of Ignatius Lapkin

How to get rid of greed

What is greed? Pathological greed breeds poverty and leads to disease. Living or working with a greedy person becomes a nightmare. About, how to relieve yourself, your husband, mother-in-law, parents or boss from feelings of greed is discussed in this article.

A conspiracy from a greedy boss

There are situations that your boss promises to raise your salary. But only in words. But you work for two people, often stay late, cope with all tasks perfectly, and increase the company’s profit several times. Of course, you can stop overexerting yourself and work “like everyone else.” But if you need this increase in salary, then try the following magic ritual.

Before the ceremony, sew 3 linen bags, 5x10 cm in size, always on the waxing moon. Crush dry peppermint into fine sand. Prepare salt, sawdust, whole grains of wheat and a container of church water. Conduct the ceremony exactly at midnight. Cover the curtains with curtains or thick fabric. Light a thick candle and place it in a candlestick in the middle of the table. Turn off the overhead lights.

Take 3 sewn bags. Pour mint into the first, salt with sawdust and wheat into the second, and leave the third empty. Place the bags on the table so that they form a triangle. Take a candle and a container of water in your hands and read the spell 3 times, chanting the water:

“How fresh and good the water is, you can wash yourself with it and drink it. So let my work be useful and well paid. Let the boss stop hiding money, and start sharing it with me, so that not only he, but also me, will have a joyful life. He will earn his bread and break off a piece for me; he will earn money for wine, and pour me a sip. Let it be so. Amen."

Spray the bags with enchanted water, as well as all corners of the room where the ritual was performed. Put out the candle. With bags in hand, go outside. The first one must be left at the crossroads with the words “ Paid in full", take the second to your workplace (you can do it the next day during working hours), and burn the third, saying: " The empty one is not mine, I don’t need it. I need goodness, prosperity and good luck in business" The next day, go to Church and light a candle for the health of your envious people.

A conspiracy to get rid of the greed of a husband or mother-in-law

To get rid of the greed of the husband, mother-in-law, or other relatives, it is necessary to perform a simple magical ritual. First, convert your completed years to a simple number. For example, at the moment you are 22 years old. Add 2+2 and get 4 as a result.

Take the number of identical paper bills that equals the resulting prime number. With your left hand, open a random page of the Bible and put money there. Exactly one week later, take them out and go to Church. After serving, light a candle for the health of the person you want get rid of the pathological feeling of greed. When leaving, donate the entire amount of money to the needs of the Church, and treat the beggars sitting at the entrance to any sweet. Leave without ever looking back. For the rest of the day and night, don't talk to anyone.

The ritual does not end there, but You need to continue it only after your first salary. Take 100 rubles from it in your right hand and cross yourself, saying: “ Let greed leave God’s servant (name) and find another" Go to the store and buy bread and milk with it, don’t take the change. These products must be eaten by the person for whom the ritual is directed.

If in the family both the husband and parents are greedy, then the conspiracy should be carried out for everyone separately. It is better for about 1 month to pass between rituals.

How to get rid of the feeling of greed yourself

If you notice that you have become greedy(not to be confused with frugality), and this is causing you difficulties in life, then try to get rid of this vice as soon as possible. A simple ritual will help you with this.

On Monday, be sure to walk to the nearest Church. Light candles for your health, for the health of your enemies and for the health of your friends. All this time mentally say prayer for greed addressed to God so that he can help you get rid of the harmful feeling:

“Help, Lord, mortal sin has entangled me, bewitched me, fettered my will and subjugated my desires. Help, Lord, deliver me from my greed.”

When returning home, stop at any intersection and throw a small coin in front of you.

At home, cook pumpkin porridge with millet grains without salt. Before using, say the words:

“Just as there is a lot of millet in pumpkin porridge, so may I have a lot of goodness in my house. Just as there is a lot of salt in pumpkin porridge, so let there be so much greed in me.”

You must eat all the porridge, without leaving a single spoon. Immediately wash the pan, plate and spoon, and wipe dry with a towel.

Start your morning with new things: new soap, a new brush with toothpaste, a new package of grains for porridge, a new carton of milk, a new loaf of bread, etc. It is also advisable to change your appearance: do a new hairstyle, make-up, put on a new set of underwear. On this day it is very important have breakfast with one dish, lunch with two, and dinner with three.

remember, that magical rituals and conspiracies should be carried out only in this case, if you truly believe in the power of their action. Otherwise, you will have to look for another way.

Prayers /

PRAYER FROM THE LOVE OF AVERAGE

REVEREND MARTYRS THEODOR AND VASILY OF PECHERSKY

Troparion, tone 1:
Having been bound by a union of love, reverend, every union of the machinations of the enemy was in vain, but suffering and innocent death from the money-loving prince endured valiantly, so we pray to you, who together have lived and received the crowns of torment: pray to the Lord for us, for in the abundance of love, faith and hope we have lived valiantly , we always please you, Theodora and Vasily, for your good victory.

Kontakion, voice 2:
A good lamp appeared to Blessed Theodore, the God-wise Vasily, who delivered him with your advice from the delusion of the devil and guided him to the light of God's understanding. With the same afterbirth you accepted a blessed death, having been unjustly shot into the womb by a money-loving prince. And now, standing before the Lord, pray unceasingly for all of us.

Prayer
Rev. Fathers Theodora and Vasily! Look upon us mercifully and raise us to the heavenly heights of those who are devoted to the earth. You are a mountain in heaven, we are on earth below, removed from you, not only by place, but by our sins and iniquities, but we run to you and cry: instruct us to walk your path, enlighten us and guide us. Your entire holy life has been a mirror of every virtue. Do not stop, saints of God, crying out to the Lord for us. By your intercession, ask our All-Merciful God for the peace of His Church, under the sign of the militant cross, agreement in faith and unity of wisdom, destruction of vanities and schisms, affirmation in good deeds, healing for the sick, consolation for the sad, intercession for the offended, help for the needy. Do not disgrace us, who come to you with faith. All Orthodox Christians, having performed your miracles and beneficent mercies, confess you to be their patrons and intercessors. Reveal your ancient mercies, and those whose father helped us all, do not reject us, their children, who are marching towards you in their footsteps. Standing before your most honorable icon, as you are living beings, we fall down and pray: accept our prayers and offer them to the altar of God’s mercy, so that we may receive grace and timely help for our needs. Strengthen our cowardice and confirm us in faith, so that we undoubtedly hope to receive all the good things from the mercy of the Master through your prayers. Oh, great saints of God! Help all of us who flow to you with faith through your intercession to the Lord, and guide us all in peace and repentance to end our lives and move with hope into the blessed bosom of Abraham, where you now rest joyfully in your labors and struggles, glorifying God with all the saints , in the Trinity glorified, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

When asked what happiness is for a person, outstanding thinkers of all times, philosophers and poets noted in their works that the greatest happiness is to be able to love and be loved, and then, to have personal freedom, not to be a slave to anyone. Christians would clarify: one must love the Lord in order to properly love a person; and in order to be free and be able to use it correctly, you need to free yourself from your passions. Without this, freedom will be not only a great, but also a dangerous gift. Love is the good that passes into eternal life and becomes its main content; and freedom deepens and expands in communion with God, in the awareness of the royal dignity of man.

In earthly life, freedom is the possibility of moral choice. In eternal existence, freedom is the deliverance of the human soul from all negatives; this is the entry of a person from a state of struggle with demonic forces and sin into the endless peace of the Divine, where there are no contradictions and confrontations, where the human will is united and fused with the divine will. So, human happiness is love and freedom.

Love has two antipodes. The first antipode of hatred is the state of fallen spirits; the second is love of money, which, like hatred, drives love out of the heart. The love of money in its deepest essence is hostility towards man as his potential enemy and invader. The Apostle Paul calls the love of money idolatry, that is, the entry of a person into the dark world of evil - into the region of fallen spirits, and the replacement of God with earthly dust, no matter what images and forms this dust takes.

Love and love of money are not compatible. In the ascent of the soul to God, three steps can be noted: faith, hope and love. The love of money is the loss of hope in God and trust in money; This makes faith dim and love disappears. It seems to the lover of money that God’s providence will abandon him and he, impoverished, will die abandoned by everyone in this world, like a lonely traveler in the desert. It seems to him that the providence of God, which feeds even small chicks, will leave him sick and poor, that He who protects Israel will doze off and fall asleep. Therefore, a money lover grabs onto money as a lifeline in the whirlpools of life, as a panacea for all illnesses and misfortunes. He believes that with money in his bosom he will be safe in all circumstances, like a man hiding from enemies behind a fortress wall. He believes that wealth is the only friend he can rely on, and the rest, in fact, are only encroachers on his property. He expects that if he gets sick, money will be needed for his treatment; if famine comes, he will survive thanks to them, and when he dies, he will leave a will so that the money would be distributed to commemorate his soul, so that it will be useful to him even after death. Left to grow, the love of money turns into passion: a person collects money for the sake of money; Because of them, he is ready to sacrifice not only someone else’s life, but also his own.

The money lover forgot about the providence and help of God, which had protected him until now. It seems to him that God will “die” and he must take care in advance to provide for himself and his old age. He collects money for a rainy day, not realizing that he makes every day of his life a rainy day. Fornication, drunkenness, anger are obvious sins; and the love of money is an insidious, hidden sin, it is a baby snake that hides in the human heart, as in its hole, and grows, turning into a dragon.

A money lover cannot love God, even if he fulfills long prayer rules, visits temples, travels to holy places, and even makes some kind of donations. He who has no hope in God has no trust in God, and love requires trust - it itself is trusting by nature.

The money lover loves no one and no one loves him. He plays at love and they play at love with him. The place of Judas’s grave is unknown - and the grave of the money-lover will soon be forgotten: it will smell the same cold as from his heart during life. Having deprived himself of love, the money lover deprived himself of warmth and light, his very soul became corpse-like.
Alexander the Great, dying, ordered his body to be placed in a crystal sarcophagus, with an empty palm facing upward, as a sign that the one who conquered half the world took nothing with him into eternity. If we could see in the spiritual plane a money lover lying in a coffin with an open hand, then we would imagine his palm filled with dirt, into which money - his idol - had turned.

The embryo first develops a heart - this is the center of its being; In a corpse, the heart is the last thing to decompose in the body. But the money lover has already killed his heart during his lifetime - it is eaten away by worms, and he passes into the afterlife with a soul filled with metaphysical darkness. There are two especially terrible places in hell: fiery Gehenna and Tartarus. There is no coolness in fiery Gehenna, there is no heat in Tartarus - there is an eternal cold that permeates souls. The fate of the money lover is tartarus. Whoever extinguished love and mercy in himself during life will, after death, find himself in the realm of impenetrable cold, which is as terrible as fire; this cold pierces him through and through, like ice with its needles.

A money lover cannot love either his children or his parents. Although the voice of flesh and blood speaks in him, he has already given the main thing - his heart - to money and wealth. His children are deprived of what the children of the poor have - love. One writer has a story about how a famous mathematics professor was so stingy that he did not give his high school student even a change for travel. It was subsequently discovered that the son was stealing rare books from his father and selling them to second-hand booksellers, not only to get money, but to take revenge on his parent for his stinginess.

Pushkin has a short work, “The Miserly Knight,” which clearly shows the psychology and degradation of a person for whom the goal of life has become the acquisition of wealth. The stingy baron spares money for his own son so that he can acquire the weapons and clothes necessary for a knight, and goes so far as to accuse his son of attempted parricide before the duke. This drama ends with the father challenging his son to a duel and he accepts the challenge, because since childhood he has killed love and respect for his father in his heart.

Money lovers are despised by their own children. And here we see a certain paradox: either children grow up to be as greedy and petty as their parents, who tremble over every coin, or, on the contrary, wasteful, as if out of revenge on those who during their lifetime did not warm them with their warmth, but left an inheritance only because I couldn't take it to the grave. If parents grow up with stingy children, then the same picture is repeated, only turned upside down. Children look at elderly parents as parasites, as a tax that they must unfairly pay, as a hole in the household budget where their money goes, which could be used for more necessary things. Parents feel, or rather they are shown, that they are a burden to their children, that the sooner they die, the better, and the day of their death will become a gift for their children; Parents in their own home become like strangers who were sheltered out of mercy for the night, and who stayed longer than expected.

The picture of life for such spouses is no better. A stingy husband interferes in all his wife's affairs; he checks expenses down to the smallest detail, asking how much something costs, and sadly shakes his head, as if it is his wife’s fault that prices are so high in the store and at the market. Usually wives do not like and despise stingy husbands. They would rather forgive carelessness and wastefulness than stinginess and pettiness, unworthy of a man. After all, deep down in her soul, until old age, a woman cherishes a romantic dream of a knight husband who would spare nothing for her sake. If she sees him as a cold businessman or huckster, she only tolerates him, despising him in her heart.

The situation is also no better if the wife is obsessed with the passion of stinginess. Her husband is in constant mental stress. He is afraid to spend time with friends, to invite his acquaintances to visit, because he knows that after this reproaches will begin, similar to the hissing of a snake. Such a wife carefully monitors her husband’s income. She carries out a whole reconnaissance, asking his colleagues, catches her husband on a random word, and when he falls asleep, she examines his pockets and the lining of his clothes: is there money hidden there or a letter from some acquaintance - her potential rival, where, in her opinion, part of the spouse's salary may disappear.

A stingy woman's house is messy and dirty. She doesn’t want to part with old and unnecessary things, and fills the corners of the apartment with them. Moreover, if she sees a nail or nut on the road, she will pick it up and bring it into the house: why - she doesn’t know herself, maybe someday it will come in handy.

Even taking out the trash is associated with her anxiety, as if something might end up in the trash: after all, a crumpled newspaper or piece of cardboard may be needed around the house! Such a woman’s apartment resembles a junk shop, where there are a lot of unnecessary things thrown into a heap. If she has small children, then she buys them clothes that are too large for them, as if for several years in advance, so as not to buy new ones when they grow up. Stingy people usually have few children - one or two children, and sometimes they do not want to have them at all, as an extra mouth that would require additional expenses. Poisoning often occurs in such a family, since the housewife feels sorry for throwing away spoiled food, and she prefers to risk her own and other people’s health.

A stingy person often abandons marriage and family, not for the sake of abstinence and spiritual life, but because of the expenses associated with family. It seems to him a terrible picture that in his apartment, as in a kindergarten, children will run and make noise, each of whom needs to be dressed, fed, put on shoes and taught. A significant part of infanticide occurs due to love of money and stinginess. Parents, having estimated the costs of each child born, come to the conclusion that such costs are not worth a human life.

The sin of love of money is one of those sins that is difficult for a person to repent of, because he himself despises this sin in others. At some moments he realizes its baseness, disgustingness and shame. It is easier for him to admit in confession to gluttony, fornication and pride, that he lied to friends, cheated on his wife and even killed a person, than that he could not sleep, worrying to tears about the loss of an item or money that he lent, and they were slowing him down. with dedication. It’s even more shameful to admit that he is tormented and bitterly regrets that he gave an expensive thing under a hot hand, and now without this thing life seems empty to him, as after the loss of his most loved one. He rarely talks about this sin in confession, avoiding it, because he is afraid that the priest will give him penance so that he would fight the love of money, for example, give some part of his income to the poor. He may get sick from such a confession or hate the priest as an encroacher on his property. Therefore, a lover of money usually prefers that his passion, rooted in his heart, hide there until the Last Judgment, rather than tear out this poisonous plant with torment and pain.

A person hides and hides the passion of love of money from himself. He tries to justify his stinginess with justice and integrity: “I would rather give money to the poor and beggars than to drunkards and slackers.” But usually this money does not reach the poor. For the stingy, beggars are enemies from whom one must hide or pretend to be poor.

Some misers believe that they do not need to buy candles and prosphora, give alms to the poor, or make donations to the temple, since they are busy with higher work - prayer for peace. However, this is self-deception. Even the apostles gave alms from the little they had. The believing miser is in a state of continuous internal contradiction: he reads teachings on alms as if with blind eyes and listens to the sermon as if deaf. He does not help those in need financially, considering it sufficient if he prays for them. If he decides to give alms, he gives an unnecessary thing or something that needs to be thrown away, and considers that he has fulfilled the gospel commandment.

Another paradox: some religious misers seek their passion in the most spiritual ascetic literature. Having read from the Monk Isaac of Syria and other ascetics that the highest mercy is not physical, but spiritual, which is most manifested in prayer for humanity, the miser seizes on this thought and decides that he has no need to light candles in the church, serve prosphora at the proskomedia, or help those in need. , but one prayer for humanity is enough. Passing by beggars, he mentally prays for them and does not stop to give out alms, so that, in his opinion, the mind would not deviate from God. He does not want to understand that prayer for peace requires self-denial and sacrifice, that for the highest feat it is necessary to go through lower stages, that constant prayer for peace is a burnt offering, which requires a long and difficult struggle with passions, including the love of money.

The demon laughs at such a prayer book, sitting in a puddle and dreaming of the glory of the ancient hermits, as at a small child who considers himself a commander, waving a wooden sword. Such misers read spiritual literature with enthusiasm, like novels, but do not understand that whoever knows more will be asked more strictly. Reading, without actually doing it, only puffs up a person’s mind. But for the most part, the miser does not read or think about such objects, but, seeing a beggar, pretends not to notice him and quickly passes by.

For an unbeliever, this problem does not exist: he is sure that he does not owe anything to anyone. If a believer who is a lover of money, deceiving himself, loses communion with God, then an unbeliever deprives himself of even that little that embellishes earthly life: he stops admiring nature, he is not pleased by the light of the sun, the shine of countless stars that sparkle like scatterings of diamonds does not tell his heart. the black abyss of the sky. He may rather wonder how much the sun and stars would sell for if they were put up for auction.

The Lord teaches us to see our neighbor in every person. The love of money turns someone close to someone distant, then into a stranger, and then into an enemy. Love expands the heart, but the lover of money has narrowed his heart to the size of a wallet. Although he hides his passion, it is visible to people; it cannot but appear, just as a fire in a haystack or the stench of a dead rat rotting somewhere under the floor cannot be hidden.

The love of money can be combined with external virtues, but this is self-deception. The goal of virtue is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, but the heart of a money lover is in a state of paralysis and cannot perceive the grace of God - the invisible light. His inner life takes place on the mental, and not on the spiritual plane. He can rejoice in trips to holy places, experience temple prayer emotionally, even cry with tenderness, but the door of his heart is locked for Christ.

The Gospel tells how a rich young man asked Christ how to be saved. The Lord replied: “Sell your property, give it to the poor and follow me.” He called the young man to the highest apostolic service, but he accepted this as a cruel sentence: the desire for eternal life faded, the heavenly treasure was rejected for the sake of the earthly. The young man thought that he had fulfilled the commandments of the Holy Scripture, but the demon of love of money made him his captive. Before him stood the One who embodied truth, salvation and eternal life, and the lover of money chose an idol made from the dust of the earth. The Lord once called to Adam: “Where are you?”, but Adam hid in the bushes, wanting to hide from the face of God; Christ said to the young man: “Follow Me,” but the money-lover turned away from Him and, bowing his head, walked away. Adam listened to the serpent and lost God; but the money lover listened to the demon and lost eternal life.

A lover of money may be distinguished by such virtues as fasting, prolonged prayer, reading the Holy Scriptures, pilgrimages to holy places, meekness in dealing with people, affection, etc. It is easier for him to re-read the entire Psalter than to perform a work of mercy, which would require expenses from him. He will read the Psalter, but will he understand what is said there? Will grace be grafted onto his soul when the idol of the love of money stands in his heart, as in the pagan temple of the image of Moloch and Baal?

The life of Saint Andrew the Fool of Constantinople tells about a monk distinguished by his ascetic life, to whom many people came as a great elder for instruction. But the Monk Andrew saw with his spiritual eyes that the monk’s body was entwined with a snake, on which was written “love of money.” He exposed this imaginary ascetic in his secret passion, for the sake of which he performed feats, accepting abundant alms from people. The monk was horrified and repented. But most often, money lovers hate the one who tells them that their condition is disastrous: like a hungry dog ​​bites the hand of someone who is trying to take away a poisoned piece of meat from it.

Love expands the human heart; it makes him capable of responding like a tuning fork to human pain, empathizing with the suffering of others, and rejoicing in their joy. Love deepens a person's life. It reveals previously unknown containers and spaces of the soul. Whoever loves God, his soul becomes an abyss filled with light; whoever loves a person, his heart exudes warmth. In this regard, the money lover is a suicide: he has compressed and petrified his heart, deprived himself of spiritual light and real communication with God.

He may experience an emotional uplift during prayer and worship, like inspiration, and even consider this a state of grace, but there is no grace there, but a refined spiritual experience, a feeling associated with passions, which has nothing in common with spiritual enlightenment. These are mental and emotional states combined with blood and flesh, and the lover of money exudes muddy tears from his eyes, dissolved with vanity.

The money lover is deprived of freedom, he is a slave and a prisoner of his passion. A money lover is always worried: how to get money, how to save it and not lose it. He is chained to them by an invisible chain and cannot mentally part with his unfaithful friend and cruel master. Money fused with him, entered his being, stuck to his body, like the sores of a leper; he cannot free himself from this illness, or rather, he does not want to: parting with money is as difficult and painful for him as cutting out a piece of his own body with his own hand.

There was one incident during the persecution of Christians in Persia. Priest Paul and several nuns, his disciples, were brought to trial. They hid in the desert, but the pagans found them there. Paul was a rich man, and during the persecution his greatest worry was what would happen to his property. The trial has begun. The virgins confessed Christ, refused to renounce their faith and were sentenced to death. It was Pavel's turn. The judge knew that he was a rich man and was glad that there was now a reason to confiscate his property. He asked Paul the same question he asked the nuns: was he a Christian? For the sin of love of money, grace departed from the former priest, his faith disappeared, and he said to the judge: “What Christ, I don’t know any Christ, but if you command, I will renounce him.” The judge was taken aback by such a surprise, saw that the prey was slipping out of his hands, and he himself began to persuade Paul to be courageous, like his spiritual daughters. But Paul answered him: “If the king commands us to offer sacrifices to the gods, then I am ready to fulfill it.”

The judge became angry at these words, because after the sacrifice he had to release Paul, and then he came up with another trick and said: “To prove to us that you are not a Christian, take a sword and cut off the heads of the virgins sentenced to death yourself.” Pavel was horrified. But the love of money won. With a trembling hand, he took the sword and approached the nuns to put them to death. “What are you doing, father,” they said, “we are not afraid of death, and so we are sentenced to it, but have pity on your soul, remember how long we were in the desert, how many hardships you endured, how much we prayed together. Don't become our executioner." But he, as if maddened, rushed with his sword at his victims and killed them. Again the judge saw that he could not, by law, seize Paul’s property, and said to him: “I must tell the king about your feat so that he himself rewards you” - and ordered him to be sent to prison, and at night he ordered the guards to kill Paul and thus took possession his estate.

A lover of money is a potential apostate from Christ. I was told the following incident. One young man lived as a novice for several years in a monastery, was blessed with monastic clothes, was distinguished by a quiet disposition, and the abbot expected him to be an exemplary monk. Rich relatives began to often visit the novice and talk about their affairs. Soon he became sad and told the abbot that he was not suitable for monastic life, but wanted to create a Christian family and have children. Without listening to anyone, he returned to the world and began doing business. He soon stopped going to the temple, and then a terrible misfortune befell him: during the division of income, a quarrel occurred between him and his companion, which turned into a fight, and the former novice inflicted a mortal wound on his former companion, from which he died on the spot. To avoid punishment, he managed to go abroad, and there was no more news about him. The love of money brought this man out of the monastery, forced him to engage in some dubious business, and then brought him to such a state that he became a murderer.

Often the love of money is combined with its opposite passion - vanity. Then two demons attack the soul from both sides, each dragging it towards itself: but no matter which demon wins, the win is still Satan’s.

The love of money, combined with vanity, makes a person a constant artist and a liar; he makes generous promises that he does not fulfill, speaks of mercy, which he hates in his soul, does ostentatious good, but in the expectation that he will receive doubly. One person had a significant income. He went to churches, visited monasteries, asked about needs, promised to help, and then disappeared somewhere. After a while he came back looking as if he had forgotten everything he had said and promised. And if they reminded him, he referred to being busy and assured that he would do everything at the slightest opportunity.

One day they began to restore a dilapidated temple. People took part in the work as best they could, and this man told the abbot at dinner that he would undertake the construction of the fence and would pay for the material. Those who did not know this man almost clapped their hands for him, and those who knew remained silent, doubting his words. The abbot turned out to be a trusting man, he postponed the construction of the fence and began to wait for what was promised, like the return of a ship from a long voyage. Time passed. Work has stopped. People, having learned what was the matter, demanded that this man fulfill his promise. It ended with him buying unusable, damaged blocks somewhere and bringing them to the temple. When they were unloaded, it turned out that they were broken, cracked and not suitable for construction. In general, the matter ended with the abbot having to spend money to remove these blocks and throw them in a landfill.

Once a certain person with visiting guests visited the temple and asked that a prayer service be served. After the end of the prayer service, he took out a large bill, showed it to the priest and the guests, asked where the money mug was, and walked up to her, holding money in his hands, and then returned with a satisfied expression on his face. A cleaning lady approached the priest and quietly said: “Father, I saw how this man quickly changed the money and put one ruble in a mug and hid the rest.” The priest replied: “Don’t say anything, don’t disgrace him in front of the visiting people. I know these hypocrites, he put on a show, and maybe at first he wanted to put it down, but at the last minute his heart ached.”

There is also a type of love of money called greed. A person is always aimed at getting benefit from everything; he chooses friends based on profit, calculating how much someone is worth and what benefit can be derived from him. Such a person knows how to warm his hands even around charitable causes. Usually such money lovers are outwardly courteous, friendly and affectionate, but it’s all a mask: they look like a bird, with dove eyes and hawk claws.

The Bible says: “Alms cleanses all sin,” but only when it is accompanied by truth and repentance. The son of Sirach writes: “Better is a little with truth than a great thing with untruth.” If you give alms, you have gained a friend, and if you are repaid with ingratitude, then its price will double and triple, and the ingratitude of people will serve to save you. If you have given a debt, but they cannot or do not want to repay you, then perform another spiritual favor: accept it calmly and indifferently, as if you had moved a stone from one place to another.

The love of money is always associated with mistrust, anxiety, condemnation, fear of losing and the desire to acquire more. The belly of a glutton and the heart of a money-lover will never say enough is enough.

There is also a special type of stinginess when a person treats not only others, but himself as an enemy. Such a person deprives himself of the most necessary things: he dresses in old, already worn-out clothes, tries to buy cheap provisions, often spoiled and rotten, so as not to spend an extra penny from the treasury of his idol and master - the demon of love of money. This is some kind of special asceticism - to cut back and deprive yourself of everything in which and where it is possible; only asceticism is not for the sake of God, but for the sake of a demon, not to fight passions, but to serve one of these snakes.

Some money lovers keep money on their chests, afraid to part with it, in the place where the heart enslaved by passion beats, and at night they put the money under the pillow so that their family does not get to it. The favorite pastime of such a money lover is locking himself in a room, counting money, sorting and putting it into bundles, while he falls into some kind of ecstasy.

There are shameful professions: one of them is an executioner, the other is a moneylender. Usury is the most disgusting form of love of money. If the executioner takes a person’s life with one blow or shot, then the moneylender slowly drinks the blood of his victim. A moneylender is a man with a lost heart.

In both Christianity and Islam, usury is prohibited, and yet it exists, because the passion of love of money makes a person forget about reward after death and his own soul. The love of money, more than need, encourages unhappy people to sell their bodies as goods in the market. Because of the love of money, gambling houses are opened like wolf pits into which a careless traveler ends up. How many curses lie on these brothels and casinos, how many ruined people commit suicide. Because of the love of money, a new type of enrichment has appeared - drug trafficking. This white poison destroys the talents and strength of a person, breaks up families, makes people incapable of work, kills in them the feeling of pity and love even for their relatives, turns a person into a beast who is ready to do anything just to get a drug, without which he cannot imagine life.

One is not born a money lover, one is made one. In the beginning, Judas was an apostle; he shared the difficulties and dangers of following his Divine Teacher. His fall did not begin immediately: he kept a donation cup, from which Christ’s disciples bought provisions and also gave alms to the poor. From there he started stealing money. The demon of the love of money deprived Judas of faith in Christ as the Savior of the world, and then completely took possession of him so that he betrayed his Teacher to death for 30 pieces of silver - the price of a slave.

The love of money is the sin of Judas, who from a disciple of Christ turned into a traitor and committed suicide. According to legend, the tree on which he hanged himself trembled with horror and disgust towards the corpse of the traitor. Every lover of money, to some extent, imitates the sin of Judas and condemns himself to the same fate in the future life - being in hell along with the fallen apostle. Saint John Chrysostom, in his sermon on the Gadarene demoniac, says that it is better to deal with a thousand demoniacs than with one money-lover, since none of the demoniacs ever dared to do what Judas did.

The love of money is a worm that, having penetrated the human heart, quickly turns into a snake. The Holy Fathers write that the passion of love of money is alien to human nature, it is brought from the outside, and therefore at first it is easier to defeat than other passions, but if it takes root in the soul, it will become more powerful than all passions taken together. Just as a vine, twining around a trunk, feeds on the sap of a tree and dries it up, so the passion of the love of money enslaves the will, drinks the strength of the soul and devastates the human heart.

The love of money must be fought from the very beginning, at its first manifestations. What are the means to combat this sin? First of all, the memory of death. Righteous Job, having heard the news that all his property and children had perished, said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, naked I will return. The Lord gave and the Lord took away; Blessed be the name of the Lord!”

A person who has realized the sin of love of money must force himself by willpower to first give what he needs little, and when he experiences the joy of this even small good deed and is convinced that it is better to give than to take, then he can later willingly share even what is necessary with those in need . Some people, having done a good deed, then grumble and complain that they did not receive any gratitude or reciprocal favors in return. But to give for the sake of the Lord means to give freely, without expecting a return. He who gives in order to receive from another in return is like a money changer who cares about his own benefit and, having not received the profit he expected from the transaction, begins to be indignant and grumble.

There is no loss in beneficence. Through man, Christ takes alms, Who promised to repay the giver a hundredfold. By giving to the poor, especially from your own poverty, you can boldly say that you are making Christ Himself a debtor, and the debt does not disappear after Him. If people repay you with ingratitude or even evil for good, then in the eyes of God your gift has increased many times over. It has been noticed that many money lovers die suddenly, without having time to repent. Often the wealth they accumulate is quickly and wasted by their heirs. It is also significant that after their death almost no one prays for money lovers, their names are quickly forgotten, and their graves are overgrown with grass.

This sin is especially disgusting among Christians. It must be said that the Lord often allows miserly Christians to go bankrupt in order to show how dangerous it is to rely on money, that wealth is a fickle friend that can leave a person at any time. Such miserly Christians, not understanding the providence of God, wonder why they pray a lot, but their affairs are worse than those of unbelievers.

Greed and stinginess are connected to each other. Greed wants to seize what belongs to others, stinginess is afraid to give up what is its own. We can say that greed is active stinginess, and stinginess is passive greed.

There is another type of love of money - this is pettiness, when it is just as painful for a money lover to suffer a small loss as a large one. There are even paradoxical cases when such a person experiences significant losses more calmly than small ones, just as bleeding wounds are easier than injections.

What should money lovers do to overcome this passion? First of all, remember about death, which will take everything away from a person, and about the Last Judgment, at which this destructive passion will be exposed to the whole world.

In the Gospel, the Lord most severely denounced the Pharisees - these artists of goodness and actors of religion, who wrote sayings from the Law of Moses on the wide sleeves of their clothes in order to have them before their eyes, but in their hearts were written the words: love of money and vanity. You must force yourself by force of will to give alms, especially secret ones, and not tell anyone about it, either directly or in a hint. At first it will be difficult, like performing an operation on your own body or cauterizing yourself with a hot iron. But then a person begins to feel joy from the fact that he is fulfilling God’s commandment: he feels the touch of grace on his heart, which gives bright joy, and not dark pleasure, as when thinking about accumulated money. He begins to understand the words of the Savior that it is more blessed to give than to take. He feels the snake crawling out of his heart and thanks God, like a dying person, for returning to life.

The love of money is the mother of anger and sorrow. The Monk John Climacus says the following about this passion: “The waves will not leave the sea, and anger and sorrow will not leave the lover of money” (Lestv. 17:10). In another place he gives the following instruction regarding this passion: “The love of money is the root of all evil (1 Tim. 6:10), and it really is, for it produces hatred, theft, envy, separation, enmity, embarrassment, resentment, cruelty and murder" (Lev. 17:14).

It is interesting to note one feature of the modern world. The entire banking system operates on the principle of receiving and issuing money at interest rate. There are many educational institutions to maintain and prosper the banking industry. We have forgotten one thing, the words of Christ: “Lend, expecting nothing” (Luke 6:35).

Scripture on Passion

“At the same time he said to them: take heed and beware of covetousness, for a person’s life does not depend on the abundance of his possessions. And he told them a parable: One rich man had a good harvest in the field, and he reasoned with himself: what should I do? I have nowhere to gather my fruits? And he said: This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and I will gather there all my bread and all my goods, and I will say to my soul: soul! you have a lot of good things lying around for many years: rest, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him: crazy! This night your soul will be taken from you; who will get what you have prepared? This is what happens to those who store up treasures for themselves, and are not rich toward God” (Luke 12:15-22).

“And Jesus, looking around, said to His disciples: How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God! The disciples were horrified at His words. But Jesus answers them again: children! how difficult it is for those who hope for wealth to enter the Kingdom of God!” (Mark 10:23,24).

“It is a great gain to be pious and content. For we have brought nothing into the world, and it is clear that we cannot take anything out of it. Having food and clothing, we will be content with that. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and into a snare and into many foolish and harmful lusts that plunge people into disaster and destruction, for the root of all evil is the love of money, to which, having indulged, some have strayed from the faith and subjected themselves to many sorrows.

Advise the rich in this age not to think highly of themselves and to trust not in unfaithful wealth, but in the living God, who richly gives us everything for our enjoyment, so that they do good, become rich in good deeds, be generous and sociable, laying up for themselves treasures that are good. foundation for the future, to attain eternal life” (1 Tim.6:6-10;17-19).

Means to combat passion

The main means of combating the love of money are non-covetousness, almsgiving, strengthening faith in the Providence of God and the memory of death.

1) One of the most powerful means of combating the love of money is the virtue of non-covetousness, the mastery of which is necessary for all Christians, and monks generally take a vow of non-covetousness.

He who endures arbitrary poverty has sorrow in the flesh, but is calm in soul: They once asked the blessed Syncletice: “Is non-covetousness a perfect good?” She answered: “Exactly, it is a perfect blessing for those who can endure it. For those who endure poverty, although they have sorrow in the flesh, are calm in soul. Just as hard linen, when it is wrinkled and rinsed more strongly, is washed and cleansed, so a strong soul through arbitrary poverty is still more strengthened." (Ancient Patericon. 1914. P. 19. No. 3).

2) Give alms, first starting with what you don’t mind giving, and then you will learn to give more. The Lord attached extremely important importance to alms: “See that you do not do your alms in front of people so that they will see you: otherwise you will have no reward from your Heavenly Father. So, when you do alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues.” and in the streets, so that people may glorify them. Truly I say to you, they already receive their reward from you, when you do alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be in secret, and your Father who sees in secret. , will reward you clearly (Matt. 6:1-4)."

3) St. John Climacus says that the love of money is the daughter of unbelief. Therefore, in order to fight the passion of love of money, you need to strengthen faith in God’s Providence.

The gardener, who abandoned works of mercy and began to save money, was punished with an incurable disease. When he realized his guilt and repented, an angel healed him: The elders told about a certain gardener who, while cultivating his garden, gave out everything he earned in alms, and kept only for himself necessary for food. Subsequently, Satan put a thought in his heart: save up some money for yourself so that you can have it for your needs when you get old or sick. He started saving and accumulated coins into a clay vessel. After this, he happened to get sick: his leg festered. He spent the accumulated money on doctors, but the doctors could not provide him with any help. An experienced doctor visited him and said: “If you don’t decide to take away part of your leg, then it will all rot.” As a result, the day of the operation was set. The night before the operation, the gardener came to his senses, began to repent, sigh and cry, saying: “Remember, Lord, the alms that I previously gave when I worked in my garden and gave the money I earned to the sick.” As he said this, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him and said: “Where is the money you have accumulated? Where is the object of hope you have chosen?” The gardener then realized what his sin was and said: “Lord! I have sinned. Forgive me. From now on I will not do this again.” Then the Angel touched his leg, and it was immediately healed. The doctor, as agreed, came with iron instruments to remove the leg, and did not find the patient at home. When asked about the gardener, he was told: “I went to work in the garden early in the morning.” The doctor went into the garden and, seeing him digging the ground, glorified God, who instantly granted healing from a disease that could not be cured by human means. (Bishop Ignatius. Fatherland. P. 485. No. 90).

4) One of the most powerful means in the fight against many passions is the memory of death.

Blessed Hesychius Khorivit constantly thought about death for 12 years: Blessed Hesychius Khorivit, who at first lived in negligence and laziness, after one serious illness decided to correct himself and, in order to establish himself in a new life, made it a rule to think about death constantly. Such a thought not only distracted him from his sins, but also placed him at a high level of virtue. For twelve years he remained hopelessly silent in his cell, eating only bread and water, crying day and night about his sins. When the hour of death came for him, the brothers came to him and began to beg that at least before his death he would say something to them for edification. Convinced by experience of the benefits mortal memory brings to a person, Hesychius, instead of teaching, exclaimed: “Forgive me, brothers. He who has mortal memory can never sin.” And with these words he gave up his spirit to the Lord. And truly, brothers, he cannot sin! “In all your deeds, remember your end, and you will never sin,” teaches the wise son of Sirach (Wisdom Sirach.7:39) (Prot. V. Guryev. Prologue. P. 93).