Why envy is a major deadly sin. But, dear friends, you are not disingenuous before God! No matter how we write off everything for time and morals, we will have to answer to the fullest extent: children will be born sick or handicapped, marital life will not work out in the future.

Miraculous words: orthodoxy prayer from envy in a full description from all the sources we found.

Ill-wishers and vile envious people meet in the life of each of us. In order to protect against gossip and rumors, as well as from the evil eye, a prayer from envy is read daily.

In ancient Greek mythology, one can find a description of Envy in the form of a terrible wrinkled old woman with rotten teeth and a protruding tongue from which poison drips. Justifying ourselves by the fact that our envy is "white" we, unfortunately, do not realize that it destroys our spiritual principle in any form. The fluids of envy saturate the air and poison the peaceful existence of society.

Reading a prayer text, a person first of all clears himself of bad thoughts, negativity, frees the information field, and is charged with positive energy. Prayer from envy helps to gain confidence, to reset the energy of someone else's anger that has fallen into a personal biofield. Such prayers are intended to be protection for a person and his family, to keep the well-being and peace of the hearth.

The process of reading a prayer: rules

It is worth saying a prayer from human envy with reverence and respect for the sacrament, observing some rules.

Wanting to get rid of the negative impact on the part of others, you yourself need to analyze your thoughts and actions in relation to others. After all, envy on your part is also possible. Therefore, before starting prayer, it is worth mentally repenting before everyone and admitting your weakness.

Any request addressed to the Heavenly Father requires faith - all-consuming and undeniable.

The stronger a person believes, the more effective the prayer ritual will be. For the right attitude to unity with God, you need to stand in front of the images (at home, in front of the icon), light candles and think about what you want to convey to the Almighty with your prayers.

Since the prayers of envy are not long, you should read them several times daily until you feel lightness in your soul and the power of forgiveness. Thus, the envy that has stuck around the energy shell will evaporate and all negativity will subside.

Which prayer for envy is better to choose

All appeals to Orthodox saints about a bad demonic feeling - envy are conventionally divided into:

• protecting from any random human envy;
• aimed at envious people so that they stop gossiping about you and envying you;
• purifying, delivering the soul of the supplicant from this filth.

Orthodoxy considers the text presented in the Bible (Psalm No. 90) with the title “Living in the help of the Most High” to be the best prayer for envy. It should be read 12 times in a row.

If there is a person next to you from whom negativity and anger emanates, read the prayer text against the evil eye of the Most Holy Theotokos (you can mentally).

If you have been visited by evil envious thoughts in relation to others, turn to the Lord (possibly through your saint or guardian angel) with a holy prayer.

In order to stop gossip and slander about a person, especially for public and high-ranking persons, you can adopt a well-known sacred text from human envy. If you read this prayer with a lit candle, going around your home three times, then you and your family will forever be closed by powerful protection from the energy messages of ill-wishers.

Remember, any bad thoughts against other people will return a hundredfold to the one who directed them!

Other types of protective prayers:

Prayers for envy: comments

Comments - 3,

My husband and I had everything like in a fairy tale, holidays abroad, love, he has a highly paid position, two cars, and soon the long-awaited daughter was born. And suddenly I noticed that after talking with a friend who asked for all the details of our life, everything suddenly began to be disturbed, then someone gets sick, then my husband has problems at work, quarrels in the family. Then I began to read a prayer out of envy, and now everything seems to be getting better again, and my friend began to reduce communication to nothing.

That's how they say prayer helped, and you yourself too - contacts to a minimum and everything worked out. as the proverb says Happiness loves silence, that is, in this way they minimized the envy of a friend and this is evil for you, stopping her provoking her with her well-being talking about it, it’s certainly terrible that people are so envious, but what to do - she herself has the same situation even worse, I already wrote, if there is something on my problem, answer

A strong prayer from envy (for public figures, high-ranking people), the prayer is excellent, I just can’t understand why they are public persons, that they are envied, why they should pray for deliverance from their envy, this of course will not hurt, but then the meaning of the prayer about what? Advise an effective prayer if you are not envious at all, but you are. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help

Prayer from human envy and malice, 3 prayers

I bring to your attention Orthodox prayers from human envy and malice addressed to the Holy Saints.

What can I say, envy is everywhere these days.

It seems that there is nothing to envy, but still there are ill-wishers.

To protect yourself from the evil envy of people, you need to regularly whisper special prayers that allow you to drive away other people's energy.

Before you start fervent prayer, be sure to visit the Orthodox Church and submit a registered note about your own health.

If you know your enemies by sight, then in no case order their dead service.

Pray for their health and ask the Lord God to cleanse them of envious thoughts.

Prayer from envy to the Lord God

Light 12 candles and silently look at the burning flame.

Do not intrigue your envious people, they already have no peace.

Envious people constantly toil, wasting their vital energy on deep sorrows.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God. Have mercy and take away the eyes of envious people from me. Do not let them harm me in deed, word and thought. May all envious people find paradise, and all sorrows leave their souls. Lord, you repay me according to faith, but the enemies cannot be tested. May your will be done. Amen.

Prayer from envy to Nicholas the Wonderworker

Wonderworker Nicholas, Defender and Savior. Take away from me black envy and human dirty tricks. Protect me from rudeness and spoiled stoop. Do not punish me for temptations and forgive me all dashing sins. Do not torment my envious people with stinginess, and do not torment them with desperate stupidity. May your will be done. Amen.

Prayer from envy Matrona of Moscow

In the event that you feel not only an envious look on yourself, but also someone's spoiled muck, turn to the Blessed Matrona with a prayer.

Blessed Staritsa, Matrona of Moscow. Forgive me all evil suspicions and ward off all human defilements. Protect me from mournful envy, take illnesses and ailments from my eyes. Let envy never capture me, everything that I have is enough for me to death. May it be so. Amen.

Now you know that there are Orthodox prayers for envy that allow you to protect yourself from bad people.

For the Lord to help you, try not to indulge in envious thoughts yourself.

May God help you!

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Orthodox prayer from the evil eye, envy, corruption and evil people

Envy is a dangerous feeling that harms the envious person and the one to whom this feeling is directed. This "bone rot" can cause diseases and negative events in the lives of respectable people.

A true believer is not afraid of magic, it is not capable of harming him. Prayer is a means of healing, consolation and tranquility. Therefore, if you find a person who is envious, trying to jinx it, to bring damage, you should pray for him with sincere words.

Which saints should you turn to for help?

Prayer from the evil eye and envy, addressed to the heavenly patrons, will help protect yourself and your family. There is also a prayer from evil people and corruption, which has powerful healing power.

Basic Prayer to Jesus Christ

Almost every person knows by heart the prayer "Our Father".

It is she who brings relief and a sense of communion with the Almighty.

Our Father, Who art in heaven! Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, as in heaven and on earth. Give us our daily bread today; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

This is a powerful amulet that turns the arrows of the enemy into himself.

Alive in the help of the Most High, in the blood of the God of Heaven will settle. The Lord says: Thou art my intercessor and my refuge, my God, and I trust in Him. As if He will deliver thee from the net of the hunter, and from the rebellious word, His splash will overshadow thee, and under His wings you hope: His truth will be your weapon. Do not be afraid of the fear of the night, from the arrow flying in the days, from the thing in the darkness of the passing, from the scum, and the demon of the noonday. A thousand will fall from your country, and darkness at your right hand, but it will not come close to you, both look at your eyes, and see the reward of sinners. As you, O Lord, are my hope, the Most High have laid down your refuge. Evil will not come to you, and the wound will not approach your body, as if by His Angel a commandment about you, save you in all your ways. They will take you in their hands, but not when you stumble your foot on a stone, step on the asp and the basilisk, and cross the lion and the serpent. For I have trusted in Me, and I will deliver, and I will cover, and, as I know My name. He will call to Me, and I will hear him: I am with him in sorrow, I will crush him, and I will glorify him, I will fulfill him with long life, and I will show him My salvation.

Prayers from envy and evil people

O great saint of Christ, reverend mother Mary! Hear the unworthy prayer of us sinners (names), deliver us, reverend mother, from the passions that are fighting on our souls, from all sorrow and finding misfortune, from sudden death and from all evil, at the hour of separation of the soul from the body, otzheniya, holy saint , every evil thought and evil demons, as if our souls would receive with peace in a place of light Christ the Lord our God, as if from Him the cleansing of sins, and He is the salvation of our souls, He deserves all glory, honor and worship, with the Father and the Holy Spirit , now and forever, and forever and ever.

Oh, holy servant of God, Hieromartyr Cyprian, quick helper and prayer book for all who come to you. Accept our unworthy praise from us, and ask the Lord God for strength in weakness, healing in sickness, consolation in sorrow, and all that is useful in our life. Offer up your pious prayer to the Lord, may it protect us from our sinful falls, may it teach us true repentance, may it deliver us from the captivity of the devil and any action of unclean spirits, and deliver us from those who offend us. Wake us a strong champion against all enemies, visible and invisible. Grant us patience in temptations, and at the hour of our death show us intercession from the tormentors in our air ordeals. May we, led by you, reach the Mountainous Jerusalem and be honored in the Kingdom of Heaven with all the saints to glorify and sing the Most Holy Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.

Oh, the great saints of Christ and miracle workers: the holy Forerunner and Baptist of Christ John, the holy all-praised Apostle and confidant of Christ John, the holy hierarch Father Nicholas, the Hieromartyr Harlampy, the Great Martyr George the Victorious, Father Theodore, the Prophet of God Elijah, Saint Nikita, Martyr John the Warrior, Great Martyr Barbara , Great Martyr Catherine, Venerable Father Anthony! Hear us praying to you, servant of God (names). You carry our sorrows and ailments, you hear the sighs of many who come to you. For this reason, we call to you, as our quick helpers and warm intercessors: do not leave us (names) as your intercession with God. We are constantly deceiving from the path of salvation, guide us, merciful teachers. We are weak in faith, affirm us, orthodox teachers. We will wretchedly do good deeds, enrich us, treasures of mercy. We always slander from the enemy visible and invisible and embittered, help us, helpless intercessors. Righteous anger, moved against us for our iniquities, turn away from us by your intercession at the throne of the Judge of God, to whom you stand in heaven, holy righteous. Hear, we pray you, the great saints of Christ, calling you with faith and ask your prayers from the Heavenly Father for all of us forgiveness of our sins and deliverance from troubles. You are more helpers, intercessors and prayer books, and we send glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit about you, now and forever and forever and ever. Amen.

Rules for reading prayers

When pronouncing prayers, one should:

• to be in complete seclusion:
• mental state should be calm;
• discard any thoughts of revenge on the offenders;
• do not be distracted by extraneous sounds, thoughts;
• pronounce each word consciously, delving into each spoken phrase.

What are the similarities of envy, corruption and evil eye

When a person is constantly overtaken by failures, things do not go well, small problems are replaced by large ones and there are more and more of them, many people consider this an evil eye or damage. Indeed, even without the use of a witchcraft ritual, a person who is in a strong surge of envy and anger can direct negativity towards another person.

The evil eye is an unintended effect on a person. For example, someone accidentally said something to the interlocutor and thereby jinxed him, without suspecting it. But if someone wanted to cause damage, then this is a deliberate action using auxiliary items, conspiracies and rituals.

And what's with the envy?

Jealous, a person scrolls negative thoughts in his head. For example, he wants to possess something that his friend has, thereby wanting him to lose the existing goods and destroying the happiness and success of a person.

The main signs of the evil eye and damage

• frequent bouts of headache;
• constant weakness, fatigue, drowsiness;
• loss of interest in life;
• outbursts of anger, irritation, anger;
• inner restlessness;
• troubles in all spheres of life;
• hearing voices in your head, often telling you what, when, and how to do it;
• a sense of the world in black and gray;
• craving for alcohol, drugs, fornication;
• sudden depression;
• drops in blood pressure;
• the occurrence of serious illnesses;
• discomfort in the solar plexus.

Good advice for solving the problem and its “prevention” is given by practicing psychologists:

• outside one's own home, one cannot boast of the successes of the household and one's own achievements;
• if you feel the unfriendly glances of envious people behind your back, or if it is known that they talk a lot about you, thank the Almighty that your life is better than that of others;
• limit communication with ill-wishers to the maximum;
• engage in self-training: every day you need to give yourself the installation that your environment (colleagues, friends, neighbors) are the best and most friendly people.

Sorcery has flourished since time immemorial, drawing out human strength. Recently, there has been an increased interest in the witchcraft ritual due to the availability of magical literature on the shelves of bookstores. There is also a growing number of soothsayers, fortune-tellers, soothsayers who promise to improve the lives of the sufferers.

Prayer, in turn, does not pose a danger to a person. Aimed at the destruction of the evil eye, corruption and envy, it strengthens the spiritual world of man.

Fill the spiritual world with goodness and positivity, pray for your enemies, and then the evil envious people themselves will “weed out” from your life.

Envy

From the legacy of the Optina Elders

Envy is one of the heaviest passions, it disturbs the peace of mind and is accompanied by a storm of obsessive evil thoughts.

“The passion of envy does not, on any joyful holiday, under any joyful circumstances, make it possible to fully rejoice in the one whom it possesses. Always, like a worm, it sharpens his soul and heart with vague sadness, because the envious one considers the well-being and success of his neighbor as his misfortune, and considers the preference shown to others as an unjust insult for himself.

You can't please the envious

Comparing envy with other passions, the Monk Ambrose recalled the parable of the money-lover and the envious man:

“One Greek king wanted to know which of the two is worse - the lover of money or the envious, because both do not wish the other well. To this end, he commanded to call to himself the lover of money and the envious one, and he said to them:

“Ask me, each of you, whatever you please. Just know that the second will get twice what the first asks for.

The money-lover and the envious bickered for a long time, each not wanting to ask before, in order to receive twice after. Finally, the king told the envious man to ask first. The envious one, being seized with ill-will towards his neighbors, instead of receiving, turned to malevolence and said to the king:

- Sovereign! Order me to gouge out the eye.

The surprised king asked why he expressed such a desire. The envious replied:

- So that you, sovereign, order my comrade to gouge out both eyes.

This is how the passion of envy is harmful and mentally harmful, but also malevolent. An envious person is ready to harm himself, if only to harm his neighbor twice.

The elder explained that all passions are harmful to the soul, but in other passions a person can be calmed down with something, and envy cannot be quenched by anything:

“The proud can be honored! Conceited - to praise! Money-loving - give something ... etc. An envious person is impossible to please. The more he is pleased, the more he envies and suffers.

The first signs of envy are misplaced jealousy and rivalry.

St. Ambrose taught to notice the first signs of envy, which manifest themselves in inappropriate jealousy and rivalry:

“Envy is first revealed by inappropriate jealousy and rivalry, and then by zeal with annoyance and censure of the one we envy.”

To the question of the spiritual child, what is the reason for envy and jealousy, Saint Macarius answered as follows:

“You ask: why do you have such a hateful feeling when you hear praise from others, and how to get rid of it? What causes this embarrassment is already the passion that lies in you, arrogance ... And when you reproach and humble yourself, you will be healed. Of course, the reason for this temptation is pride, because jealousy and envy come from it.

How to deal with envy

Saint Macarius taught to fight the thoughts of envy at the very beginning, when they were still attachments, he taught to suppress these attachments while they were still “Babylonian babies”:

“For God's sake, do not allow this seed of Cain to grow in you, but suppress its small sprouts, kill the “babylon babies” while they are still babies. Depose them from the pretext by self-reproach and humility.

“She, like all other passions, has different sizes and degrees, and therefore one should try to suppress it and exterminate it at the first sensation, praying to the Almighty Heart-Knowing God with Psalm words: “Cleanse me from my secrets, and spare Thy servant (or servant) from strangers Yours)” (Ps. 18:13-14).

Also with humility one should confess this infirmity before the spiritual father.

And the third remedy is to try in every possible way not to say anything nasty about the person we envy. Using these means, we can, with the help of God, although not soon, be healed of envious infirmity.

Saint Nikon also advised to pray for those to whom you have hostile feelings:

“When you feel dislike towards someone, or anger, or irritation, then you need to pray for those people, regardless of whether they are guilty or not guilty. Pray with simplicity of heart, as the holy fathers advise: “Save, Lord, and have mercy on Your servant (name) and for the sake of his holy prayers help me, a sinner!” From such a prayer, the heart is pacified, although sometimes not immediately.

Force yourself to do good

Saint Ambrose advised:

“You need to force yourself, albeit against your will, to do some good to your enemies, and most importantly, not to take revenge on them and be careful not to somehow offend them with a look of contempt and humiliation.”

Pray for those you envy and for those who envy you

Saint Joseph taught to pray not only for those whom you envy, but also for those who envy you:

Whoever you envy, pray to God for him.

"Pray for the envious and try not to irritate her."

How can one derive spiritual benefit from the thoughts of envy

The Monk Ambrose suggested how one can derive spiritual benefit from thoughts of envy by turning envious thoughts into thoughts of humility:

“You write that, seeing yourself worse than others, you tend to envy. Turn this feeling to the other side - and the floor at read favor. Seeing oneself as worse than others is the beginning of humility, if only a person reproaches himself for the admixture of nasty feelings and thoughts and tries to reject this soul-damaging admixture. If, however, you allow humility to settle in your soul, then, in proportion to this, you will receive peace from various spiritual hardships.

Also, there is nothing to envy for those who are externally secured. An example is before your eyes that even those who are rich do not enjoy the peace of their souls. This does not require external support, but firm hope in God. If this provision were useful to you, then the Lord would send you wealth. But it doesn't seem to work for you."

Be ready for the return of passion

Saint Macarius reminded us: sometimes it seems to us that we have conquered some kind of passion, but when the opportunity arises, it turns out that it has returned in its former guise. The elder advised not to be embarrassed by this, but to be ready for such a turn and, knowing your weakness, humble yourself:

“About your passion [envy], you thought that you were already free from it, but later, when the case opened, it seemed that you were not. What one should not be surprised about, but one must be ready to resist passion and, recognizing one's weakness, humble oneself. When humility and love reign, passions will also disappear.”

Through the prayers of our holy fathers, the reverend elders of Optina, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us!

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Hieromonk Chrysostom (Filipescu)

Envy, which weighs heavily on the heart, at first takes the form of slight dissatisfaction with the position that you have achieved, while someone else has succeeded more than you. Then this discontent grows and grows. A person possessed by envy watches with anxiety the one whom he envies, looking for a reason to condemn him. One can define this disease of the soul as an inability to realize the unity of being of all people as a whole, for the good of our neighbor should also please us.

or About how envy is born and how to deal with it

Sometimes envy is directed at objects that are completely strange. So, in the well-known ditty of the post-war period, with bitter irony, the absurd ability of a person to envy even someone else's grief was ridiculed: It is good for him who has one leg, He is given a pension, and he does not need a boot.

Saint Elijah (Minyatiy)

Envy is the original seed of all evil, the first offspring of all sin, the first poisonous filth that corrupted heaven and earth, the first decaying flame that kindled the fire of eternal torment. The first one who sinned in heaven with pride was a dennitsa; the first to sin in Paradise by disobedience was Adam; the first to sin with envy after the exile was Cain. But the first cause of all those sins of the morning star, Adam and Cain was still envy.

Cshmch. Cyprian of Carthage:

[Envy] is the root of all evil, the source of devastation, the hotbed of sins, the cause of crimes.

Rev. Abba Isaiah:

If envy wrestles you, then remember that we are all members of Christ and that both honor and dishonor of our neighbor are common to us, and you will calm down.

Woe to the envious, for they make themselves strangers to the goodness of God.

He who wants to become famous among people cannot be without envy; and whoever has envy cannot acquire humility of mind.

St. Basil the Great:

Envy is sorrow for the well-being of one's neighbor.

Another passion, more pernicious than envy, does not originate in human souls.

As rust eats away iron, so envy eats away the soul in which it lives.

Just as ... [vipers] are born by gnawing through the womb that carried them, so envy usually devours the soul in which it is born.

Let us ... beware of envy, so as not to become our accomplices in the affairs of the enemy, and subsequently not be subjected to the same condemnation with him.

[Envy] harms strangers less, but the first and nearest evil for the one who has it.

An envious person never lacks sorrows and sorrows.

[Envy] is a corruption of life, a desecration of nature, enmity against what is given to us from God, opposition to God.

Envy is the most irresistible kind of enmity.

Other ill-wishers are made more meek by doing good. The envious and malevolent one is even more irritated by the good done to him.

[Envy] - with this one weapon, from the formation of the world to the end of the age, everyone is wounded and overthrown by the destroyer of our life - the devil ...

The devil ... rejoices in our death, he himself fell from envy and overthrows us with himself with the same passion.

Will you not be horrified, making yourself a servant of a destructive demon, and allow evil [envy] into yourself, from which you will become an enemy of people ... and God.

Arrows thrown hard, when they hit something hard and resilient, fly back to the one who shot them; so also the movements of envy, without harming the object of envy, strike blows at the envious person. Who, grieved by the perfections of his neighbor, reduced them through this? Meanwhile, consumed by grief, he wears himself out.
Those suffering from envy are considered even more harmful than poisonous animals. They let in poison through the wound, and the bitten place gradually rots; about the envious, others think that they cause harm with one glance, so that from their envious glance, bodies of strong constitution begin to wither, blooming with all beauty in their youth. All their fullness suddenly disappears, as if some destructive, harmful and destructive stream is pouring from envious eyes. I reject such a belief, because it is common people and brought by old women into women's chambers; but I affirm that the haters of good are demons, when they find in people the volitions inherent in demons, they use all measures to use them for their own intention; which is why the eyes of the envious are used to serve their own will.

From envy, as from a source, come for us death, deprivation of blessings, alienation from God, confusion of statutes, subversion of all worldly blessings in the aggregate.

Rev. Efrem Sirin:

In whom envy and rivalry, he is an adversary to everyone, because he does not want another to be preferred. Those who are worthy of approval he humiliates; whoever follows a good path puts temptations on the way: he who lives as he should, condemns those who are reverent, calls those who fast vain, diligent in psalmody - loving to show themselves, quick for services - greedy, quick in business - gloomy, diligently engaged in books - idler ... Woe to the envious, because his heart is always exhausted from sadness, his body is consumed by pallor, and his strength is exhausted.

[Envious], if he sees [a person] when he has fallen, he blackens before everyone.

An envious person never rejoices in the success of another. If he sees one who is neglectful of the matter, he will not induce him, but rather instruct him in evil.

[The envious] is insufferable to everyone, he is an enemy to everyone, hates everyone, is a hypocrite before everyone, plots against everyone, wears a mask in front of everyone ...

A terrible poison is envy and rivalry: from them slander, hatred and murder are born.

[The envious] now makes friends with one, and tomorrow with another, and in disposition towards everyone changes, fakes to the desire of everyone, and after a while condemns everyone, blackens one before the other ...

He who envies his brother's success cuts himself off from eternal life, but he who helps his brother will be his accomplice in eternal life.

Why is it unpleasant for you, man, the good fame of a successful person? You will not be saved by the fact that one or the other does not receive salvation. Or will you reign only because many will be expelled from the Kingdom of Heaven? Not you alone will find a place in the Kingdom of Heaven. Heavenly joy is not prepared for you alone. Why does the salvation of many make you sad? So, do not disgrace the deeds of pure love, and do not replace the deeds of a lawful life with annoyance and severe malevolence. Let no one deceive you - neither man, nor the devil, nor the thought nestling in the heart. It is impossible to bring virtue to firmness without diluting it with love.

This disposition is demonic - to be offended by the prowess of the prosperous. Hatred has taken root in the demons; it is more desirable for them that they all perish completely.

We should not envy the progress of a brother, because we are members of the body of Christ.

Agree to die rather than succumb to envy.

The vigil of the envious is quite harmful; vigilance is his most shameful and inglorious acquisition.

Silent envy can become an arrow...

St. Gregory the Theologian:

Envy is contrition for the prosperity of others...

St. Gregory of Nyssa:

Envy is the beginning of evil passions, the father of death, the first door to sin, the root of vice, the offspring of sorrow, the mother of disasters, the cause of disobedience, the beginning of shame. Envy drove us out of paradise, becoming a snake before Eve; envy barred access to the tree of life, and stripping us of the sacred garments, through shame led us to the branches of the fig tree. Envy armed Cain against nature, and brought about death avenged seven times (see: Gen. 4, 15). Jealousy made Joseph a slave. Envy is a deadly sting, a hidden weapon, a disease of nature, bile poison, voluntary exhaustion, a cruelly piercing arrow, a nail for the soul, a flame that burns the insides. For envy, failure is not one's own evil, but someone else's good; and vice versa, luck is also for her - not her own good, but the bad of her neighbor. Envy is tormented by the prosperity of people and laughs at their misfortunes.

St. John Chrysostom:

Such is envy: it goes against one's own good, and it is better for an envious person to endure a thousand calamities than to see his neighbor glorified...

Those who are envious do themselves the greatest harm and bring upon themselves great destruction.

Just as a worm that originates in a tree first of all eats the tree itself, so envy first of all crushes the very soul that gave birth to it in itself. And to the one whom she envies, she does not what she would wish him, but quite the opposite.

The malice of those who envy only brings great glory to those who are subjected to their envy, because those who suffer from envy bow God to their help and enjoy assistance from above, and the envier, being deprived of God's grace, easily falls into the hands of everyone.

Let us... run away from this pernicious passion and with all our might pluck it out of our souls. This is the most disastrous of all passions and harms our very salvation; it is an invention of the devil himself.

Enslaved before any external enemies by his own passion, he [the envious] crushes himself, as it were, and, as if devoured by invisible teeth and thus exhausted in himself ... plunges into the abyss.

Such is envy: it does nothing with reasoning.

Such is this pernicious passion: it will not stop until the person carried away by it is thrown into the abyss, until it brings him to sin - murder, because the root of murder is envy.

When it [envy] takes possession of the soul, it does not leave it before it brings it to the last degree of recklessness ...

Being ... captivated by it [envy], a person does everything against his salvation.

As a moth cuts through wool, so envy gnaws at the envious person and makes the one who is exposed to it more glorious.

Those who succumbed to the suggestion of envy changed their freedom to slavery, and the envied became a king.

Oh envy, sister of hypocrisy, culprit of deceit, sower of murder, serpent's seed, destructive flower. What is worse than envy? Nothing. And what caused death itself? Nothing but envy...

The pig loves to wallow in the mud, the demons - to harm us; so the envious one rejoices in the misfortune of his neighbor.

There is no evil worse than her [envy]. The fornicator, for example, at least gets some pleasure and commits his sin in a short time, but the envious one tortures and torments himself before the one whom he envies, and never leaves his sin, but always remains in it.

When something unpleasant happens to a neighbor, then he [the envious] is calm and cheerful, considering other people's misfortunes as his happiness, and the well-being of others as his misfortune, and he is looking not for what could please him, but for what his neighbor can grieve.

As beetles feed on manure, so they [envious people], being in some way common enemies and opponents of nature, find food for themselves in the misfortunes of others.

Weep and wail, weep and pray to God, learn to treat it [envy] as a grave sin, and repent of it. If you do this, you will soon be healed of this disease.

Envy turns a person into a devil, and makes him a fierce demon.

Nowadays, envy is not considered a vice either, which is why they do not care to get rid of it ...

She [envy] always plots with good neighbors and torments the one who suffers from it and surrounds with countless disasters.

An envious person even looks at the person who is most benevolent towards him as an enemy ...

Envy is a great evil... it blinds the eyes of the soul, contrary to the self-interest of the person possessed by it.

Just as the raging often turn their swords on themselves, so the envious, having in mind only one thing - harm to the one whom they envy, lose their own salvation.

... [Envious] are worse than wild beasts and like demons, and perhaps even worse than them. Demons have an irreconcilable enmity only against us, and do not intrigue against people like themselves by nature ...

The envious do not respect the unity of nature, but do not spare themselves either: even before they harm the one they envy, they torment their own souls, filling them in vain and needlessly with all sorts of anxiety and discontent.

Even if you give alms, even if you lead a sober life, even if you fast, you are the most criminal if you envy your brother.

There is nothing more stubborn than this passion [envy], and it does not easily yield to healing if we are not careful.

Just as we offend God by envying the good of others, so we please Him by rejoicing in others, and we make ourselves participants in the blessings prepared for virtuous people.

There is nothing worse than envy and malice. Through them death entered the world. When the devil saw a man in honor, he could not bear his prosperity and did everything to destroy him.

The envious only has in mind how to satisfy his desire; and even if he had to undergo punishment, or death, he remains devoted to his one passion.

Envy is a poisonous beast, an unclean beast, an evil of will that does not deserve forgiveness, a vice for which there is no justification, the cause and mother of all evils.

The envious person lives in continuous death, considers everyone his enemies, even those who have not offended him in any way. He mourns that honor is given to God, he rejoices at what the devil rejoices.

Envy is a terrible evil and full of hypocrisy. She filled the universe with countless disasters. From this disease, the courts are filled with defendants. From her [same] passion for glory and acquisition; from her lust for power and pride.

Whatever evil you see, know that it is from envy. She also invaded the Church. It has long been the cause of many evils. She gave birth to avarice. This disease has perverted everything and corrupted the truth.

Even if someone worked miracles, even though he observed virginity and fasting and slept on earth, even if he was equal to the Angels in virtue, but if he has this shortcoming [envy], he will be more impious than all and lawless even an adulterer and a fornicator, a robber and a grave digger. And so that someone does not accuse me of exaggerating my speech, I will willingly ask you the following: if someone, taking fire and a spade, began to destroy and burn this house (of God) and destroy this altar, then each of those present would you not throw stones at him, as at a wicked and lawless man? So what? And if someone brings a flame more destructive than this fire - I'm talking about envy, which does not destroy stone buildings and destroys not a golden throne, but overthrows and destroys that which is much more valuable than walls and a throne, the building of teachers - then can does he deserve any indulgence?

... (Envy) overthrew the Churches, gave birth to heresies, armed the fraternal hand, prompted to stain the right hand in the blood of the righteous, violated the laws of nature, opened the doors of death ...

This wound is so incurable that, even if countless remedies were applied, it would still ooze its pus profusely.

For those who have not been freed from this disease, it is impossible to completely avoid the fire prepared for the devil. And we will be freed from the disease when we think about how Christ loved us and how He commanded us to love one another.

It is better to have a snake coiling in the womb than envy nestling inside ...

The snake, which is in the inside, when there is other food for it, does not touch the human body; envy, even if they offer her a thousand food, devours her very soul, gnaws it from all sides, torments and tears; no sedative can be found for her that would reduce her frenzy, except for one thing only - misfortune with the prosperous.

Oh, envy, tarred, infernal, disastrous ship! Your owner is the devil, your helmsman is the serpent, Cain is the chief rower. The devil has given you a pledge of distress; the serpent, being the helmsman, led Adam to a mortal shipwreck; Cain is the chief rower, because through you, envy, he was the first to kill. From the beginning, you have the paradisal tree of disobedience as a mast, rigging - ropes of sins, sailors - envious people, shipmen - demons, oars - cunning, rudder - hypocrisy. O ship, bearer of innumerable evils! If you ask about hypocrisy, it is there ... Envy, enmity, quarrel, deception, quarrelsomeness, swearing, slander, blasphemy live there, and whatever we say and whatever we omit - all this is carried by the hellish ship of envy. The flood was unable to destroy this ship of envy, but Jesus sank it by the power of the Spirit, the source of baptism.

What disease so destroys the beauty of the face, as envy dries up love, the fragrant color of the soul?

It was envy that was the cause of countless disorders in all creation, both above and below, and not only on earth, but also in the Church itself.

Envy is born from nothing else, but from attachment to the present, or, better, (hence) all evil. If you considered the wealth and glory of the world to be nothing, you would not envy those who possess it.

The envious person goes against God, and not against the one (whom he envies).

... Nothing usually divides and separates us from each other like envy and ill will - this cruel disease, devoid of any excuse, and much more serious than the very root of evil - the love of money. Indeed, the lover of money at least rejoices when he himself receives; the envious one then rejoices when the other does not receive, considering the failure of others as his own success. What could be crazier than this? Neglecting his own misfortunes, he is exhausted by other people's blessings, thereby making heaven inaccessible to himself, and before that heaven and real life unbearable. Verily, a worm does not eat wood or moth wool, but the fire of envy devours the very bones of the envious and harms the purity of the soul. The one who calls the envious the worst beasts and demons will not sin.

Animals attack us only when they either need food or have been annoyed by us in advance, and these people, even being favored, often treat the benefactors as offended. In the same way, the demons, although they have an irreconcilable enmity towards them, do not make evil that has the same nature with them, and these people are neither ashamed of the community of nature, nor spare their own salvation, but before those whom they envy, they themselves subject their souls to punishment, filling them for no reason or cause by extreme confusion and despondency. Envy is such a vice that there is no other worse than it. An adulterer, for example, receives some pleasure and in a short time commits his sin; meanwhile, the envious person, before the one whom he envies, subjects himself to punishment and torment, and never lags behind his sin, but constantly commits it. As the pig rejoices in filth and the demon of our destruction, so this one rejoices in the misfortunes of his neighbor; and if something unpleasant happens to the latter, then he calms down and sighs with relief, considering other people's sorrows his joys, and other people's blessings his own disasters. And just as some beetles feed on manure, so are those who are envious of other people's misfortunes, being the common enemies and enemies of (human) nature. Other people and the dumb animal, when it is killed, feel sorry; but these, seeing a person receiving benefits, become furious, tremble and turn pale ...

Even if [man] were your enemy and enemy, and God was glorified through him, then it would be necessary to make him a friend for this, and you make your friend your enemy because God is glorified through the good name that he uses. How else can you show enmity against Christ? Therefore, even if someone performed signs, even if he showed the feat of virginity, or fasting, or lying on the bare earth, and by virtue of this kind he became equal to the Angels, but if he is subject to the passion of envy, he turns out to be the most abominable.

... If love for those who love does not give us any advantage over the pagans, then where will be the one who harbors envy for those who love? To envy is worse than to be at enmity, the one who is at enmity, when the reason for which the quarrel occurred is forgotten, stops the enmity; the envious will never become a friend. Moreover, the former fights openly, and the latter secretly; the former can often point to a sufficient reason for enmity, while the latter can point to nothing more than his own madness and satanic disposition.

... (An envious person) shows with envy that he is little meaningful and petty. For when he envies, he thereby testifies that he is greater than he, whose happiness he mourns.

Abba Piammon:

Envy is more difficult to cure than other passions. For whom she once harmed with her poison, for that, one might almost say, there is no cure. For it is such an infection, which is figuratively spoken of through the prophet: Behold, I will send serpents, basilisks on you, on which charms do not work, and they will sting you (cf.: Jer. 8, 17). So, the prophet correctly compares with the poison of a deadly basilisk the wound of envy, with which the author of all poisons and the leader was the first to become infected and die. For in advance he destroyed himself before he poured out a deadly poison on a man whom he envied. For through the envy of the devil, death entered the world, but his partners imitate him (cf. Wisdom 2:24), just as the one who was first corrupted by the infection of this evil did not receive any medicine of repentance and no means of healing, so also those who they allowed themselves to be hurt by the same remorse, they reject all help from the holy spell (see: Ps. 57, 5-6); because they are not through any fault of others, but are tormented by their happiness, they are ashamed to discover the very truth, and they look for some extraneous, empty and absurd reasons for insulting them. Since these reasons are completely false, there is only one cure for them - the eruption of that deadly poison that they do not want to discover, they hide in their hearts. The wise man said well about this: if the serpent does not bite in a conspiracy, then after that there is no use in the conspirator (cf.: Eccl. 10, 11). This is the essence of secret remorse, which alone is not helped by the healing of the wise. Even this death (i.e., envy) is so incurable that it becomes hardened by kindness, puffed up by favors; gifts are irritated; because, as the same Solomon says: jealousy does not tolerate anything (see: Prov. 6, 34). For the more one succeeds in the obedience of humility, or the virtue of patience, or the glory of generosity, the more envy is incited by the envious, who wishes the downfall or death of the one whom he envies.

Of all vices, envy is more fatal and more difficult to cure, which is still ignited by the very medicines that stop other passions. For example, who mourns for the harm done to him, he is healed with a generous reward; whoever is indignant at the inflicted offense is appeased by a humble apology. And what will you do to someone who is even more offended by the fact that he sees you more humble and more affable, who is ignited to anger not by greed, which is satisfied with a reward, not by resentment or desire for revenge, which is defeated by kindness, services, but only the success of someone else irritates him? happiness? Who, in order to satisfy the envious, wants to be deprived of goods, to lose happiness, to be subjected to some kind of disaster? So, so that the basilisk (devil) does not exterminate everything that is alive in us, which, as it were, is inspired by the vital action of the Holy Spirit, with one wound only from this evil (envy), let us constantly ask for God's help, for which nothing is impossible. Other poisons of snakes, that is, sins of the flesh or vices, to which, as soon as human weakness is subjected, so easily and cleansed of human weakness, have some traces of their wounds on the flesh, from which even the earthly body suffered very cruelly, however, if any skillful the conspirator of divine verses will apply an antidote or medicine of saving words, then a festering wound will not lead to eternal death of the soul. And envy, like poison poured out by a basilisk, kills the very life of religion and faith before a wound is felt in the body. For it is not against man, but clearly against God, that the blasphemer rises up, who, stealing nothing else in his brother but good merit, condemns not the guilt of man, but only the judgments of God. So, envy is that root of sorrow, vegetate (cf.: Heb. 12, 15), which, rising in height, rushes to reproach the culprit Himself - God, Who communicates good to man.

Rev. Isidore Pelusiot:

You do not know rewards, as you are not able to see the future. But not only at the future judgment, but also in the present life, envious people bear worthy punishments. May the wife of Ahab, Jezebel, convince you of this, who passionately desired the vineyard of Pabuteev, and in this life became the prey of dogs, and in the future she is kept by eternal fire.

Envy ... towards any other really or supposedly good quality is not favorable, but on the contrary, it is cruel and hostile, while towards virtue, to which a quality in the proper sense of the beautiful is given as its inheritance, it is completely adamant. Therefore, not to be an object of envy is, perhaps, a carefree thing, but not a glorious thing either ... but he who arouses envy towards himself must endure the evil intentions of envy with a chaste mind.

Those who are deprived of intelligence and prudence incessantly hate those whom they suspect that they are better than them, and hate them not for the offenses shown to them (this, perhaps, would be a lesser evil), but for their impotence to achieve the same good glory with them in virtue. .

Look after yourself with a thousand eyes so that no harm is planted by you in your neighbor, but every root of temptation is destroyed. But if, with your disposition, some of those who do nothing good, but are envious of those who do, will accuse you, then do not give yourself up into slavery to despondency, but courageously endure this reproach of the enemy, imagining in your mind that the enemy would not use this trick. a tool for ruin, like a pillar, from the life you have fenced, if it were not for the glory of your good art that touched him.

It is the habit of many to envy those who are distinguished by the height of virtue. For, considering as insufferable and burdensome the one who does not behave in the same way with them, but puts his glory in the most excellent advantages, and thereby, as it were, exposes their own life, they slander him and build intrigues on him when they should have competed with him and crowned him.

Rev. Nile of Sinai:

Envy and bitter hatred come from contempt and arrogance.

Envy is the constant opponent of great success.

What is worthy of envy in you, then hide it most from the envious.

Rev. Isaac Sirin:

Whoever has found envy has found the devil with it.

Abba Falasios:

Under the guise of benevolence hides envy, who conveys reproachful words to his brother, heard from others.

The Lord blinds the mind of the envious because he unjustly mourns for the blessings of his neighbor.

He who secretly rejoices in the one who is envied gets rid of envy, and he who hides that which can be envied gets rid of envy.

Rev. Maxim the Confessor:

You can stop envy if you begin to rejoice at the joy of the one you envy, and together with him grieve about what he is sad about ...

None of those who are wise will ever envy another who abounds in graces, since it lies on him himself to acquire the disposition that conditions the acceptance of Divine blessings.

Rev. Simeon the New Theologian:

Where there is envy, there also lives the father of envy, the devil, and not the God of love.

St. Gregory Palamas:

... [Love of fame] envy gives rise - envy, tantamount to murder - the cause of the first murder, and then deicide ...

[Envy] for the most part is a crafty adviser in shameful matters.

St. Theophan the Recluse:

To envy in the worldly is bad, but in the spiritual it doesn’t look like anything.

Paternik (St. Ignatius (Bryanchaninov)):

The holy fathers told us the following: A certain monk who lived in the wilderness of the skete came to visit the holy fathers who lived in a place called Kellii, where many monks had separate cells. One of the elders, having an unoccupied cell, provided it to a wanderer. Many of the brethren began to visit him, desiring to hear from him a word about eternal salvation, because he had the spiritual grace to teach the word of God.

Seeing this, the elder, who offered him a cell, was stung with envy, began to be indignant and said:

How long have I been living in this place, and the brethren do not come to me, except very rarely, and then on holidays. Many brethren come to the same flatterer almost daily.

Then he ordered the student:

Go tell him to get out of the cell, because I need her.

The disciple came to the wanderer and said to him:

My father sent me to your shrine to find out, he heard that you are sick.

He thanked, saying:

Pray to God for me, my father, I suffer greatly from my stomach.

The disciple, returning to the elder, said:

The wanderer asks your shrine that you endure two days in which he could look for a cell for himself.

After three days, the elder again sent his disciple:

Go tell him to come out of my cell. If he still delays his departure, I will come myself and drive him out of his cell with my rod.

The disciple went to the wanderer and said to him:

My father was very concerned when he heard about your illness, he sent me to find out how you feel.

He replied:

Thank you, holy lord, your love! You took such good care of me! For your prayers I feel better.

The disciple returned and said to the elder:

The wanderer is still asking your shrine to wait until Sunday, then he will immediately come out.

Sunday came, the wanderer calmly remained in his cell. The elder, inflamed with envy and anger, seized the rod and went to drive the wanderer out of his cell. Seeing this, the disciple says to the elder:

If you command, father, I will go and see if some brethren have come to him, who, looking at you, can be offended.

Having received permission, the disciple went and, going in to the wanderer, said to him:

Here my father comes to visit you. Hurry to meet him and thank him, because he does this out of great goodness of heart and love for you.

The skier immediately got up and, in joyful spirit, went to meet him. Seeing the elder, before he approached, he fell on the ground before him, offering worship and thanksgiving, saying:

May the Lord reward you, most beloved father, with eternal blessings for your cell, which you have provided me for the sake of His name! May Christ the Lord prepare for you in Heavenly Jerusalem among His saints a glorious and bright abode!

The elder, hearing this, was touched by his heart and, throwing the rod, rushed into the arms of the wanderer. They gave each other a kiss in the Lord, and the elder invited the guest to his cell so that, having thanked God, they could eat food together.

In private, the elder asked his disciple:

Tell me, son, did you convey to your brother the words that I ordered to be conveyed?

Then the disciple revealed the truth to him:

I will tell you, my lord, the truth. Due to my devotion to you as a father and master, I did not dare to tell him what you ordered, and did not convey a single one of your words.

The elder, hearing this, fell at the feet of the disciple, saying:

From this day on, you are my elder, and I am your disciple, because the Lord delivered both my soul and the soul of my brother from the sinful network through your prudence and actions filled with the fear of God and love.

The Lord bestowed His grace, and they all abode in the peace of Christ, delivered by faith, the holy cares, and good intentions of the disciple, who, loving his elder with perfect love in Christ, was very afraid that his spiritual father, carried away by the passion of envy and anger, would fall into an act that should destroy all his labors, raised from youth in the service of Christ to receive a reward in eternal life.

Athos patericon:

In addition to Saint Nektarios of Athos, Elder Philotheus also had a disciple, whom Satan so embittered against Saint Nektarios that the unfortunate man began to openly tell Elders Philotheos and Dionysius to drive out Nektarios, otherwise he would kill either him or himself. The elders trembled with horror when they heard of such demonic plans. In vain did they admonish the unfortunate man, urged and begged him to calm his heart, suppress the feeling of malice and envy, in vain they threatened him with the Judgment of God and hell: he did not want to hear anything, but demanded the fulfillment of his desire. Then the elders suggested that Saint Nectarios leave them for a short time, until the envious brother would come to his senses.

After some time, the God-loving Philotheus died at a ripe old age. Dionysius, unable to bear the immoral behavior of his disciple, invited Nectarius to live with him as a brother in spirit, and left the unfortunate man to look for another place and another elder. Dionysius and Nectarios spent their lives peacefully, eating from needlework and helping the poor to the best of their ability. And their unfortunate brother, not having come to a sense of humility and repentance, moved from place to place, then withdrew into the world and there, indulging in intemperance, died miserably in the middle of the city square, even without the usual Christian parting words.

This is what fraternal hatred and envy mean! The disastrous consequences of them are fully experienced by a person also in this life and often departs into eternity without any hope of salvation. We must protect ourselves from such God-hating vices!

What is the danger of envy, for what actions

Does she push? What are examples of this

Mental defect known to you from the literature?

How to overcome envy? Love covers

All. Learning to love is the most important thing in

Human life.

What did envy do

It's done! Pallor imposed

The seal on dead lips

For the first time, death closed its mouth,

And the blood was shed for the first time!

Brother hit brother

Breaking the bond of past years,

And for deeds there is no return,

And there is no forgiveness for sin.

Trembling, with a crazy face

The killer runs in wild fear,

Fear of family and friends.

But tomorrow just like today

Hear, terrified,

“Tell me, where is Abel? Where is your brother?"

O. Chumina

Cain killed his brother Abel. It didn't happen right away. At first, he accepted the idea inspired by the enemy of the human race, succumbed to it out of envy. And this thought had to be reflected at the very beginning, as the holy fathers teach us, so that it would not grow to the point of committing a sin in deed.

Envy is a terrible evil. From her passion for fame and acquisition; from her lust for power and pride. From here on the way criminal robbers and robbers, hence the murders, hence the division of our kind. Whatever evil you encounter, it comes from envy.

***

Ivan Ilyin. ENVY.

While people live on earth, they must get along, find their way to each other, unite, help one another. Otherwise, the earth will open under them, and the sky will split above their heads. But envy is the strongest means of collapse: it was once invented by the master of “Apart” and “Against each other”.

In order to get along, people need to “forgive” each other their dissimilarity, their advantages, their superiority. Not only in possession of a fortune, but in everything: you are smart, gifted, educated, handsome, strong, rich, you stand high in the service - I am not; you are above - I am below; okay, I accept it, I'm content with it... I don't envy you. If my “bottom” is not enough for me, I will fight for “more” and “better”, but not wanting to take yours from you. I will work, work creatively, move myself "up" - in competition, but without envy. You just stay “upstairs”; I will rise to you.

Competition as an internal motivating cause is a healthy, creative, fraternal phenomenon.

Envy, as an internal motive, on the contrary, painful, destructive, hostile. Its formula is unreasonable and immoral.

Envy - first of all stinginess and greed .

She is as insatiable as curiosity; it means thereby eternal poverty, eternal care, eternally bad mood; it turns every success into failure and leaves a person in misery in hopeless loneliness. A cruel envious person is a ill-wisher: he takes offense at a person for someone else's happiness, every other person's success hurts him, any positive quality in another torments him like a wound on his heart; the anger of the one who has lost the owner fills him, like the rage of an inferior, constantly feeling his inferiority, and therefore biasedly noting someone else's superiority. He does not even approach the “case”: he gets stuck in the struggle between “I” and “you”, and in this eternal struggle he exhausts himself and his opponent.

If his fury expands into a social program, then it turns into a class struggle and a Marxist civil war begins.

Where is the salvation and consolation? In art, do not envy. It is not difficult at all. Give everyone what he already has, and do not constantly delve into your own inferiority. Discard this pitiful "subtraction" - your imaginary "smallness" from supposedly someone else's "superiority". Know that you yourself are worth adding. Climb up without pushing down the other. Do not envy! Do not envy! And - most importantly - learn to forget about yourself in the big business!

Questions for students:

- not a single one, for sure, did not bypass

Feelings of envy. What is experiencing

Soul, when it comes into contact with it?

How to avoid envy?

Is it easy not to be jealous?

SINS OF DEATH

Pride- despising everyone, demanding servility from others, ready to ascend to heaven and become like the Most High - in a word, pride to the point of self-adoration.

Unsatisfied soul- or Judas greed for money, connected, for the most part, with unrighteous acquisitions, which does not give a person even a minute to think about the spiritual.

Fornication- or the dissolute life of the prodigal son, who squandered all his father's estate on such a life.

Envy- leading to every possible evil deed to the Near One.

Gluttony- or carnal pleasure, which does not know any fasts, combined with a passionate attachment to various amusements, following the example of the gospel rich man, who rejoiced all day long.

Anger- irreconcilable and daring to terrible destruction, following the example of Herod, who in his anger beat the Bethlehem babies.

laziness - or perfect carelessness about the soul, negligence about repentance until the last days of life, as, for example, in the days of Noah.

***

DON'T HURRY THINK!

As rust eats away iron, so does envy the soul in which it lives.

Envy is sorrow for the well-being of one's neighbor.

Saint Basil the Great

Envy is the daughter of pride: kill the mother and the daughter will perish.

Blessed Augustine

The envious person harms himself before the one he envies.

Saint John Chrysostom

***

All the importunate demon is busy,

He wants to seduce me with pleasure:

Delight accept my part

And I give glory to God.

And the demon around is busy again,

He wants to scare me with trouble:

Sorrow I accept my part

And I give glory to God.

For every ray and breath

I give thanks to God

And old age, my friend,

I lead to the threshold, in hope.

Vyacheslav Ivanov

*

There are two ways: good and evil.

Anyone is open, but useful to everyone

Only the one to whom the Truth went,

Which is holy, thorny and cramped.

For the flesh is cramped, evil and lies,

But not for a righteous soul,

Keeping honor, the Law of the Creator

From the beginning of life to the end.

Archpriest Vl. Borozdinov

***

Don't wish it

what belongs to your neighbor

The peasant son Timosha looked after other people's sheep and received such a small payment for this that there was nothing to buy boots with. One evening, when he was standing barefoot at the gate of the inn, the master's carriage drove up to the house.

- There are after all such lucky people that they travel around in a carriage! thought Timosha, looking with envy at the rich crew. - And our brother - if you please, walk barefoot. How, then, have I, an orphan, angered the Lord, that I must always toil and wander among strangers? And why such mercy of God even to this gentleman?

As soon as he said this, the doors of the carriage opened and from it, with the help of two servants, a legless cripple got out.

The power of the cross is with us! - exclaimed the dumbfounded Timofey, crossed himself and without looking back ran into the field.

Since then, not only did he not envy anyone, but he no longer complained about his poverty.

***

Three travelers once found a precious find on the road. It had to be divided equally among all. The find was so large that a part of each would be quite significant.

But the devil immediately appeared with his companions as spirits of envy, deceit and greed.

After admiring their find, the travelers sat down to rest to refresh themselves with food, but each thought not about food, but about how he could take possession of the treasure alone.

One of them needed to go to the nearest town to buy supplies. One went. The two remaining in place agreed to kill the third when he returned to share his part. Meanwhile, the one who went for supplies decided to poison them with poison, so that after the death of both comrades, wealth would remain to him alone.

When he returned, he was immediately killed by his companions, and they, in turn, having eaten the food brought to them, both died.

The precious find remained in its place to wait for others - madmen or more worthy people.

***

One Greek sovereign, wishing to know who was worse: an envious person or a money-lover, ordered two people to be brought to him, one of whom suffered from envy, and the other from avarice.

When those called came, the sovereign said:

“Let each of you demand from me such a gift as he wishes, and I will gladly give it to him. After that, the second of those who asked and received the gift will receive twice as much as the first one requires and receives.

The envious refused to ask for a gift first, not wanting the money-lover to receive twice. And the money-lover refused to be the first to ask for a gift in those forms, so that the envious person would not take possession of the double gift.

Since there was no end to the disputes, the sovereign had to stop these disputes by order that the first one should ask for a gift from the envious. And what do you think the envious person demanded as a gift? He demanded that one eye be torn out of him, of course, wanting both eyes to be torn out of his opponent, i.e. to become completely blind.

Thus, this villain, out of his envy, not only refused any royal gift, but even decided to let himself be mutilated, so long as his rival did not receive a doubly gift.

***

DO NOT ENVY

By envy of the devil, death is in the world, says St. Scripture (Wis. Sol. 2, 24).

Envy not akin to people, but akin to the devil; it comes from the devil.

It is common for people to sin out of weakness, but only the devil alone tends to do evil out of envy.

Envy is the daughter of the devil, and whoever is combined with her, she will bring him nothing but malice, and malice gives birth to death. Cain made friends with envy and brought up malice in himself, malice matured and brought death to two: temporary death to Abel, and eternal death to Cain himself.

St. Gregory of Nyssa writes: " Envy is the beginning of malice, the mother of death, the first daughter of sin, the root of all evil”.

St. Basil the Great exhorts: " Let us, brethren, avoid the unbearable evil of envy; it is the commandment of the serpent-tempter, the invention of the devil, the seed of the enemy, the pledge of God's punishment, the obstacle to pleasing God, the path to hell, the deprivation of the kingdom of heaven.

St. John Chrysostom He speaks: " Whoever performs miracles, preserves virginity, observes fasting, bows to the ground and compares with the angels in virtue, but has this drawback (envy), he is more impious, more lawless and an adulterer, and a fornicator, and a digger of graves.

BASIL THE GREAT ADVICE

CONQUER ENVY

“If you see through reason above human, you will not consider anything earthly great and extraordinary: neither what people call wealth, nor fading glory, nor bodily health; if you do not provide good for yourself in transient things, but direct your eyes to the truly beautiful and laudable, to the achievement of eternal and true blessings, then you will be far from recognizing something earthly and perishable as worthy of gratification and competition. And whoever is like that, and is not amazed by worldly greatness, envy can never approach him”

(Creations of St. Basil the Great IV.188, 190)

***

spiritual honeycomb

Envy intrigues good neighbors. Where there is envy and greed for glory, there is no true friendship.

Envy turns a person into a demon.

Envy is worse than fornication and adultery; it gives rise to slander and accusations. She must be overcome by rejoicing.

All sins come from self-love. The beginning of goodness is to reject oneself, to crucify the flesh with passions, to endure grief, resentment, misfortune.

When a person lives in space, in abundance and contentment, then he grows in his womb and does not grow in spirit, does not bear good fruits.

And when he lives in cramped conditions, in poverty, in illness, in misfortunes, in sorrows, then he spiritually grows, matures and brings good rich fruits.

Therefore narrow is the path of those who love God.

The head and essence of all good deeds is love, without which neither fasting, nor vigil, nor labors mean anything...

Without love for God and neighbor

not be saved

Wild, harsh desert. There is complete desolation all around. Here, in strict feats of abstinence, three monks are saved. What tortures they subject their sinful flesh to! She seemed to have become completely impassive. Only hearts remained cold: love for one's neighbor never warmed them...

Once these monks met with an elder experienced in spiritual life and began to boast to him of their deeds.

“I have memorized the entire Old and New Testament: what will I do for this?

“You have filled the air with words, but still there is no benefit to you from your labor,” the elder answered him.

“And I, father, have rewritten all the Holy Scriptures!” boasted the second.

"And you're useless," came the reply.

Then the third exclaimed:

- And I, father, do miracles!

“And it’s no good for you,” the elder tells him, “for you, too, have driven love away from yourself.

If you want to be saved, have love in your heart, do mercy, and then you will be saved, for:

If anyone says that I love God, but hates his brother, there is a lie ... And this commandment of the Imams is from God, but love God, love your brother too (1 John 4:20.21).

***

Legend of Saint Julian

Julian brings an unknown traveler to his hut, arranged in the very thicket of an impenetrable forest. His body is completely covered with disgusting leprosy. Thin shoulders, chest and arms literally disappear under the scales of purulent acne. From the bluish lips comes fetid and thick, like fog, breath. The traveler is tormented by hunger and thirst. Julian willingly satisfies them and at the same time sees how the table, ladle and knife handle, which the leper grabbed, become covered with suspicious stains.

The patient's lifeless body grows cold. Julian does his best to warm him by the fire. But the leper whispers in a fading voice: “On your bed…” and demands that Julian lay down beside him and warm him with the warmth of his body.

Julian implicitly fulfills everything. The leper gasps. “I'm dying!” he exclaims. “Hug me, warm me with all your being!”

Julian, without any hint of disgust, embraces him, kisses him on his stinking lips.

Then, - the legend tells, - the leper squeezed Julian in his arms, and his eyes suddenly shone with a bright light, like stars, his breath became sweeter than the reverence of a rose. Unearthly joy filled Julian's soul, and the one who held him in his arms grew, grew ...

The roof soared, the vault of stars spread around, and Julian rose into the azure face to face with our Lord Jesus Christ, who carried him into the sky ...

***

This is what love is, this is how all passions are conquered!

At its core, love is always sacrificial. When you sacrifice yourself for the sake of your neighbor, go to hardships, lose some of your benefits - you are close to this feeling. If this, of course, is not a coincidence, but the state of your soul.

We are far from this lofty sacrificial feeling. Today we all vulgarized: love, love, and friendship. But even in modern relationships, as it is not surprising, there is a feeling of sacrificial love.

In every true love there is necessarily a religious element. Agree, as soon as we love deeply, we say - "forever". Because then we clearly feel that this love, which has filled our entire spiritual being, will not die with us, but will be transferred with us to another life.

That is why great and unfortunate love seeks refuge in the sky, in dreams of uniting there with those from whom the earth has separated, and speaks like the famous Schiller heroine Tekla:

There is a better land where we are free to love,

This is where my soul has moved everything...

Great Russian lyricist Athanasius Fet, whose poetry is almost alien to religious motives, nevertheless left a poem of crystal purity, which depicts a dream of a man’s beloved girl in solitude at night, in front of an icon:

Lady of Zion, before You

In the darkness my lamp is lit.

Everyone is sleeping around. My soul is full

Prayer and sweet silence.

You are close to me. Submissive soul

I pray for the one with whom my life is clear.

Let her bloom. Be happy she

Whether with another chosen one, alone or with me ...

Oh, no! .. Forgive the influence of the disease.

You know us: we are destined for each other

By mutual prayers to save ...

So give strength, stretch out holy hands,

So that I could brighter at the midnight hour of separation

I will light a lamp before You!

How well, how deeply it is said, and how wonderfully it expresses the ultimate goal of all Christian affection: “We are destined to save each other by mutual prayers”…

Fate can separate people. Two people, seemingly created for each other, may be divorced in different directions. But what fate cannot take away from anyone is the right to pray for a beloved soul.

Time has no power over real feelings. There is an exceptional power of feelings when they love even more strongly in separation, when souls feel each other at a distance: they worry if a loved one falls ill or troubles and sorrows fall on him, rejoice when there is success and peace of mind.

Our time is the time of general depravity. If our distant ancestors saw today's youth - almost completely naked girls, as if offering themselves to the first person they meet, I think they would not have endured such a sight!

But not only obscene appearance, but also obscene behavior of young people! Under the influence of Western pernicious culture, relationships have become vulgar, the secret in the relationship between a man and a woman disappears, erotica and sex have become commonplace. Fornication and adultery are the norm.

But, dear friends, you are not disingenuous before God! No matter how we attribute everything to time and morals, we will have to answer in all severity: children will be born sick or handicapped, married life will not work out in the future, but only list all the consequences of a sinful life!

We must deeply understand what time we are living in, how little we really know and feel about our Orthodoxy, how far we are not only from the solid moral foundations of such distant times, but also from the morality of ordinary Christians who lived a hundred years ago.

We also wonder: why do the great calamities that befall us from everywhere come about? For the sake of our sins, the vengeance of God beats us, but we do not want to admit our sinfulness. We do not want to repent and improve.

Why is it important to repent - go to church for confession?

Because if we sincerely repent of our sins, the Lord forgives us. Why in the Church? Because the priest, with the power given by God, has the right to forgive sins: he covers you with epitrachelion and reads a special prayer.

Humanity has received a holy gift - the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Through repentance and Communion, the way to salvation was opened for countless great sinners. We would all just sincerely repent!

CREATIVE WORKSHOP

Dramatization of “Tales of the Fisherman and the Fish” by A.S. Pushkin.

MATERIALS

Gospel

Law of God

"Spiritual Conversations" T.16. No. 42, p. 359

"Spiritual Seeds". Spiritual and moral reading for the people, schools and families. M.. 1995 - from the reprint edition of the Holy Vvedensky Monastery of Optina Hermitage.

"Sin and repentance of the last times." Archimandrite Lazar. M., 2002 .

Grains of spiritual wisdom. M.. 1993 .

I. Ilyin. “I look into life. Book of Thoughts. Moscow: Athos, 2000

Poetry: A. Fet, Schiller, V. Ivanov, prot. Vladimir Borozdinov

Q?Another story is known about the first red testicle.
Mary Magdalene, like other disciples of the Lord, went from country to country and everywhere told about Jesus Christ, about how He rose from the dead and about what He taught people. One day she came to Rome and there she entered the palace. Once upon a time, Maria was noble and rich, they knew her in the palace and let her in to the emperor Tiberius. In those days, when people came to the emperor, they always brought him some kind of gift. The rich brought jewels, and the poor brought what they could. And so Mary came now, when she had nothing else but faith in Jesus Christ. She stopped in front of the emperor, handed him a simple testicle and said loudly:
- Christ is risen!
The emperor was surprised and said:
“How can anyone rise from the dead!” It's hard to believe it. It's as hard as believing that this white testicle can turn red!
And while he was still talking, the testicle began to change color: it turned pink, darkened and finally became bright red!

Special Easter rites include blessing arthos. Artos is a prosphora with a cross or the Resurrection of Christ depicted on it.

The historical origin of artos is as follows. The apostles, as usual, ate a meal with the Lord, and after His ascension to heaven, they set aside a piece of bread for their teacher, thereby demonstrating their faith in the constant presence of Jesus Christ among the disciples.

By preparing the artos, the Church imitates the apostles. At the same time, artos reminds us that Jesus Christ, by the death of the Cross and Resurrection, became for us the True Bread of Life.

After the Liturgy, eggs, Easter cakes and Easter cakes brought by believers are blessed (according to tradition, the Easter meal begins with the singing of the prayer “Christ is Risen” and eating the blessed eggs, Easter cake and Easter cake). Remembering the great blessings rendered to the human race by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the ancient Christians extended a helping hand and beneficence to the orphans, the poor and the poor. The distribution of money and consecrated products to the poor, in order to make them participants in the universal joy on this bright holiday, remains evidence of ancient Christian charity on the days of Holy Pascha.

Features of the Easter service

In the consciousness of the Orthodox Church, the event of the Resurrection of Christ is one continuous delight, one continuous joy. Not a single holiday is celebrated so extraordinarily lightly and solemnly as the feast of the bright Resurrection of Christ. Therefore, the Paschal Divine Liturgy we have is the only and inimitable. It is one continuous rejoicing.

If we began to cite the amazing hymns of this church service, extraordinary in its content, then we would simply have to rewrite it in its entirety, because it is difficult to decide which of the hymns to give preference to, they are all good and expressive.

Before Paschal Matins, the rite of Midnight Office is performed, where on the 9th ode of the canon Don't cry for me Mother the shroud is carried away from the middle of the temple to the altar and rests on the Holy See until the Giving of Pascha.

At the end of the Midnight Office, Easter Matins begins with a procession with the singing of the Sunday stichera of the 6th tone Your Resurrection O Christ the Savior. In front of the closed doors of the temple after the vozlas Glory to the Saints... there comes a moment that everyone is waiting for: the clergy sing the troparion of Pascha Christ is risen from the dead... and people pick up these long-awaited words.

Easter Matins is extremely festive, we perceive it as “holidays”, and at the same time it does not have any of the usual, regular signs of a festive divine service: it does not sing doxology, there is no polyeleos - all that is usually an integral part of the festive matins. But at the Easter service, almost everything is sung. During the singing of the Paschal canon, the priests incense the people with the words “Christ is risen!”, The people answer: “Truly He is risen!” All the decoration of the temple, the vestments of the clergy - festive, bright red. The royal gates of the altar are open throughout Bright Week. The entire Easter service is an unceasing, solemn hymn to the bright Resurrection of Christ. The victory of life over death. The reconciliation of God with man and man with God... On the bright Easter night, heaven and earth merge together, angels and people come into contact, and any barrier between them disappears. The majestic and significant Easter service reveals to the believer everything that in Christianity is mysterious, lofty and saving for the soul, bright, joyful and comforting for the heart. It is precisely in the moments of the most majestic Paschal service that Christian delight captures the soul of a person completely and dominates in it over all its other thoughts, feelings and aspirations.

At this service we hear the Announcement of St. John Chrysostom, amazing in content: All who were pious and God-loving, let them enjoy this good and bright celebration. And all who have been prudent, let them enter this day into the joy of their Lord. Who worked and fasted, let him receive a reward today. The Lord accepts the last and the first on this day with equal joy. May the rich and the poor rejoice with each other on this day. Diligent and lazy, let them honor this day equally. Those who fasted and those who did not, let them all rejoice alike. Let no one on this Easter day weep over his misery, because a common kingdom has appeared. Let no one cry about their sins, because on this day God gave people His forgiveness. Let no one be afraid of death, the death of Christ has freed all.

· “Christ is Risen!” - we say with a feeling of spiritual delight and awe, and we want to pronounce these words endlessly, listening in response to two other holy words “Truly Risen!”

· LITERATURE

·

· Gospel

·

· Law of God

·

· Deacon A. Kuraev. "School theology" - M., 1998

·

· Orthodox reading. M., 2001- 2004 . Y. Vorobievsky.

·

· "Road to the Apocalypse" M., 1999 .

·

· "The Unknown Light of Faith". M., 2002 .

·

· "Star of Bethlehem" M., 2000.

· Unknown world of faith. Edition of the Sretensky Monastery., M., 2002 .

·

· Spiritual poetry. M., 1990.

teacher Justin Popovich. "Progress in the Mill of Death". Minsk.,

2001 .

Envy accompanies man throughout his history. Already in the fourth chapter of the book of Genesis, that is, immediately after the description of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise, the tragedy of their firstborn is told. Cain is jealous of brother Abel because God accepted the latter's sacrifice and "did not regard" his own. The continuation is known: Cain does not listen to the voice of God, lures his brother into the field and kills. As punishment, the Lord dooms the criminal to exile. What do the Fathers of the Church say about this truly murderous sin?

1. John Chrysostom

St. John Chrysostom compares an envious person with a dung beetle, a pig, and even a demon. According to him, envy is direct enmity against God, who favors this or that person. In this sense, the envious person is even worse than the demons: they harm people, while the envious person wishes harm to his own kind.

“Envy is worse than enmity,” says the saint. - A warring one, when the reason for which the quarrel occurred is forgotten, stops the hostility; the envious will never become a friend. Moreover, the former fights openly, and the latter - secretly; the former can often indicate a sufficient reason for enmity, while the latter can indicate nothing else but his madness and satanic disposition.

An example from life. Two people apply for a place with a good salary and career prospects. If the spiritual demands of these people are low, and the material needs are high, then, most likely, competition will arise between them, and against its background, an explicitly or implicitly expressed conflict.

On the part of the one who receives the coveted position, the conflict will be settled as soon as he takes the chair. But the “loser”, if he is at all prone to envy, will aggravate the conflict even more and will certainly fall into this sin - even when he finds another job, he will remember that this worthless person has taken HIS place.

Envy really resembles insanity in its most medical sense: an obsessive state. One way to get rid of an obsessive state is to try to rationalize it.

A person is successful, which means that God is glorified through him. If this person is your neighbor, it means that you are successful through him, and God is also glorified through you. If this person is your enemy, then you need to strive to make him your friend - already for the sake of glorifying God through him.

2. John Cassian the Roman

The common opinion for the entire Holy Tradition is that it was out of envy that the serpent took up arms against Eve. It was envy of man's unique status as the image and likeness of God that forced him to make efforts to overthrow him. Moreover, the devil provokes the foremother Eve to envy: “You will be like gods, knowing good and evil.” It is the envy of these non-existent gods that pushes the first woman to violate the commandment of God. So, indeed, satanic vice.

St. John Cassian the Roman categorically asserts that envy cannot be overcome by one's own strength. In response to virtue, the envious person only becomes embittered. Thus, the benevolence and helpfulness of Joseph further hardened his eleven brothers. When he went to feed them in the field, they decided to kill his brother - the idea of ​​selling him into slavery was already a softening of their original intention ...

Old Testament history repeats itself at all times, albeit without criminality. In many teenage groups there are guys who will call an excellent student explaining difficult tasks to narrow-minded classmates a “nerd” - and it’s good if they don’t put chewing gum, or even a button, on a chair ...

You should not despair. St. John Cassian gives universal advice: to pray.

“So that the basilisk (devil) does not exterminate everything that is alive in us, which, as it were, is inspired by the vital action of the Holy Spirit, with one wound only of this evil (envy), let us constantly ask for God's help, for which nothing is impossible.”

3. Basil the Great

Prayer is no less hard work than, for example, exercises in fasting. Not everyone is given it without proper training, and the battle with envy is necessary here and now. What to do?

Saint Basil the Great gives two very simple pieces of advice. First: to realize that there is nothing to envy at all. Wealth, fame, honor and respect are absolutely earthly things, which, moreover, must be learned to use correctly.

“Still unworthy of our competition - the rich for the sake of his wealth, the ruler for the sake of the greatness of his rank, the wise for the sake of abundance in the word. These are the instruments of virtue for those who use them well, but do not contain bliss in themselves ... And who is, who is not amazed by the worldly as something great, envy can never come close to him.

The second advice is to “sublimate” your envy into a creative transformation of yourself, the achievement of many virtues. True, this recommendation is suitable for dealing with a special kind of envy associated with ambition:

“If you certainly want glory, you want to be more visible than many and you can’t stand being second (for this can also be a reason for envy), then direct your ambition, like some kind of stream, to the acquisition of virtue. Do not under any pretense desire to get rich in any way and deserve the approval of anything worldly. For it is not in your will. But be just, chaste, prudent, courageous, patient in suffering for piety.

Even if you do not touch on high virtues, then the advice is more than practical. Suppose two young men are fond of playing the guitar. One becomes a rock star in his city, and the other plays three chords in the transition. For the second, it’s easiest to start envying a successful friend - it’s more difficult, firstly, to estimate the risks (Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix were colossally talented and wildly popular, which did not protect them from an ugly and terrible death, but only stimulated a tragic end), and secondly, to learn additional chords and go beyond the favorite transition.

A gradual increase in professionalism, tied to training and self-discipline, may not elevate you to Olympus, but it will allow you to develop, play and compose music for your own pleasure.

4. Theophan the Recluse

If it is rather difficult to resist an envious person with a kind attitude, as the Holy Scripture directly testifies (the above example of Joseph and his brothers, King Saul, who continues to envy David and persecute him despite his humility ...), then the envious person himself can and must overcome his passion through “I don’t want to” is precisely a change in behavior in relation to my “victim”. No matter how hard it is.

“Well-wishers, in whom feelings of sympathy and compassion prevail over selfish ones, do not suffer from envy. This points the way to the extinguishment of envy, and to everyone who is tormented by it. It is necessary to hasten to arouse goodwill, especially towards the one whom you envy, and to reveal this by deed - immediately envy will subside. A few repetitions of the same kind, and with God's help, it will completely calm down, ”says St. Theophan the Recluse.

In other words, when compassion and sympathy for one's neighbor becomes a habit, there will be no place for envy.

Almost a textbook example: a lonely young lady, eaten by envy of successful gossips, suddenly finds out that her prosperous, married and rich friend has a drug addict husband, and all the well-being is ostentatious. If the process of envy has not yet been launched too strongly, the envious person (perhaps, at first, and not without gloating) rushes to help her friend ... and in the process of joint phone calls to drug treatment clinics, friendly conversations and mutual tears in the kitchen, she is so imbued with the grief of her neighbor that there is no more envy remembers. Compassion for grief is superior to envy for success.

5. Maxim the Confessor

By the way, this advice has another side: if possible, do not give a reason for envy. If you do not want to be envied, do not boast of your success, wealth, intelligence and happiness.

“There is no other way to calm him down, except by hiding it from him. But if this is useful to many, but causes sorrow to him, then which side should be neglected? One must take the side of what is useful to many; but if possible, do not neglect it and do not allow yourself to be carried away by the deceit of passion, giving help not to passion, but to those who suffer from it, ”recommends an approach with reasoning, St. Maximus the Confessor.

He also notes that one should get rid of this passion oneself according to the commandment of the Apostle: “rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15).

The first is more difficult. Pitying the unfortunate is a natural movement of the soul. To rejoice in someone else's happiness is a conscious action and dictated by sincere love, when you truly treat your neighbor as yourself. Only the author of the famous "Hundreds of Love" could give such advice.

True, sometimes examples of his performance are found in life. A lonely woman in cramped living conditions worries for a long time that she does not have children, works with adoptive parents, begins to rejoice for happy children and their new parents ... And then suddenly, unexpectedly, circumstances develop in her favor, and she manages to adopt her child.

6. Gregory the Theologian

As we can see, the Fathers of the Church give monotonous advice on fighting envy: pray, rejoice for your neighbor, grow in virtue. None of the teachers of the Church conducts master classes on overcoming envy. Precisely because the birth of this passion can be traced from the Bible, precisely because it is obviously inexcusable as a direct offspring of the devil, the main weapon against it is denunciation.

St. Gregory the Theologian believed that envy, oddly enough, is not devoid of justice - already in this life it punishes the sinner.

The fathers say that an envious person's face becomes withered, he looks bad ... In our life, an envious person is easy to recognize by pursed lips and wrinkles. He is dissatisfied with life, he always grumbles (especially at the object of his passion). I will say more: many diseases that are psychosomatic in nature, from pancreatitis to asthma, are aggravated precisely in the envious person. “It’s not fair that another is more successful than me!” - this thought eats the unfortunate, not only his soul, but also his body.

This is bad justice, infernal. This alone should turn a person away from such a pernicious passion.

“Oh, if envy were exterminated between people, this ulcer for those possessed by it, this poison for those suffering from it, this one of the most unjust and at the same time just passions - an unjust passion, because it disturbs the peace of all good people, and just, because it dries feeding her!" exclaims Saint Gregory.

7. Efrem Sirin

The basis of envy is the so-called "agonal spirit" - the ability of a person to be in constant struggle, competition, rivalry, aggression. Agonality was a characteristic feature of ancient culture (hence a large number of games and competitions) and is present in modern life in a very primitive form: you can compete in whoever has a cooler iPhone or more fashionable clothes.

The word "agonality" is the same root as αγωνία (struggle). This word we call the near-death state, the body's attempt to fight for survival, the last convulsive breaths. This is not a coincidence - the struggle for life is a direct consequence of the presence of death in the world. And death was brought into the world by sin and the devil. Paradoxically, struggle, which in nature is a manifestation of life, in the human world itself is death.

This is especially obvious when someone "competes" not in real life values, but in the external, expressed in the primitive "I want to be cooler." Thus, a person becomes akin to the devil - the same “agonal” spirit with him.

“And whoever is stung by envy and rivalry is pathetic, because he is an accomplice of the devil, by whom death entered the world (Wisdom 2:24), recalls St. Ephraim the Syrian. “Whoever has envy and rivalry is an adversary to everyone, because he does not want another to be preferred to him.”

The same saint emphasizes: the envious person has already been defeated, he is tormented by any other person's joy, while the lucky one who has escaped this passion is glad for the success of another.

Let not the comparison with death seem drawn to anyone. It is enough to look not even around, but inside yourself.

“Why does the neighbor have a new apartment and a car, and I work hard from morning to night - and I have nothing?” - a really hard-working person is indignant - and he does not have time to live behind these thoughts. Instead of spending the day off meeting with his mother, friends, girlfriend (not to mention going to church), he takes work home, works even more, but he doesn’t get an apartment or a car, and envy eating more and more...

8. Elijah (Minyatiy)

This passion runs the risk of persecuting to death - either the envious person or his victim. In both cases, death is not a deliverance. An envious person who has departed into eternity in this sin will be condemned for him, and Cain is doomed to exile and contempt. St. Elijah Minyatiy tells the dramatic story of Empress Eudokia, the wife of Emperor Theodosius, slandered by envious people: unjustly accused of adultery, she was expelled and sent into exile, and her friend Pavlinian was executed.

“And no one got any pleasure from this,” St. Elijah sums up gloomily.

The saint draws attention: the envious person does not see the good at all. Any positive example annoys him. Envious eyes, "if they see (good), are filled with tears and try not to see, as if involuntarily closing themselves." But at the same time, it is impossible to hide from them - the envious person watches his victim, cannot tear himself away from it, although it would be easier for him if he switched his attention to another object.

Indeed, an obsessive state.

9. Paisius Svyatogorets

Elder Paisius the Holy Mountaineer has not yet been officially glorified by the Church, but his works and advice have already firmly entered the treasury of Holy Tradition. For a modern person, his recommendations may be the most useful.

The elder believed that envy is simply ridiculous and can be overcome by elementary common sense.

“A person needs a little head work to overcome envy. Great feats are not required, because envy is a spiritual passion.

Indeed, you don't have to be an Einstein to understand that your longing for someone else's Mercedes is eating you up, and even a Toyota won't appear in your garage. Especially if you don't have a garage either. Stealing someone else's Mercedes is not only sinful, but also criminally punishable, so you should not envy, but work. And if the salary is small, be content with a bicycle. But the legs will be healthy.

But the most important thing that Elder Paisius draws attention to is that envy is a sin against one of the ten commandments. Even the most non-church person respects the Decalogue, if not on the natural, then on the cultural level. Killing is criminal, praying to idols is stupid, taking a spouse away from a family is immoral, stealing is disgusting... So, envy is also bad.

“If God said: “Do not covet ... everything that is the essence of your neighbor,” then how can we covet something that belongs to another? What, we will not even keep the basic commandments? Then our life will turn into hell.”

10. Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann

Father Alexander Schmemann has not yet been glorified as a saint, and it is unlikely that his canonization will be a matter of the near future - this, however, does not prevent many, many Christians from listening to his opinion on many issues.

Above, we talked about agonalism - a trait inherent in European culture, competitiveness, which underlies, among other things, the passion of envy. Father Alexander Schmemann goes further: any comparison, from his point of view, is a source of evil. Comparison of one in favor of the other suggests that everything should be “justice”, or rather, everyone and everyone should be equal.

“Comparison never achieves anything, it is the source of evil, that is, envy (why am I not like him), then malice and, finally, rebellion and division. But this is the exact genealogy of the devil. There is nothing positive here at any point, at any stage, everything is negative from beginning to end. And in this sense, our culture is "demonic", because it is based on comparison.

Comparison and envy abolish differences.

“Since comparison always, mathematically, leads to experience, knowledge of inequality, it always leads to protest,” continues the theologian. “Equality is affirmed as the inappropriateness of any differences, and since they exist, to the fight against them, that is, to violent equalization and, even more terrible, to the denial of them as the very essence of life.”

There is such an anecdote: in 1917, the granddaughter of a Decembrist hears noise in the street and sends the maid to find out what is happening.

“There is a revolution, madame.

- O! Revolution is great! My grandfather also wanted to make a revolution! Find out what the protesters want?

They want no more rich people.

- How strange! My grandfather wanted there to be no poor.

With all the absurdity, the anecdote is quite vital. Envy, driven to the limit, does not want happiness for itself, but misfortune for another. So that he was as bad as me. So that he lived on one salary. Therefore, Schmemann calls the very principle of equality and equalization demonic.

“There is not and cannot be equality in the world, that it was created by love, and not by principles. And the world craves love, not equality, and nothing - we know this - kills love so much, does not replace it with hatred so much as precisely this equality constantly imposed on the world as a goal and "value".

In short, there is no one to envy. You will never be like him. And that's great.

There are sins in which a person admits easily: yes, he is ambitious (proud), irritable (and who is not like that?), discouraged (one can regret it). But rarely does anyone admit to envy.
Why is this such a “shameful” sin? How to deal with envy?
M.I.Ignatiev. And life is so good, 1917.

Archpriest Konstantin OSTROVSKY, Rector of the Dormition Church in the city of Krasnogorsk, Moscow Region, Dean of the Churches of the Krasnogorsk District of the Moscow Diocese, answers:

Envy refers, I would say, to hidden passions. In the depths of the heart, it sits in every person as long as there is pride in him, but envy is felt only when someone has what I want, but do not have. Such coincidences do not always happen (if I don’t have and don’t want to, then I don’t envy, and if I have what I want, I don’t envy either), so people don’t always feel envy.

Consider an example. If all people of the same social status as me are awarded medals, and me - a diploma (we believe that a medal is more honorable), I will feel envy. As a Christian, I will rebuke it in myself, reproach myself, repent, but I will definitely feel it. Why? After all, diploma is also honorable? Honorable, but in comparison with the medal - a humiliation, so they gave me a sign that I was not good, insignificant. And my sense of self-worth will suffer. Not self-esteem, when a person sincerely remembers that he is the son of the Heavenly King by grace, but a sense of significance, importance, desirability, love, a sense of superiority over other people rooted in pride. It is poisonously sweet and inherent in everyone, except, of course, the humble, fulfilling the commandments of love for God and neighbor.

In the example of awards, the infringement of a sense of self-worth "lies on the surface." But let's take another case. Two people court a girl, she marries one of them. The other will not only suffer, but also envy. If she had gone to a convent, he would have suffered, but not envied. Because there would be no moment of preference for his opponent.

One won 10 thousand rubles in the lottery, and the other 10 million. Will there be envy? Of course yes. But who humiliated the winner of the lottery 10 thousand? God! If in the previous examples the envious person was “humiliated” by people (bosses, beloved), then here the “masks are torn off”: God is the offender. In fact, when we envy people, we always rebel against God. The devil, Cain, the Jews who betrayed Christ to be crucified... and we.

The murder of Abel by Cain. Mosaic, Monreale Cathedral. 12th century

The less we become attached to vain earthly things, the less will be the ground for envy (that is, the fight against God) on our part. The deeper I understand that earthly signs of honor are nothing in themselves, that it is important to do the will of God, and earthly reward is not a true good, the less envy will torment me, the more successfully I will fight it with God's help. The more I trust in God in my earthly affairs, the stronger my faith that God loves us and arranges for everyone what is useful to him, the less reason for envy I will have.

But besides earthly happiness, there are also spiritual gifts. As if you can’t call them vain blessings? But, if we appropriate God’s spiritual gifts for ourselves, treat them not as the power of God, which through us and in us, transforming and purifying, acts, but as, albeit given by God, but to their gifts, they become vain and harmful for us , multiplying only reasons for pride. That is why God usually does not give us special spiritual gifts, or gives us, but from us in secret, so that with our pride we do not turn God's gifts into spiritual poison.

And if we talk about the eternal fate of man, then the eternal fate of each of us is exclusively in his own hands. God sends to everyone, everything, at every moment of time the most useful for the salvation of his soul. There is never anything to be jealous of. Humble yourself before the Heavenly Father, accept everything from Him with gratitude - this opportunity is given to everyone, no one is offended here.

- How to deal with envy?

We, proud and spiritually relaxed people, need to fight envy by denouncing this passion in ourselves, realizing it in ourselves, honestly admitting that I envied here, without self-justification and self-pity.

In thoughts, you need to repent and keep yourself from acting out of passion. This applies to all passions, including envy. For example, if someone was praised, and it hurt me, and I try to somehow condemn this person in a conversation, directly or indirectly offend, mock, ironize, etc. (there are many options) - in this case, I act out of passion. If I keep my reaction, I do not sin with envy in deed. This is already not bad (unless, of course, you mentally reproach yourself for pride).

Compassionate patience with sorrows is also necessary. If we are less than the other, love, praise, celebrate, then it is hard for us. But we must endure, and at the same time not grumble. Modern man is saved, read, by sorrows alone. God gives strength to few people for spiritual exploits, which we read about in the Fathers and the Lives of the Saints, so let us at least without grumbling, and even better with gratitude, endure everything He sends. If you have visited grief (of course, you don’t need to provoke it yourself), you must say: thank you, Lord, that you have deprived me of this thing, this consolation, what I so wanted, but do not deprive me of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Fighting passions with the help of opposite virtues, as recommended by some holy fathers, is for those who are spiritually successful, and, unfortunately, I am far from such a measure. When an ordinary person, that is, a proud person, begins to struggle with some passions in this way, then pride only grows.

Sometimes people ask whether to confess to a person that you are envious of him, and in this case they refer to the words of the Apostle James “confess to one another in transgressions” (James 5, 16). But such frankness can cause mental trauma to a person, for a long time, or even forever, ruin relations with him. It is necessary to struggle internally with passions with self-reproach, complacent patience, prayer for softening and purification of one’s heart, but not everyone needs to open their impure heart, but only to those who can bear our thoughts, from whom we hope to receive help - prayer and spiritual advice.

The Holy Scriptures say: “Do not open your heart to every man, lest he thank you badly” (Sir. 9:22). And the Monk Seraphim of Sarov in chapter 17 "On the preservation of the heart" wrote: "Do not reveal to everyone the secrets of your heart." True, in that context he had in mind the good secrets of the heart, but this also applies to evil secrets.


Bosch, Jerome. Table with scenes depicting the seven deadly sins and the "four last things". Detail: Envy. 1475-1480.

But if a person does not understand, does not see in himself the passion of envy? For example, there is such a successful, capacious word “irritation”, in which you can repent and receive forgiveness, but it is already more difficult to understand what is the cause of irritation. After all, looking deeper into yourself is scary. And here the question may arise: is it necessary to help a person, to suggest: but you are jealous!

There can be no general recipes here. It happens that a person will expose someone in his passion, and the person's eyes will suddenly be opened, so that he will receive great benefit from the exposure. But it happens that you tell someone the obvious truth and, it seems, with good intentions, and the person will not improve, but will only become embittered and fall into despair.

I remember in my church youth, while still being an altar boy, I told the truth in the eyes of one of my acquaintances, but she did not accept my truth and only got upset. I told my spiritual father, Archpriest Georgy Breev, about this, and he answered me very gently (he told me the truth, by the way): “It’s too early for us to denounce something.” So, I remember that incident for the rest of my life, but I still can’t correct myself, although now I try to look more at myself than at those around me.