Review of the book ‘Holy Evfrosiniya Myrrh-Streaming’
It is impossible to understand the work of Blessed John and his messianic sacrificial activity without understanding the life of St. Evfrosiniya. However, the word ‘life’ in relation to this great ascetic seems incomplete, truncated and even inappropriate. It suggests a more weighty, capacious, biblical-tinged and loaded word – ‘life of Saint’.
The external signs of her earthly path easily fit into one small paragraph: she was born in 1916, lived most of her life in Pochaev in the Ternopil region, clung to the Lavra with her soul, from where she was driven by hypocrites and Pharisees. She prayed incessantly, fasted, healed the sick and infirm, whom she often took to the Holy Hill and introduced to ablutions in the spring of St. Anna. She traveled to Ukraine and Russia, visited Moscow. She died in 1993. Her imperishable relics are myrrh-streaming. She left behind a small notebook resembling a diary, most of which is occupied by her favorite prayers and psalms.
This is the visible side of life. But there is also an invisible, divine one side, and to understand it, you will have to write dozens, maybe hundreds of pages. In a condensed article, this invisible hypostasis can be touched only in passing. But let such an attempt affect those interested and become a kind of road sign on the way to the last truth, as well as an unobtrusive introduction to the book of Blessed John ‘Holy Evfrosiniya Myrrh-Streaming’, which has survived twenty (!) editions to date, including in Ukrainian translated by Lyubov Pchelinskaya.
The book begins with a sublime and poetic chant: ‘The Saint walked the earth, glorified by imperishable relics. In the lavra she was called the one who prayed a lot. The locals hated and hounded: «She’s a Pharisee!» The monks persecuted her for accusations of intemperance in fasting and non-observance of the prayer rule. And two or three, no more, followed her, the inspired oxbow. And the Lord clothed her in incorruptible garments and revealed to us the oils soaked in the world from His wounds.’ Such an introduction sets up a high and lyrical mood.
But first – about the appearance of the oxbow. She was short, bent, as if under the weight of sins, all in black, with a silver cross on her chest. The handles are folded prayerfully. This is how she appears in several photographs, as her contemporaries remember her… However, it is enough to look closely at her face to feel the breath of an otherworldly force, a rare radiance breaking through from above. You understand: there is something in him from the Mother of God and at the same time from all the myrrh-bearing wives who pray for their children and for the whole sinful world. Every feature of her wonderful face is illuminated by kindness and the light of prayerful humility, embracing, caressing and pacifying everyone. Unbelievable!
The gaze is directed at the viewer and at the same time seems to be concentrated in the world above. Tightly compressed lips smile a little. It seems that they are about to open and a prayer will sound: ‘Be blessed, my children.’
It is good and easy to feel like a child of God under this gaze, reliably protected from demon influence, happy and eternal!
I want to talk about the special beauty of this face. No, this is not that stereotypical earthly beauty based on graceful and seductive subtle features! Evfrosiniya has a short nose, inexpressively outlined nostrils, simple ruddy cheeks, folds under her lips and eyes, swollen oily eyelids, bushy eyebrows, deep eye sockets, wide cheekbones. Add another motley rough scarf that hides the forehead and neck … However, in spite of everything, this face of incredible beauty, the grace of the Mother of God – icon-painting! The light of the soul streams in intelligent, keen and deep eyes.
Father John has this observation (although expressed on a different occasion, but also relevant to our conversation): ‘There are many souls with an immaculate mark on their foreheads. Do not look that they sometimes look inexpressive, not like saints. But their souls are pure. Know how to see the holy behind the outer mask and anoint it.’
It is noteworthy that in the features of Evfrosiniya there is nothing weak, painful, although it is known that the old woman was often sick and, in her declining years, almost constantly complained of pain in her heart. However, she left the face of a person healthy morally, spiritually and physically, whose features are as if carved by a heavenly carver, to her descendants.
Many of the nuns who lead a reclusive lifestyle have faces like dried parchment. The eyes are half-closed, covered with a white coating. The look is half asleep and tired (a consequence of sleepless nights). The chin is flabby, the fingers are swollen… Everything in Saint Evfrosiniya breathes with healing power, life-giving energy and some kind of special thirst for struggle and life. Despite everything: worldly troubles, demonic attacks, persecution and heavy spiritual warfare…
There is something elusive and mysterious in this face, completely incomprehensible, unknown and inexplicable. But for the one who prays for this face, it remains the ideal of beauty – the highest and the highest.
The soul often appears in the features of a human face. But the way it manifested itself in Evfrosiniya is a rarity. Truly, this is the face of an immortal man in boundless love and kindness. This face of Saint, Cathar, ascetic and prayer books, and more: servants, peasant women, hopeless collective farm slave.
In her gaze there is a reflection of the eyes of all the Virgins who have ever appeared to people: Zarvanitskaya, Lourdes, Univskaya, Goshevskaya, Pochaevskaya, Fatimskaya, Czestokhovskaya … These eyes seem to embrace with a glance all the women who prayed and pray for us, and for whom we pray, who are was loved and who loved now.
The secret of incomprehensible diversity?
Undoubtedly.
Is it possible to understand and explain it?
No. The unsaid remains unsaid.
Everything in this look – and the gates of eternity too. I would like to believe that everyone who meets this look will look for its warmth and light in every woman they know, and in each they will see a mother and sister.
And the hands of Evfrosiniya! Noble, hard-working and at the same time artistically graceful, covered with a light tan, as if shrouded in haze (kissed by the merciful Galician sun). They also have a reflection of kindness and peace, fatigue and strength. The hands of a prayer book and a great worker who did not shy away from the most black and hard work (she lived in a poor barrack – in the words of Blessed John, ‘a 2×3 doghouse’). These hands attract like a magnet. You just want to snuggle up to them, snuggle your lips – involuntarily, with some incomprehensible spiritual impulse. Everything in them is so coherent, natural, alive, devoid of any lethargy, illuminated by an invisible, but tangible softness of the soul.
The whole image of the saint induces to repose, self-deepening, sows silence, peace and calls for a conversation with God, for the inspired creation of prayer.
The book ‘Holy Evfrosiniya Myrrh-Streaming’ has a subtitle: ‘For the ascetics of the last times’ – that is, for those who have chosen the monastic path of serving God. That is how it should be taken. It is not for ordinary readers, accustomed to primitive storytelling and relaxed reading from the first to the last page. This book is best taken in fragments, persistently comprehending what has been read. There are many repetitions in it, as in any edifying and spiritual-didactic prose. But these repetitions emphasize and re-emphasize what was said earlier, clarify what is obscure and complete what was left unsaid. The last thing you want to do is analyze these highly spiritual texts (as, in fact, most of the writings of Blessed John), but just want to quote them. They themselves provide answers to numerous painful questions over which he has been tormented for years, and maybe decades. And this is already something. Therefore, I will limit myself to only accompanying inserts.
Psalter
‘Hold on to the Psalter as to a lifeline!’ St. Evfrosiniya emphasizes. The Psalter became the most important book of her life. It saved her from diseases, demonic attacks, insurances and all sorts of obsessions. And in the days of his earthly life, and from eternity, through Father John, he calls to constantly turn to the Psalms, because “even the numbering of the psalms has a hidden meaning”, because “without the Psalms no one will reach the gates of the Kingdom.”
And further:
‘Reclusive prayer, the Psalter and ascetic deeds are incomparably stronger than words’.
‘There is nothing more healing than the psalter. If people knew the power of the psalter, hospitals would be closed, and the medical staff would be ordained as prayer books and ascetics.’
‘Without Communion and the Psalter, spiritual life is meager. And the gospel without prayer turns into a textbook.’
‘Not by David, but by the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the Psalter was written.’
‘There is not a single obsolete word in the psalms. The books of Dostoevsky and Turgenev are outdated, and the psalms are relevant in the eyes of Wisdom as never before.’
Bowing to God
About how important they are for the salvation of the soul, St. Evfrosiniya said: “Perhaps, most of all after the psalter prayer.” The ascetic convinces: “Nothing goes in vain. The Lord takes into account every bow, every tear and prayer is counted in the decision of fate.” Every single day, and especially at night, she whipped bowing to God by hundreds and thousands. She said: “One night bow is equal to three day bows and drives away sleep.” Bowing to God were never a torment and an unbearable test for her, because in zealous prayer she received such strength and uplift of spirit that wings grew behind her shoulders. She knew: “Without blessedness, there is nothing to do in faith.”
Here it is also important to realize that ‘bows without repentance lead to madness and bear no fruit’. There must be an inner impulse, the need for prayer without violence. And the way to this grace should be sought through fasting, non-judgment, obedience, spiritual wisdom and thirst for the Kingdom.
Also worth remembering:
‘With every bow, at least one sinful thought is forgiven.’
‘Bowing to God are the main weapon of the righteous.’
‘Just as a bird cannot fly for a long time, so an ascetic cannot do without bowing to God.’
Prayer
Perhaps the most has been written about its power and necessity in spiritual literature. Prayer was and remains the most effective weapon of a Christian, his support and power, wings and a source of strength, a sword and a shield. We will add to this treasury some valuable and wise instructions of the Pochaev elder:
‘Worship services should instill love for prayer, not turn away from it.’
‘There is no bliss without night prayer.’
‘Beg for sins patiently.’
‘Ask the Most Holy Theotokos for the gift of night prayer.’
‘Whoever seeks the knowledge of God without prayer will inevitably fall into the devil’s net sometime.’
‘One saint with his prayer can do more for the city than ten functioning churches with parishioners, candles and priests.’
A tear
I know nothing higher than a human tear. Even when words become superfluous or impossible, she speaks. A tear is above earthly languages, signs and hieroglyphs. Everyone understands her.
I will not sing hymns and odes to her, so as not to humiliate her immaculate purity and greatness.
A person cries when life presses him down, cries when he lets go. An elderly person is always quick to shed tears – perhaps because he is approaching God, with whom it is better for a mortal to talk with tears.
How different they are, human tears – twilight, lonely, funeral …
A tear of happiness, joy – a smiling tear, daytime. A tear of sadness, despair and grief – burning and bitter, more nocturnal.
The gift of tears is given not only to man. Trees, birds and animals cry. Heaven is crying.
How often is it revealed to us that springs and rivers are the tears of the earth.
The soul chokes with sobs when it comes into this world. She cries until she gets used to it and adapts. And cries when he leaves the earth.
A mother is crying, seeing her child on her way; cries when he meets.
A tear does not lie, does not deceive, does not mislead, because it does not come from the eyes, but from the heart.
With its golden reflection, a tear is always in eternity.
Almighty time is powerless in front of her, will not dry her up and will not scatter her with any dry winds.
On this side is the human heart, on that side is the face of God.
The Mother of God wept on Golgotha in immensity of maternal despair… and since then, through the prism of tears (most often bloody) she has been looking at the sinful world.
The soul cries, realizing the dark abyss of sin; cries remorsefully; cries, growing up to God.
So pure, so heavenly, a tear shines high! At the bottom of it is the secret knowledge of the purity of the immortal soul.
The evil-minded, angry, vindictive, crafty will not cry; not able to sympathize, empathize.
A widow’s heart is a container of tears.
Words and deeds fade before tears.
A sincere confession with a tear, a touching declaration of love with a tear, the greatest adoration with a tear …
Sometimes it seems to me that when a person stands before the Lord, the guardian angel shows how the river of her earthly tears overflows. And it shimmers with a brilliant brilliance, and becomes the spiritual treasure of the soul for all eternity. And this is the highest triumph of heaven. Oh, how the tear of Saint Evfrosiniya is immortalized in the sky!
“Tears are priceless before the Lord. Where are your tears? Why are there so few tears?”, she asks us from heaven.
Peace of Heaven
It is so tempting and important for a person to look beyond the veil of the other world! So tempting and interesting! And a thinking person cannot but think about the questions: what awaits us after the Great Liberation? Where will the soul go, where will it go? How will the ordeals go, and are there any? Is there a hell?
Otherworldly worlds beckon and torment, excite and frighten – each in its own way. And no matter how a person approaches the solution of this mystery, what information he would not receive from the lips of great visionaries – whether in a perfect artistic form, like in Dante and Milton, or in the form of scientific treatises, like in Swedenborg and Daniil Andreev, or even in canonized biblical text of John the Evangelist – the mystery remains a mystery, the highest on earth. The mountain world is closed to man by thousands of locks. Why? Saint Evfrosiniya answers this question in the following way:
“It is not commanded to reveal the secrets of the Kingdom, lest a man’s mind be confused.”
And yet, she leaves some marks on the way to this world:
‘When I left the world, the soul entered the white chamber. The Lady of Heaven met me. I was shocked by Her beauty, fell on my knees and began to repent of my sins before Her. The Queen of Heaven took my hand and said, “Come, My beloved. Your earthly journey is complete. Now the eternal journey begins. You glorified the Lord in your earthly days, and He will glorify you before the eyes of many nations.”’
‘Only the one who passed the test of the church, that is, remained faithful to the church to the end, enters the kingdom of heaven.’
‘In heaven it is not so much the passage of time that is counted as the completion of a term.’
‘When I saw the heavenly world, I was filled with indescribable delight. What she imagined in her spirit and saw with the eyes of faith turned out to be incomparably more beautiful and perfect. In earthly days, it was as if in the womb, only guessing about the life that exists in heaven … Baby, earthly life is so meager and small compared to eternal!’
‘After death, writers go to special airy spheres, where there are ministers of the muses similar to them. But after the expiration of the time, when the energy that supports their spirits is exhausted, an insight follows. In confusion, as if having removed a magical cover, they find themselves in the face of truth and go to the afterlife realms of insights.’
‘The fate of writers, artists and composers is more than sad. They are responsible for the thousands of souls caught in the Luciferian nets through lovely soarings, proud worlds, outlined by them. Many want to repent and cannot: behind them are souls deceived by them. We need a special prayer for them. On the ground and do not dare. The high ranks of the angels are entrusted with the care of these enchanted spheres of Luciferian influence.’
‘Stifled cries and screams reach us, as if under a huge slab. Hell exists as a religious trap. And the demons who tormented invisibly in the present age in a bodily shell, torment visibly by the permission of God.’
The tips
No matter how deep, intriguing and interesting this or that book may be, but without specific advice and spiritual guidelines that the reader can draw from it, it will always remain incomplete. The level of spiritual literature is measured primarily by the depth of discoveries and insights, as well as the wisdom of the science that the book is able to give to an attentive and inquisitive reader.
For St. Evfrosiniya, this was decisive during her lifetime – she came into the world to collect grains of higher wisdom and pass it on to others – and today: she does this from the higher worlds through the medium of blessed John.
The old woman teaches unobtrusively and naturally, with exceptional patience and even meekness. He often repeats the same maxims in order to convey them not only to the ears, but also to the heart of the reader. The best of them are listed below. But at the same time, it should be noted: this is not even a hundredth part of them and not a thousandth. These are only ajar doors to a large and vast universe called ‘Holy Evfrosiniya Myrrh-streaming’.
‘Use holy water constantly, especially in cities. Always dilute cooked food with holy water. Sanctify everything around, every step is your own. In the traditions of true Orthodoxy, the spiritual is not only prayerful holiness, but also the material world, constantly sanctified by the shrine.’
‘Don’t look at the clock! Pray and do not count earthly time.’
‘After 500 prostrations, the Lord sends rewards for labors.’
‘Stay as far away from cities as possible. Their hours are numbered.’
‘Fasting helps to get rid of generic sins: anger, irritability, lack of restraint, sinful thoughts…’
‘Whoever asked to pray for him, she prayed, no matter how the demons beat for this soul. The duty of prayer is above all. Whoever does not know the duty of prayer, the charisma of petition and tears is taken away from him. Frivolity is unacceptable here.’
‘With each prostration, one sinful thought is forgiven, and the committed sin after the 150th prostration.’
‘Ask a little. Dare about spiritual heights. You strongly rebuke the Pharisees, and the devil stands to cast you into hypocrisy.’
‘Christen the food vigorously. Ask for it to go for the good. Chemistry poisons the body, but a strong right cross makes it harmless.’
‘The mystery of the Mother of God is second only to the mystery of the Lord. Whoever does not comprehend this secret does not know the Lord. The Protestants invented their bookish Christ.’
‘Confession is a sacrament. It is necessary to prepare for it, as for the Eucharist, read prayers and proceed with great fear and sobriety.’
‘Before confession, 50 prostrations are indispensable for those who want to deeply repent.’
‘Bowing without repentance is a sport. A meal without repentance is modest, even if fasting. Prayer without repentance is hypocritical and rejected by heaven.’
‘It’s not enough to pray. You need to beg for souls and beg for sins.’
‘Be especially afraid of flatterers. Flattery is snakebite, poison injected into the inner.’
‘Until there is repentance, do not seek healing from the relics. Worry about eternity. Repent day and night before.’
‘Start to repent, and in a month you will have more fruit than in five years of going to church.’
‘Instruct the sick to read the psalter, have holy water with them, take communion once a week in the temple, make many prostrations, repent of sins and live in truth.’
‘If you beat 50 bows every day to the guardian angel, he will meet you with great joy in eternity.’
‘What you give to others, you give to yourself. And what you keep for yourself, you take away from your neighbor.’
‘We must win four battles. The first – in the church, from the untrue spirit by the priests. The second is in the world, with strangers. The third is over demons. And the fourth – over the prince of demons himself. The last one is the hardest.’
‘To win a crown, you need to go through a lot of difficulties. But this sorrow is the greatest blessedness in Christ and the special lot of the elect.’
‘Whoever indulges in fornication will decompose alive in worms and disgusting stench.’
‘After the eighth abortion, the woman is driven by tartar spirits. The soul becomes uncontrollable, obsessed. How much effort must be exerted to beg for the sin of abortion! Day and night repentant prayers and prostrations. Confess tirelessly until the Almighty removes the sin.’