On Not Being Deceived and On Body & Soul by St. Ignatius Brianchaninov

… Study and learn the real situation appointed for you by the Providence of God during your earthly pilgrimage. Do not allow fallen spirits to deceive and seduce you when they set before you earthly prosperity in an attractive, false picture, and suggest that you should desire and strive for it, so as to steal and rob you of your eternal treasure. Do not expect and do not seek praise and approval from human society. Do not hanker after fame and glory. Do not expect and do not seek an untroubled life with plenty of latitude and scope, replete with every convenience. That is not your lot. Do not seek and do not expect love from people. Seek earnestly and demand from yourself love and compassion for others. Be content with the fact that a few true servants of God whom you meet from time to time in the course of your life love you, and with love and interest approve of your conduct and glorify God for you. Such meetings were not frequent even in the flourishing times of Christianity; lately they have become extremely rare.


~St Ignatius Brianchaninov

At man’s procreation in his present fallen state, the body serves the soul as the swaddling cloth serves a newborn. The swaddled body of a newborn forms correctly, but without the bindings his organs, being soft, can become misshapen. So too the soul, clothed in the body, covered and separated by it from the world of spirits, gradually forms itself by studying God’s law, or, which is the same, by studying Christianity and receiving the ability to distinguish good from evil (Hebrews 5: 14). Then the spiritual perception of spirits is granted and, if it conforms to God’s purpose guiding the soul, the sensory perception is then granted, since deception and seduction of the soul are now less dangerous, while experience and knowledge are beneficial. When our souls are separated from the body by physical death, we once again enter the state and community of the spirits. It is clear then that for a safe entrance into the world of spirits, a timely self-teaching of God’s law is necessary. It is exactly for this learning that we are given a certain time, determined by God for each man, to wander the earth. That journey is called human life.


~St Ignatius Brianchaninov