How to deal with laziness Orthodoxy. How to deal with laziness - a useful recipe. The lazy one always finds a reason not to work hard

“Idleness, or withdrawal from work,” writes St. Tikhon, “is itself a sin, for it is contrary to the commandment of God, which commands us to eat our bread in the sweat of our brow (Genesis 3:19). Consequently, those who live in idleness and feed on other people's labors will not stop sinning until then, until they give themselves to blessed labors ”(3, 172; 27, 759).

Idleness is sinful not only in itself, but also “it can be the cause of many evils,” for “to an idle heart, only to an idle house, marked and adorned, the enemy devil conveniently approaches. Hence drunkenness, fornication, evil conversations, condemnation, ridicule, slander, blasphemy, card games, deceptions, quarrels, fights, excessive luxury, as Solomon says: in lust there is every idle(Prov. 13, 4) "(27, 759). Idleness harms not only the soul, but also the body. “Those who live in idleness are subject to all sorts of ailments and infirmities, as water is corrupted, which has no flow. A person who does not work cannot take food for sweetness, and sleep without labor is restless. Those who do not want to work from the lower strata “are subject to ridicule and censure of people” and “are forced to live in poverty and poverty (Prov. 6, 11)” (3, 173). “From this vice, the weak, the aged, and those kept in chains are turned off, whom Christians are obliged to feed together” (4, 226).

In order to avoid idleness and its consequences, one must remember that time is more precious than any treasure, especially for a Christian, as it gives an opportunity (sometimes the last) of repentance, which at the end of earthly life it will be impossible to bring. “Then the time will be judgment, not repentance, severity, not pardon. You should certainly give an answer for the very time that was lost. For the present time is bargaining (Matthew 26:14-30)” (3:173).

“Just as not all labor is useful, so not all idleness is vicious,” says the saint. Not salvific and downright sinful are the labors of those who do wrong: those who steal and take away someone else's, insidious and envious flatterers, merciless usurers. On the contrary, “if there is blissful peace, when the mind from evil and soul-damaging thoughts, the heart rests from the lusts of the evil ones, the eyes do not look at anything, the ears do not listen to anything, the tongue and mouth do not say anything, the hands do nothing that is contrary to God’s holy law” (3, 174; 27, 758). But such peace in reality is labor, to which the saint calls. “Always be in good works, that is: either read books, or pray, or be in contemplation of God, or do some manual work. The enemy approaches no one more conveniently than one who lives in idleness” (27, 759).

Idleness is inevitably followed by despondency. “Luta is this passion,” writes the saint. “She also fights those people who have bread and everything else ready, and especially those who live in solitude” (2, 237). As “inflicted” by the enemy of our salvation in order to turn a Christian back to the “peace,” despondency hinders prayer, closes the heart, preventing it from accepting the word of God, and then God especially expects a feat from a person (27, 1057). In the fight against this passion, “I advise you to repair the following,” the saint writes to one monk. - 1. Convince yourself and compel yourself to prayer and to every good deed, although you do not want to. 2. Diligence will bring variability: either pray, or do something with your hands, or read a book, or talk about your soul and eternal salvation, and about other things. 3. The memory of death that comes unexpectedly, the memory of the Judgment of Christ, eternal torment and eternal bliss drives away despondency. 4. Pray and sigh to the Lord. He helps those who work, not those who lie dormant” (2, 237). “When you succumb to despondency and boredom,” the saint writes elsewhere, “then greater despondency will rise up against you and shamefully marry you out of the monastery. And when you stand against him and win in the prescribed way, then after the victory there will always follow joy, consolation and great spiritual strength; and those who strive always alternate between sorrow and joy” (27, 1057-1058).

Sadness is akin to despondency, and in the works of the saint they are used as synonyms. Christians should not grieve “that they do not have well-being in this world, that they do not have wealth, glory, reverence, that the world hates, persecutes and embitters them. They should resist this sadness and should not give it a place in their hearts. Rather, rejoice in the fact that they are known not to be children of this world, but God's. “Worldly sorrow” is useless, for it cannot return or give anything of what it mourns.

The saint identifies laziness with both idleness and despondency. It adjoins the first as not doing what should be done (to work both externally and in the soul); to the second - as relaxation, intensifying despondency. To show the perniciousness of laziness, the saint uses the following example. “The farmers are lazy and living in idleness,” he writes, “having seen the brethren of their labors, gathering and rejoicing in the fruits of their labors, they grieve, grieve, grieve and curse themselves that they did not work in the summer, and so they have no fruits: so careless Christians, seeing others for the feat of faith and labor, lifted up in piety, blessed and glorified by the Lord, they will weep and mourn inconsolably, and will curse themselves for not wanting to work in a temporary life. Coming from unrepentant sins and the devil, the relaxation of the soul is healed by resisting the temptations allowed by God to fall into laziness (27, 792, 447).

Unhealed in a timely manner, sadness and despondency can lead to despair, which the saint speaks of as an inevitable consequence of a sinful life and a grave sin against the mercy of God (27, 639). But it is precisely through the hope of God's mercy that the saint admonishes, first of all, to resist the thoughts of despair, this "heavy and final blow of the devil." Christian hope is like an anchor that holds a ship in a storm and keeps it from sinking. “When you think about your sins,” says the saint, “think about the mercy of God, which, when you lived in sins and angered God with your sins, led you to repentance; does it now desire to destroy you, when you have ceased from sins? In many places of Holy Scripture, a sinner yearning for repentance is encouraged: For the Son of Man has come to seek and save the lost(Luke 19:10); For God did not send His Son into the world, let the world judge, but let the world be saved by Him(John 3:17)." “God Himself teaches us how it is fitting for us to repent,” the saint continues, recalling the penitential passages in the Psalter. - How ill will he not hear the penitents, Who gave the image, how to repent, ask and pray? On the contrary, Judas, "knowing the majesty of sin, but not knowing the majesty of God's mercy, strangled himself" (27, 640).

Knowing from experience how dangerous the temptation of despair is, the saint again and again calls to resist it. “Fear of despair,” he says, “although it comes from the devil, however, by God’s advice and permission” is allowed for the benefit of the person himself, but “knows the power of sin, God’s wrath against sin and sees how strong the torment of the devil is.” Further, such a “frequent devilish temptation by the most dangerous and skillful (more cautious and experienced - I. N.) creates a Christian” who opposes him. One should not despair because “such thoughts happen not by will, but against our will; For this reason, they are not imputed to us as a sin, ”and they cannot harm the soul. They “humble and contrite the heart, turn away from the world, its vanity and charms, move to heartfelt and fervent prayer”, encourage “to ask God for help and deliverance.” Why “the more this temptation continues”, “the more benefit it will bring to the soul” (2, 196-197; 4, 284-285; 6, 325).

Not only should he not lose heart, but rejoice and give thanks to God, he who feels the thoughts of despair in salvation and fights against them. “There is a sign,” writes the saint, “that one is in faith and grace. For the enemy does not fight the one who obeys and works.” “Indeed, everyone complains about these thoughts that seek salvation. Woe to unrepentant sinners. And those who repent and seek their salvation by prayer and faith must expect the mercy of God” (4, 276-284; 6, 319-320; 27, 638-644).

We continue the studies of the Bible circle of the prophet and God-seer Moses. Today we continue to study the moral side of human life, this is our conversation today about laziness and negligence. Laziness as such a phenomenon in our life is not described as some self-sufficient sinful state, but is usually associated with various other sinful phenomena and passions, from which, in fact, laziness in a person comes from. Although we very often hear such an expression: “Laziness was born before me”, or they say about someone: “A man is lazy, laziness was born before him”, because first laziness, and then he, and then a person bears such a stigma lazy, and many things in his life, it happens, do not work out.
So I would like to start today's conversation with some examples. The first example of laziness is told by Father Kronid, a resident of the Holy Trinity St. Sergius Lavra - when his confessor died, he gradually began to weaken in the prayer rule. The monk’s prayer rule consists not only in the evening and morning rule, but also in the addition of canons, 17 kathismas, the midnight office, and there may be various deviations from this, both upward and downward, but insignificant. And here about. Kronid slowly - little by little began to reduce the rule, and in the end he reached the point that he began to read only one evening and morning rule, and in the end, what was left began to be obtained through a stump-deck. He felt complete spiritual relaxation, but he could not help himself. In a word about prayer, we said that when a person has such a state, it is already difficult for a person to get out of it, you need to somehow invigorate yourself. It is clear that when a layman reads only the morning and evening rule, he goes to bed simply crossing himself without reading anything. And here is a monk, a person who devotes himself to prayer, i.e. this is his life. And so, he sees a vision: he comes to the Trinity Cathedral, there are many people to worship, and here he, together with everyone, begins to venerate the relics of St. Sergius, and the relics are open ... Batiushka lies, looks at him, Fr. Kronid kisses him, and the saint says to him: “Well, why are you so relaxed. You have left everything, you do not pray, you do nothing, you are lazy. What are you doing? And he said a wonderful phrase: “When sorrow comes, and tightness, and a very difficult time, in what will you seek solace? Where do you find reinforcement and strength to overcome all this? There is nowhere to take it except prayer.” He woke up, repented of his laziness, negligence, corrected himself and began to live a spiritual life.
Also in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra there was another similar case. Father Joasaph, one of the white deacons, once served the Liturgy, and when he entered the altar after the litany was proclaimed, his face turned pale, as the other brethren saw him, and he fainted. He woke up already in the hospital, for a year he lay paralyzed, could not get up, and told everyone that when he came in, the Angel of the Lord appeared to him with a sword in his hand and wanted to punish him, saying: “For your negligence, you should have a soul shake it out right now." He swung his sword, he fell, but he was given life. During that year, he repented, took communion, and in the end, without getting out of bed, he went to the Lord. For what sin of negligence - no one speaks, but most likely, if there was some specific sin, especially, a person would hide something, etc., then this would be affected. Most likely, a person simply came to the monastery, wanted to ascetic, and spent a negligent life. And, accordingly, he angered the Lord, and there was such a vision.
In our lives, things happen differently with you - the Lord does not appear to us, the reverend too, in our life, apart from sorrows and illnesses, nothing special happens. But just sorrows and illnesses, taking into account the church experience about why all this is sent, are given to you and me so that we can overcome our weaknesses, which are called laziness and negligence.

Therefore, today we will talk about what laziness is, where it comes from, what it leads a person to, where it reduces, and what, in fact, comes from it. That's what the topic is about today.

So, the word “laziness” is the passivity of a person’s will, unwillingness to desire, relaxation of the soul and decrepitude of the mind, as St. John of the Ladder says. Moreover, the reluctance to desire, it seems to me, characterizes precisely the grain of laziness. Because when a person is in this state, they say to him: “Go, pray”, - “But I don’t want to.” I get up to pray, and it’s not that I don’t want to because I am against it, but I don’t want to because inside a person there is no desire to desire. And how do you create this desire in yourself? When you ask the question: “How is this desire to achieve?”, and none of the spiritual people can give an answer to this - how to arouse in a person a desire for spiritual life, for a feat, because this is a very individual matter. But Abba Evagrius somehow, I remember, found the answer to this question, he said it in about two or three words, but unfortunately, no matter how much I remembered, I could not remember. And I remember exactly that he answered this question, but, of course, there was no time to leaf through the whole book.

So the next sin is negligence. Negligence is negligence, irresponsibility, neglect, idleness and insensitivity in matters of faith. Those. when a person simply treats everything negligently, and not only to what surrounds him, but also to the cause of his own salvation. Fasting begins - it would seem that the one who cares about fasting is somehow being prepared, and we are somehow slowly, little by little entering fasting, we also sin, we live without any particular specific changes, which, of course, cannot be must. So, Abba Isaiah says this: “Laziness and negligence are rest in this world.” That is, when a person indulges in laziness and negligence, he wants to calm down, find peace in energies, in things, in thoughts that are and belong to this world. Those. the repose of the flesh, the repose of carnal wisdom, when a person tries to find such a point in his being so as not to strain himself in anything. Just be calm, do nothing, and get all sorts of benefits for it. And today the very philosophy of modern life, in principle, is as follows: minimum labor, maximum profit. Accordingly, this leads, of course, to great spiritual distortions.

Is laziness and negligence a vice or a character trait? Are these passions sinful or innocent? You know, I recently wandered onto a page on the Internet, where a Protestant explains exactly this topic to one of his parishioners. She asks: “What should I do, I would like to repent of the sin of laziness,” he says: “But don’t. Laziness is not a sin, it is just a state of a person when he is not interested in anything. If he is interested, laziness will immediately disappear. A person just needs to be given an incentive, and that’s it.” And when I read all this, you really think - what a blessing! It turns out that it is not necessary to fight laziness, you just need to interest yourself. Suppose a person is reluctant to pray, lazy, but you just need to interest yourself and that's it. But as? How interested if you don't want to. And it turns out that they accuse us of the Old Testament, although in fact they themselves impose on people a life that does not resist sin, but chooses such a crafty way, when all the passions of a person are justified by some kind of weakness, some everyday situations, some psychological things. . It turns out that you just need to interest a person and that’s all, and there is no laziness as such, in principle, it’s just a state of lethargy when a person is not busy with anything.

What does the Old Testament say? In the Old Testament, in the book of Proverbs, the wise Solomon specifically says that laziness and negligence are stupidity, and all stupidity, according to the teachings of the book of Proverbs, the book of Ecclesiastes, is, of course, evil. Being stupid is very bad, there is nothing good in it. As it is said in a wonderful parable: “It is better to meet on the road a bear deprived of children than a fool with his stupidity.” Imagine what a comparison. If you meet a bear deprived of children, then you will definitely die, there is no other way out, she will definitely kill a person, because she was deprived of children, she takes revenge on a person. Any person she comes across is subject to inevitable death. And Solomon says that it is better to meet her than to meet a fool with his stupidity, so it was considered evil.
In the New Testament, the Lord specifically says that laziness is a negative feature of human life: “a lazy crafty servant”, then just as negligent and lazy virgins who did not take care to buy oil for themselves, and in many other places the Lord Himself says that the lazy do not get anything good in life and this is bad. And the Holy Fathers already specifically say that laziness and negligence is not even just a sin, it is a real ruin for human life, which makes a person some kind of log, weak-willed, weak, unreasonable creature.
The Proverbs says the following: “He who is heedless of his ways will perish” (Pr. 19:16). This is even more so in the spiritual life. If we neglect our ways, we will surely perish unless the Lord has mercy on us. If we neglect the upbringing of children, then the children will grow up ill-mannered. If we neglect to study at school, at the institute, how can we get something? "Two" at the end of the year, the behavior is "unsuccessful", and that's it, and without anything. Accordingly, everyone understands perfectly well that laziness and negligence are real death for a person, especially death in spiritual life.

The causes of these sins, where they come from:

1. The first reason is the passion of gluttony, the main of the passions, about which we have talked a lot. How does gluttony produce laziness? When you just eat a little, you refresh yourself, when you feel cheerful, as St. John Cassian the Roman says: “You need to get up from the table with a feeling of hunger,” the golden rule, the monks say, after that there will be no laziness. Laziness appears only when you are fed up. As St. Theophan the Recluse says: “What satiety for a layman is satiety for a monk.” That is, a monk should not even eat well. Accordingly, we also look up to the monks for the most part, because they are, after all, doers of spiritual life, and each of us tries to approach the heights that the Holy Fathers reached. Therefore, of course, satiety and satiety give rise to laziness. Physiologically, this is explained simply, as psychiatrists say (“You have everything from this”) - “All the blood flows to the stomach, there is no blood in the brains, it is all around the stomach, so you feel bad.” But in fact, a person satisfied his passion, he got fed up, he really did some perversion on himself, and he became incapable of doing something not just physical, but spiritual. Because after satiety a person can work physically, and even not bad, but after that a person cannot work spiritually, because through satiety he paralyzes himself. A man is fed up - can he normally read the evening rule, pray? Can not. Belching makes it difficult to pronounce words, I want to sit down, I want to sleep, I want to lie down on the sofa on the TV and watch. Those. satiety implies rest. The man is fed up - he needs to lie down, without it in any way. Even remember such a saying in Soviet times was: "After a full dinner, according to the law of Archimedes, you should sleep." All this, as they say, is known to all.
   Saint Isaac the Syrian says that laziness comes from the burden of the womb, when the womb is burdened, and from a multitude of deeds. He added an interesting phrase, which today we have abolished. Today, on the contrary, we are all trying to do so much, and there, and there, to be in time everywhere. In fact, laziness is born after this. Because a person both here and there, everywhere tries to be in time, is wasted, achieves nothing, is disappointed, and because of all this, despondency is born in him, after which laziness occurs.
2. The passion of despondency is one of the most sinful passions that gives rise to laziness. St. Ephraim the Syrian says so: “I call laziness without a reason despondency and carelessness, i. negligence." That is, when a person is really tired, he is lazy because he is tired, he is paralyzed because he is really tired, overworked; or a person has grief, lost a spouse, for example, or some kind of close person, some kind of grief, etc. There is a paralysis of human life, activity, that a person is reluctant to do anything from internal states, he just stays in some kind of laziness, although this is also bad, but nevertheless it is justified and there is a reason for this. And when for no reason, it specifically comes from despondency and carelessness.
3. And the third passion that gives birth to the sin of despondency is vanity. What is the pattern for this? Vanity gives rise to such a sin as verbosity and idle talk. Why does the person talk a lot? Because vanity tries to force a person to always do something, so that they pay attention to him. Remember, I told one case: several people are talking, a lively dialogue is going on, everyone is trying to insert something of their own, but it doesn’t work, they are trying to wedge in, the other somehow interrupts ahead. Once I noticed and was very surprised: one just screamed. Everyone fell silent, and he continued to tell his position. The man did it unconsciously, he did not even notice what he did. But in fact, you can imagine what a move, how vanity manages to make its own. Even if you think like this, you won't think of it before. How to stop a conversation? No way, be patient, sit, wait. But it turns out that vanity knows such moves that a person will not even come to mind.
   Therefore, verbosity plunders a person completely, when you talk too much, you are condemned, you talk in vain, then there is such emptiness in your soul, and after this sin comes the sin of laziness according to the law of spiritual life. Laziness comes, and the person is in a relaxed state and not concentrated. Because idle talk plunders the treasure of a person's soul, i.e. those spiritual fruits that he collects in himself.
   “Laziness comes from love for the flesh, negligence, idleness, lack of the fear of God,” says St. Ephraim the Syrian.

Signs of these sins:

1. In Proverbs, the wise Solomon says: “Laziness plunges you into drowsiness” (Pr. 19: 15), so the signs are drowsiness, sleeping too much, waking up, lying in bed for a long time, postponing the alarm clock for five minutes. These are concrete signs that we are not in a cheerful state, but are in a state of laziness. Read about laziness in the 19th chapter of Proverbs: you lie down a little, you sit a little, and so day after day a person's life passes.
2. Aimless walking around the house, down the street, from corner to corner, a person is just trying to go somewhere, but he himself does not know anything, I would even say: walking around the case and not wanting to touch it in any way. It is necessary to wash the floors - no, I went to do it, I went to do it, and then it was evening, I had to sleep, they quickly cleaned everything to the side with a vacuum cleaner - tomorrow, everything tomorrow.
3. Diligence in minor matters, neglect of the main thing. When a person has a specific task - he needs to do something at work today, his boss sets a plan for him and he must do it, because this is his main task today. And besides kalyms, he also wants to do this and that, you know, such a good mood happens in the soul, and it turns out that a person does a lot in these minor matters, and most importantly, it never happens. Very often in this regard, a female character trait is guessed. Not that laziness, namely a feature of the female character. A woman does a lot, but sometimes she just rested all day. She did everything except what was necessary.
4. Striving for simplification. There is, of course, simplicity - a sign of talent, a person does something simple. And there is simplicity when a person is told: “Do this,” but he is reluctant, and he begins: “Let's make lazy cabbage rolls ...” or lazy dumplings. Those. the desire for simplification, not in order to invent some simple, long-lasting mechanism, but in order to expend less effort. And so in different things. Both in prayer and in the spiritual life, this desire for simplification occurs. For example, when the Protestants left the Church, they simplified everything. Do you know why? Because they have lost the concept of achievement, they have lost it. And they are now in spiritual laziness. Yes, they are praying. But a man came to the Protestants, and he no longer knows how to pray in a different way, he was told: “Pray in your own words,” one of the false prophets showed how to pray, and that’s all, a person prays like that. But in fact, this way of prayer is already a regression, this is already the last point of the fall, this is what people came from falling away. And accordingly, being in such a state, having simplified everything and everything, people do not have a feat. "Why a feat?" Therefore, in Protestant sermons you will not hear a sermon about the narrow path, about the narrow path. “What narrow path? Well, what is it. What are you talking about? Christ saved us. What is the narrow way? What's wrong". All these things have been abolished among them, but they are contained in the Church. And they are not only contained, but are also embodied in life, and many people who have followed the narrow path have achieved holiness and perfection, and we all look at them, they inspire us, help us. Of course, we also have simplified options, but all this in aggregate, we do not renounce the achievement, and every Orthodox Christian knows that life in achievement is the right life, life in relaxation, life in spiritual simplification is wrong. And we repent of this all the time, we understand that we live incorrectly, because it causes us spiritual laziness and negligence about our own salvation.
5. Also, Isaac the Sirin says the following: “A sign of negligence is the fear of death,” when a person is afraid of death. A very interesting thought, it was brought out of such a state when a person, being in negligence, is in principle not ready to stand before God. Today ask everyone: “Are you ready to die today and stand before the Last Judgment?”, - “No, Lord, I still have 20, 30, 40 years to prepare”, but in fact: “Lord, extend so that you can still lie down." Because basically what changes, nothing changes.
6. Lack of feat, constancy in doing, patience. Lazy people and those who are prone to laziness, that is, in principle, all of us - it is very difficult for us to be in constancy, constancy suffocates us, it does not give us life, it fetters our life, it paralyzes us, it is so hateful, this constancy, and in general - “who invented it ?!” - exclaims laziness. And the Lord invented it in order to humble us all, in order to show that constancy gives a person precisely the destruction of passions. Passions all the time try to plunge a person into many cares, into many words, into the care of many things in order to make a person vanity. And constancy gives a person a static state, which cleanses him of passions and prepares him to receive spiritual fruits. And patience is, of course, the nerve of constancy and the nerve of spiritual life. The very passions of laziness and negligence are also signs:

1) The desire of the soul for the worst. Those. if you are lazy, you must understand that your soul is striving for the worst, it is falling, it is in regression, it is decomposing, this is what St. Efrem Sirin. Also St. John Chrysostom says this phrase in a different context, that "without temptation, the soul strives towards ungodliness." Those. when a person is lazy, he must understand that laziness is a sign that his soul, without temptation, goes to wickedness itself, strives for this. It's not demons, not an enemy, but you yourself, succumbing to laziness, specifically decomposing your inner state.

2) And as Rev. Abba Isaiah, laziness is a sign when a person's soul is the home of all sorts of shameful and shameful passions. Because no virtue can abide in a lazy person. The Lord would be glad to give a person prayer, fasting, patience, and some other virtue would be glad to give, but the next day a person will neglect it, because negligence and laziness completely enslaved him. Tomorrow he won’t need it anymore, it will be hard, he will say: “Lord, take it away, because I don’t want to endure it. I want to lie down!” Therefore, the Lord does not lead many of us out of this state, because He sees that it will be difficult for us, we are not ready. When we want this, then we ourselves will ask God and work hard to stay in such a state in order to protect what the Lord gives, any of the virtues.

The relationship of sins. From what do negligence and laziness come from - which of the passions comes from the other?
The Holy Fathers in various sources say that just as negligence comes from laziness, so laziness comes from negligence - the mutual guarantee of these sins. Those. they support each other and feed each other. A person has become lazy - after laziness, he has negligence for everything. A person has become neglectful in some business - after that laziness comes to him, he relaxes and becomes completely unfit for any good deed.

The pernicious influence of these sinful passions:

1. Influence of demons, demons. They increase their pressure on the lazy and negligent, say the Holy Fathers. St. Ephraim the Syrian says the following: “Demons most disturb those who love laziness and negligence in prayer.” More than anyone else, because who is there to disturb - lies, came up, whatever you want - put it into the mind of this person, into the soul, and everything will fall on fertilized, plowed soil. The person does not resist at all. Accordingly, they like to attack such people.

In the beginning, demons terrify the lazy and negligent. A person wanted to do something good, and he has so many doubts, so many horrors - “How can I do this?”, “Yes, I can’t.” A person went to the monks or became a Christian - you need to live virtuously. They say to him: “You need to live with your wife and no one else”, - “How ?! With one wife all my life?! .. What are you, father!” Those. immediately against the background of sin, demons inspire such horror because you will be alone with your wife until old age and will never sin again. And a man in fear and panic leaves the temple of God and runs out from there with huge eyes that he will never come again in life - how, he will lose so many mistresses ... Or a person comes: “Father, how to pray?”, - the father says to him: “ Here is the morning rule, evening rule, ”and shows him from which page to which. He leafs through it all, folds the pages straight and says: “What is this, read all this?!” Well, of course, you need to read everything, but at least you start, and, God forbid, it will go! Of course, the Lord will help, but then it will be necessary to fight for the rule, to work, all this is understandable. But nevertheless, at first, through laziness, Satan inspires such temptations to a person that he is simply afraid to even lift this feat, even to stand up and do some kind of good deed, because he is already in fear and trembling that he will never finish it.

St. Isaac the Syrian says that a lot of different temptations come to the lazy. And he says why: in order to distract these people from laziness and negligence, and through sorrow to bring them closer to spiritual aisles. Each of us knows that as soon as some kind of grief sets in, prayer immediately revives, everything revives, because there is real spiritual excitement, encouragement. One of my acquaintances came to Georgia (he himself is from there), and he had to take communion the next day. And he, too, was like that - he ate a hearty meal, lay down, watched TV ... He began to pray in the evening, and it became so hard for him, it was simply impossible to pray. Everything, laziness paralyzed a person. He put down a prayer book, saying: “Lord, I’ll get up tomorrow morning, I’ll read everything!” Lies down, and a six-point earthquake begins. He says: “I jump up, grab a candle, light it ... I hear everyone running downstairs. And I understand that in this case it’s useless to run at all, because if the house starts to take shape, then that’s it ... I open the prayer book and go ... I read it to the cover by morning. I didn’t have any laziness, I didn’t have anything, everything immediately evaporated somewhere. ” Why? Because a person from sorrows, from temptations cheered up. Because - “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Spirit gives life; the flesh is of no use.”
And it is the same with us - full of contentment, ordinary, calm, measured life relaxes a person. When a person wakes up, even His Holiness Patriarch Kirill also said this at a sermon - in order to somehow read prayers right away - no, - to drink tea, sit, how to arrange it all aesthetically, and then get up for prayer, having already eaten , and calling ten times to someone. And it turns out that the first thought is not God, the first thought - tea, was completely given. All this, of course, affects us.

2. Decomposition of soul and mind. Saint Mark the Ascetic says: "He who is negligent, he falls." Necessarily a negligent person will fall, be in a spiritual fall, and a spiritual fall is a sin. From sin, what can be in our nature? Only decay and complete spiritual defilement.

3. Defeat of will, impotence. A person is extinguished in spirit and cannot desire. For example, a person needs to do a good deed, but is reluctant. He understands in his conscience what is needed, but he cannot force himself, and even he cannot desire it, he simply does not even want to desire - his will is so paralyzed. And what is the will of man, his will? This is one of the properties that makes us God-like. Will is a dynamic, it is a manifestation, it is a realization of the human personality. I decided - I do based on this decision. This is why the Lord wants a person to freely choose for himself both salvation, and the spiritual path, and life in God – because he is the image of God, a man. And when you and I are in laziness and through laziness we paralyze our will, we turn into dumb beasts and simply cannot do anything, everything is reluctant. And then, when our will is struck, the most deplorable thing happens in us - that we begin to move with passions. Some kind of passion flared up, a passionate desire for something - let's say you wanted ice cream - a person quickly ran and bought it. A man wanted to go to the cinema - he gave up everything, ran straight from work. A person already begins to think little, to work little on himself, he begins to move along the passionate sources of his soul. This, of course, is very bad.

4. And all this eventually leads to bodily diseases. Lazy and careless people get sick most often. Whoever works, who is industrious, who constantly forces himself, does not get sick much. A person who does not force himself, does not overcome himself, gets sick more often and a lot.

5. According to the teachings of the Monk Abba Isaiah, laziness and negligence give rise to self-will and pride in a person. How does this happen? Suppose a person lies in a relaxed state, he is forced, he does not want to. But he is forced. What's happening? Protest, riot. Man embodied his willfulness in rebellion. And the first rebel, revolutionary - Dennitsa, who rebelled against God. The Lord says to him: "Bow," - he says: "I will not." This was saving for him, but he wanted to be bowed to, and rebelled. Accordingly, pride is born. This is how it all happens. And other vices by themselves, as if through an open door, then “jump in” there.

6. Abba Isaiah said a wonderful phrase: “No matter what a lazy, negligent person does, he certainly considers himself a friend of God.” Suppose, in the spiritual life, he has not yet learned to fast and pray, but he is already a "friend of Christ." And try to argue with him. As we started today about the Protestants, so in conclusion about them – it is impossible to talk with them – “The Holy Spirit speaks to them. Who are you in general, you, Orthodox priest. The Holy Spirit speaks to me, and who are you? I am a friend of Christ, and who are you? And where does this come from? Yes, from simple ignorance and pride. From this simplified spiritual dispensation, which was formed as a result of the decay, decomposition of the spiritual life of people who renounced the Church and left it. Accordingly, all this happens according to the spiritual laws that the Holy Fathers speak about.

7. And in the end, all this influence ends up with the fact that the lazy and negligent are deprived of the Kingdom of Heaven. Remember, in front of the very noses of negligent virgins, the doors of paradise were closed and for their negligence they lost the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, St. Ephraim the Syrian says that our modern life, in which we live, our carnal life, is given to us so that we overcome negligence and take care that we enter the Kingdom of God as conveniently as possible.

How to deal with these sins:

1. Saint Mark the Ascetic says that laziness and negligence are very well overcome by almsgiving, doing good deeds, mercy. Almsgiving forgives a lot of sins, and mercy is one of those things that revives a human heart dead from malice. When you begin to do good not out of partiality, but do good to everyone who asks: “Give to him who asks you.” Asked - gave. Without choosing - this one is toothless, and this one is with teeth. I will give to the one who is toothless, and let him first lose his teeth, and then I will give him. It all happens like this: when we walk past the beggars, we begin to choose - I will give this one, I will not give this one. When you have something to give, you give it to the first person you come across, they asked - you gave it, that's all, you go later and you don't have it. Those. it is an impartial charity. And this creation of good deeds concerns not only the beggars (almsgiving is often associated with the beggars), almsgiving is also at home: to help the wife wash the dishes, floors, etc. This is also all mercy. As V. D. Irzabekov, who was at our conversation, said: “I remember these tanks in the army, I washed them for the whole company, shoveled porridge from these tanks with shovels ... And here my wife, my dear person, fell ill, and in I feel some kind of pride: “Yes, you shouldn’t wash, you’re a man…””. What are you! What are we talking about?! Show mercy, step over yourself, get out of yourself, out of your sinful limits, become like Christ the Savior, Who came to serve and washed the feet of the disciples. Washed the feet of the students! Moreover, Peter, who balked, was also ashamed that such cases should be accepted with humility.
2. Attentive prayer, if possible - long. As I already said in, that you need to pray a lot, but according to your strength, each person considers these possibilities himself. But as the apostle Paul says: "Pray without ceasing," i.e. prayer must take over our whole being. And we must strive for this. Everyone in their own way, I don’t impose anything on anyone, I just say that we must strive for this, because prayer is the main thing we should do in life. Pray without ceasing. And we must approach these unceasing aisles.
3. Constancy in work and overcoming oneself. Those. when you don’t feel like it, you have to overcome it and be constant, constantly fight, don’t relax, don’t indulge your laziness and negligence, constantly resist. As long as we resist, we are alive. As soon as we stopped resisting, surrendered - that's it, we died.
4. Jealousy and love for God. When a person tries to be jealous of God. What is jealousy and love for God? It is to do as He commanded us, to do so that the Lord rejoices in us. Be zealous so as to please the Lord all your life. To strive and make a choice, when it is before us, is necessarily in the direction of those things that the Lord has commanded us.
5. Thinking about the spiritual, about the hour of death, about the Judgment also helps a person get out of a lazy state. Also here you need to connect different thoughts. When a person is lazy, you can reflect, somehow shame yourself, call on conscience to help.
6. Try to always be busy with something, not to allow idleness and idleness. It's one thing when a person is tired and resting, and another thing when a person has nothing to do and he starts to just lie down. It happens that a person from laziness - once - lay down. And when you feel this state that you go to bed out of laziness, not because you are tired, but simply you don’t want to do anything, that’s why you are lying - you overcome yourself and take it, do something. His Holiness Patriarch Kirill said a wonderful phrase when he was still a metropolitan, he was asked how he became a monk, it was still hard, young, at 22, because abstinence, and many other things, he answered: “I for myself adopted such a law that I did not leave myself alone for a minute, I was always busy with something. And this employment gave him the opportunity to reach spiritual chapels, overcome many temptations and become the vessel that the Lord later chose for patriarchal service. That is, all this, too, as they say, is not done in one day, it was still 40 years ago, when everything was just beginning.
7. I would also like to cite a wonderful commandment that ancient philosophers gave: “Do not put off until tomorrow what you can do today,” or do not put off for an hour what you can do this minute. Very often we somehow postpone everything, put it off, but we must try to overcome this evil habit of postponing until later.
8. And another very good tool, a tried and tested tool is the reading of the Holy Fathers about these passions - about laziness and negligence. About any sin that torments us, it is necessary to read the Holy Fathers.
   It is also, of course, the reading of the Holy Scriptures, especially the Gospel, you need to read, deepen, read, get used to it. And the same is with the creations of the Holy Fathers, because they embodied the Gospel mind in their lives.

The conclusion of today's conversation would be the following: laziness and negligence are inherently sins, grave sins, weakening and paralyzing a person, depriving him of the image of God; these sins must be treated with caution, in no case be reconciled with them, not tolerate them, but always fight, always overcome yourself in order to somehow stay afloat and not fall into complete enslavement to these sins. And if a person strives for spiritual life, i.e. to prayer, to the fulfillment of the holy commandments of Christ, then he will nevertheless overcome laziness, overcome negligence; if a person does not strive for the spiritual life, he will never win and not get rid of these sins.
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Where does laziness come from? What awaits the lazy in the future? How to get rid of this vice? Reflects Archpriest Alexander Avdyugin.

Father, sinful, laziness overcomes.

So fight her.

I can't, father, I'm lazy.

The statement, familiar to many, “I have God in my soul” is just an everyday justification for an ordinary one. Only not the one that comes from the principle “and so it will do!”, But the other is the unwillingness to get away from the bliss and gratification of one's own body.

In order to look “spectacular” outwardly, to smell like Dior, jewelry unobtrusively sparkled, and the labels of leading companies were always visible in the folds of clothes, laziness is usually absent. Everything will be done for another "ah!" girlfriends or "cool!" colleague.

There is enough strength, funds are found, and there is no need to add an extra hour to the day.

But as soon as the priest advises to buy a prayer book and pray rigorously daily, and sometimes go to the temple, it immediately turns out that there is neither time nor money, and there is not enough health.

The intelligent Tolstoyan habit of saying that God is in my soul, that we, civilized people, do not need intermediaries in the person of a priest, corrupts not only the soul, but also the body. And it cannot be otherwise! After all, prayer requires effort, and considerable. There is a good statement among our people about this, with which it is difficult to disagree. Here it is:

There are three hardest things in life. The first is to repay debts. The second is to take care of elderly parents. The third is God.

In fact, the failure to do these three things are serious sins that become "mortal" if they are not repented of and eliminated.

Spiritual laziness is a contagious thing, it spreads everywhere, and the pace of its spread is by no means inferior to any swine and bird flu. In a family where the concepts of God and faith are limited only to reasoning about morality and morality, the Bible is just a beautiful book on the shelf, and the icon is the decoration of the apartment, in the very near future those whom we consider our heirs will be infected.

The next generation of this family will definitely replace the word of God with its popular presentation with pictures, and the icon there will coexist with a shaman mask or another blue horse of the next calendar year.

They try to give abstruse explanations to spiritual laziness, to bring philosophical, social and even political meaning into it. Such concepts as tolerance, syncretism, cosmopolitanism, globalization (you can still find a dozen) are by no means scientific definitions that are subject only to the modern educated mind and characterize man and society. Not at all. Each of these words came from an elementary and primitive desire to justify one's own spiritual laziness.

Laziness itself, as such, is a manifestation of lethargy and inaction. It's easier to fight her. You can get rid of it with advice and examples. For example, the wise Solomon advises to follow the example of the industrious ant:

Go to the ant, sloth, look at its actions, and be wise. He has no boss, no supervisor, no master; but he prepares his bread in the summer, he gathers his food in the harvest. How long will you sleep, you lazy one? When will you get up from your sleep? (Prov. 6:6-9).

From laziness and good reasoning helps when you clearly explain that you are a burden and useless for others. Not bad laziness is cured when you inspire a sloth that he is simply stupid and dull-witted:

I passed by the field of a lazy man and by the vineyard of a foolish man: and behold, all this was overgrown with thorns, its surface was covered with nettles, and its stone fence collapsed. And I looked, and turned my heart, and looked, and received a lesson (Prov. 24:30-32).

You can, of course, find more radical, a kind of surgical methods of getting rid of this vice, but in connection with the flourishing of the spiritual laziness of the juvenile justice that has occurred, I will not give them here in detail. Whoever wants to know the recipes, I refer to a good book with a very kind and practical title: “Domostroy”. There is another effective remedy: ask your grandparents how and who helped them get rid of the sins of laziness ...

It is worse when laziness becomes a vice. She, as well as, is often a symptom of a more severe already spiritual illness, which in the face of others, by hook or by crook, they are trying to hide or justify. It will not work to hide for a long time, there is nothing secret that will not become obvious, says Scripture, and justification only to the spread of sin will produce other, by no means of God's origin, predetermined actions. All the negativity of the present days, all those negative ups and downs that today haunt us in our personal and social lives, are the consequences of attempts to justify spiritual laziness.

In the end, laziness leads to a terrible desire: to get rid of the need to think, make decisions and bear responsibility for them.

The result is sad:

Laziness, open up, you'll burn!

I'll burn, but I won't open...

The practice of Orthodoxy is asceticism.

"Laziness as a disease of modern society"

Fear bad habits more than enemies

Rev. Isaac the Syrian

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http://ni-ka.com.ua/index.php?Lev=konflikt2

About the main manifestations of bodily laziness

ü Different people have different states of laziness

ü The lazy one expects others to have his needs met and likes to shift work to others, but he himself is not inclined to do for others.

ü The lazy one loves to complain and brag about imaginary labors

ü When you are lazy, things seem difficult

ü Laziness is often associated with slyness, excuses and grumbling

ü People are more accustomed to seeing laziness in others, and often at a time when they themselves are lazy

ü In laziness, a person does not like work and thereby violates the commandments of God about work

ü About industriousness and non-industriousness

About being seduced by your laziness

ü In laziness, a person does not act out of love for his neighbor

ü A Christian must do good to his neighbor for the love of God

ü Laziness is one of the main passions of most people and it causes great harm to a person

Advice from the holy fathers on how to deal with your laziness

ü Recognize that you are ruled by the passion of laziness and force yourself to work

ü Do not listen to thoughts about the difficulty of the case

ü When resisting his laziness, a Christian should force himself with a spiritual meaning

ü A Christian must take care of his bodily needs so as not to be a burden to others

ü A Christian must, resisting his laziness, serve his neighbor out of love for him and for the sake of the commandments of God

ü The fact that lazy Christians should not hide behind prayer and going to church to do household chores

ü The fact that you can’t despair and faint-hearted when you realize that you don’t want to change your usual way of life

The Holy Fathers on the passion of despondency, or laziness and idleness

The passion of despondency has two main types: bodily laziness and idleness.

Laziness is not industriousness, unwillingness to work or do some work and a desire for rest or doing nothing. Idleness is the useless use of time or laziness to do some work, because a person wants to have fun. So, with laziness and idleness, you don’t want to do something, but you just want to relax, spending time not in work, but in entertainment, for example: watching TV or playing on a computer.

Laziness and idleness are like two inseparable sisters. Sometimes, it is even difficult to immediately understand what initially drives a person - laziness or idleness, because. how from the unwillingness to work comes the desire to spend time in entertainment. And from the desire to have fun or have a good time, a person will be lazy to do something useful and necessary. However, they can still be identified. So, the action of idleness can be seen when a person decides to do something, but he really wants to either watch TV, or chat on the Internet or on the phone, and he does not do what he was going to, but chooses entertainment as another type of activity. At the same time, a person experiences a clear desire for entertainment. The effect of laziness will be when a person first thinks like: “oh, I don’t feel like it, I’m tired, tired,” etc., i.e. a person initially feels a desire not to start or stop some activity. And then there may already be a desire to have fun, and this comes into force idleness. Note that it is in human nature to experience a certain loss of energy after work; but in the case of laziness, a person experiences a certain breakdown before doing any deed.

Let us recall that the passion of despondency is also one of the passions of self-love and belongs to the vice of carnal pleasure.

Laziness is a cruel dream, a prison of souls, an interlocutor, concubine and mentor of the pampered (St. John Chrysostom).

The soul of the lazy... becomes the home of every shameful passion (St. Abba Isaiah).

Let us not be lazy for good, but let us burn in spirit, so as not to fall asleep little by little into death, or so that, during our sleep, the enemy does not sow bad seeds (for laziness is associated with sleep) ... (St. Gregory the Theologian).

There is definitely nothing easy that great laziness does not present to us as very difficult and difficult ... (St. John Chrysostom).

The lazy and careless will not be awakened by any good air, or leisure and freedom, or convenience and lightness - no, he continues to sleep in some kind of dream worthy of all condemnation (St. John Chrysostom).

Just as nothing can hinder a zealous person with a cheerful will, so, on the contrary, everything can serve as an obstacle to a careless and lazy person (St. John Chrysostom).

Pleasant laziness? But think about its consequences. We evaluate things not by the beginning, but by what they lead to (St. John Chrysostom).

The disintegration and appropriation of the rights to benefits are all the initial enemies, the destroyers of everything spiritual (St. Theophan the Recluse).

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Theophan the Recluse(Examples of writing down good thoughts ..., 44): “... carnality - eat, drink, sleep enough; idleness, laziness.

Tikhon Zadonsky(On true Christianity, v. 1, § 200): “A sign of self-love is when someone, given to him by God, either hides the gift, or uses it not for the glory of God and for the benefit of his neighbor. Such are those ... who have health and do not want to work.

Ephraim Sirin(About virtues and passions): “Forgetfulness, laziness and ignorance ... gives rise to a voluptuous and peaceful life, attachment to human glory and entertainment. And the original cause and the most worthless mother of all this is self-love, that is, unreasonable attachment and passionate attachment to the body, spillage and distraction of the mind, along with wit and foul language, like any liberty in speech and laughter, leading to much evil and many falls.

Why is pride associated with despondency and why does a person like to be lazy and have fun? Because it gives pleasure.

Ilya Minyatiy(Word on the second week of Great Lent): “... (some) mortal sins bring some pleasure, some joy to the one who does them; for example, ... the lazy one is glad of idleness.

The Holy Fathers say that both laziness and idleness can easily destroy the soul.

Isaac Sirin(Ascetic words, sl. 85): "Peace and idleness are the death of the soul, and more demons can harm it."

You can be hardworking, but be sick with pride and self-conceit about your hard work and condemn others. Therefore, the Holy Fathers warn:

John of the Ladder(The Ladder, op. 4): “The zealous should be most attentive to themselves, so that for condemning the lazy they themselves will not be subjected to even greater condemnation.”

Father Ignaty Brianchaninov(About Abba Theodore): "A sinful or lazy person, contrite and humble in heart, is more pleasing to God than a person who does many good deeds and is infected because of their conceit."

We also note that a person may not want to do something, either because he is tired, or because he wants to have fun, or because he believes that this is not his business.

The Holy Fathers designate laziness as the desire of the soul for the worst, and they say that lazy people willfully enslave this passion.

Ephraim Sirin(Seven deeds by a monk): “Laziness without any pretext is a harbinger of deviation into evil, for negligence of the will without any previous cause, for example, sometimes a bodily illness or some kind of inconvenience, reveals that the soul strives for the worst. I call laziness in doing virtues, which has no pretext and any urgent reason, despondency and carelessness.

Plato, Metropolitan. Moscow(v.5, Word for the Day of St. Sergius): “... the reason for laziness is that by pleasing the senses (the sloth) relaxed his members. The reason for relaxation is that the true concept of goodness and real benefit is clouded in it. For such, every business is a burden, and they are all the less excusable because they sin not out of ignorance, but arbitrarily enslave themselves, and neglect spiritual benefits.

Laziness is also dangerous because it is connected with other passions.

Theophan the Recluse(Letters, p. 210): “But this madam (laziness) does not happen alone. She is the lead singer, and the choir is with her.”

Theophan the Recluse(Interpretation of the last Romans 12:11): “... laziness is one of the main passions that are evil in a person.”

Paisiy Svyatogorets(Spiritual awakening, vol. 1, part 3, ch. 3): “People do not like work. Idleness appeared in their lives, a desire to get warmer, a lot of peace. Piety, the spirit of sacrifice has become impoverished. ... Today, everyone - both old and young - are chasing an easy life.

Also, unfortunately, lazy people don't know that:

Prologue in teachings(V. Guryev, September 16): “... everything (the lazy person's complaints) is spoken in you by the enemy of your salvation in order to destroy you; because there is nothing easier for him than to subdue the lazy to his dark power. For thus says Pimen the Great: "Whoever lives in neglect and laziness, the devil casts him down without any difficulty" (Chet.-Min. Aug. 27)."

It is known that if we want to act out of love for God and live according to His commandments, then for this we must resist the passions and not sin. And in the case of laziness, we must also reject it.

And for this, firstly, you should admit to yourself that throughout your life you have accumulated numerous habits associated with laziness, which you do not even regard as laziness. For example, you are used to not doing things on time or putting them off “for tomorrow”, when you can do it today, motivating you that nothing bad will happen if I don’t do it; used to feeling sorry for himself and not straining when he felt either a simple reluctance “oh, I don’t want to”, or a little fatigue; accustomed to do the work not carefully and conscientiously; you do not attach importance to the fact that you often wander around idle or, starting one thing, give up and proceed to another; you are accustomed to calmly perceive that your neighbor is working for your or the common good, and at this time, for example, you are watching a movie, and your conscience does not bother you, and much, much more.

Secondly, in order to resist your laziness, you need to remember its main manifestations, which we talked about earlier, for example: if a person does not want to do something, then he waits for others to do his work, seeks to shift work to others, complains that it is hard for him and he does a lot; if he does not want to do something, then this business will certainly seem difficult for him, etc. And, seeing all this in yourself on every occasion when any unwillingness to activity arises, you should immediately realize that you are now guided by pride , self-pity, selfishness and laziness in one form or another. At the same time, one should accustom oneself to give a brief description of these manifestations, for example: when the thought appears: “let this one do it,” immediately utter self-accusation, for example: “laziness always shifts to others.” Or, for example, there is an indignation like: "I have to do this again," say to yourself: "laziness loves to feel sorry for itself." Thus, having learned to see manifestations of laziness in oneself and designate them, a person will not only resist it, but will also acquire spiritual wisdom and experimental knowledge of the laws of the action of sin. And this, in turn, will keep him from judging other people, because. there will be a clear realization that it is not a bad person, but that he, like you, is tormented by sin.

Everyone knows from their own experience (because they have done this a great many times) that in order to resist laziness, you need to make an effort on yourself (even just say to yourself “well, come on, do it”) and start doing things.

Abba Isaiah(Spiritual and moral words, p. 16): "Push yourself a little, and soon vigor and strength will come."

Tikhon Zadonsky(Vol. 5, Letters, p. 12): “Like a lazy horse people drive with a whip and encourage to go and run, so we must convince ourselves of every business.”

Theophan the Recluse(What is spiritual life…, p. 45): “There will come debauchery, a desire to relax, even doubt whether it is really necessary to do so - drive all this away and, as you put it, force yourself to do this.”

“... good thoughts are left unfulfilled, put off day by day. Delay- general ailment and first cause of failure. Everyone says: "I still have time," and remains in the old ways of habitual unkind life. Drive away delay, the sleep of carelessness... But why delay for the sake of it? Further we go, worse it becomes. Watch out, because death is at the door."

self-pity- a friend of carelessness and negligence - drowns out good movements. Carelessness fills a person with frivolity, he puts off important things for the future, without thinking about what unpleasant surprises and even disasters he is preparing for himself.

H fidgeting - this is a state when a person does everything for show, somehow, he does not want (or cannot) work hard.

Ambrose Optinsky(The biography of the deceased in Bose ... Ambrose, part 1, p. 103): “The boredom of the despondency of the grandson, and the laziness of the daughter. To drive it away, work hard in business, do not be lazy in prayer, then boredom will pass, and zeal will come.

Theophan the Recluse(What the penitent needs, ch. 2): “If you want, everything is done quickly; corruption will attack, and you will not do little. When a rule is laid down, do not want to, but do, and you will do it incessantly.

Basil the Great(On asceticism, 4): “Do not allow another to do the deeds that lie on you, so that the reward is not taken away from you and given to another ... Do the deeds of your service gracefully and carefully, as one serving Christ. For it is said: “Cursed is everyone who does” the works of the Lord “with negligence” (Jer. 48, 10).

Make a mandatory rule for yourself not to be idle when others are doing something around the house, but to offer your help or engage in other work that is useful for the family.

Abba Isaiah(Spiritual and moral words, words 3, 23, 24): “If you live in common with each other (in reciprocity or cohabitation) and there is some share, do it yourself; join him all; and do not spare your body, for the sake of everyone's conscience.

Theodore Studite(Instructions, ch. 175): “No one is left idle, loitering here and there, and do not waste the day when other brethren work hard, enduring the heat of the day and the cold of the night, whether someone is in the porter’s room or serves in the hospital, or in a shoemaker's, or in a carpentry, or in some other obedience. This is a terrible crime…”

You should also learn to do things not somehow and reluctantly, but with some energy.

Theophan the Recluse(Letters on various subjects of faith and life, p. 53): “You are attacked by laziness, a desire for benefits, indulgences, peace of the flesh comes. You do well that you don't give in; however, your intransigence is not complete. I mean that, despite these tempting attacks, you still do what you think is due, but do it reluctantly. “Though reluctantly,” you say, “but I do everything.” And that's good, as I said; there is struggle and overcoming. But it would be necessary to carry this struggle to the end, so that the overcoming would be complete - that is, to go so far as to do it at least, ruthlessly driving away "reluctantly". For this "reluctantly" is a concession to laziness and nourishes it, though not greasy. If you please, when you drive away laziness, excite yourself to the point of zeal, so that you can vividly, with energy, do what laziness delayed from. And this will only be a real victory and the overcoming of laziness, and not the way you are doing.

Nicodemus the Holy Mountaineer(The Life of Christ, ch. 2): “So, if earlier you spent your life in idleness and idleness, then wake up at last from this heavy sleep of laziness. Change your life and repent that you have not followed Jesus Christ for so long and were like insensitive idols that have hands but never take anything in them, have legs but do not walk with them. Always keep in your mind the words that one reverend said at the dawn of the day: “Body, work to eat; soul, be sober in order to be saved.”

Boniface of Theophany(Answers to questions from various persons, v.31): “If you hesitantly fight against laziness, you will never defeat it; and as soon as you rise up against her with a firm intention, although not without inner illness, then with God's help you can defeat her. To reflect the enemy is a sign of a faithful and good warrior; but turning the spine is characteristic of one lazy and unworthy squire. A person to the grave must watch himself regarding this vice, so as not to hear on the last day the terrible definition of a heart-seeker (God).

Sirach 2, 1-3: "My son! if you begin to serve the Lord God, then prepare your soul for temptation: direct your heart and be firm, and do not be embarrassed during the visit; cleave to Him and do not retreat, so that you may finally be exalted"

It was very convenient and pleasant for our passions and demons that we transgressed the commandments of God about work, about love, about serving our neighbors, etc., and, having been seduced, considered ourselves sinners - but not very much. It was convenient for sin that we did not see in ourselves laziness, selfishness and pride; they liked that we only called ourselves sinners and did not live according to the commandments of God. We thought we were Christians, but we didn't want to follow Christ.

Ioan Maksimovich(The Royal Way..., part 1, ch. 8): “Everyone wants to rejoice with Christ, but there are few who want to suffer at least a little for him. Many follow Him until the breaking of bread, but few want to drink the cup of suffering. Many glorify His miracles, but few follow Him to reproach and the cross. Oh, how few are those who follow Christ the Lord! However, there is no one who would not want to come to Him. Everyone wants to enjoy joy with Him, but no one wants to follow Him; they want to reign with Him, but they do not want to suffer with Him; they don't want to follow the one they want to be with. ... Truly, the words of the Wise One often come true: “The soul of the lazy one desires, but in vain” (Prov. 13:4), “the lazy one wants and does not want” (According to the translation of Blessed Jerome. 34). Do you wish to know what this means? The lazy one wants to reign with Christ, but suffers nothing for Christ's sake; loves retribution, not a feat; He wants a crown without struggle, glory without labor, the kingdom of heaven without a cross and sorrow.

Knowing all this, we should not despair, but even a little, but begin to change, because then we will be even more punished at the Judgment according to the word of Christ:

Gospel of Luke 12:47-48:“The servant who knew the will of his master, and was not ready, and did not do according to his will, there will be many beats; but who did not know, and did worthy of punishment, the bit will be less. And from everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required, and to whom much has been entrusted, more will be exacted from him.

All people love to be lazy. A person hesitates, delays, postpones deadlines, hoping for as long as possible not to start performing duties. But how to overcome laziness? Is there any effective remedy that can fight it?

It turns out that such a tool really exists. It is called - a prayer against laziness.

A strong prayer against laziness is said after the sloth understands the nature of laziness itself. This may not necessarily be weakness or promiscuity. Sometimes laziness can be a signal of the body about the presence of more serious diseases.

Reduced ability to work, for example, is observed as a symptom of low blood pressure or a decrease in blood glucose levels.

This may be due to heart failure. In this case, it will not work to deal with it on your own - you will have to contact a specialist.

It is interesting that the sin of laziness in church sources can also have such a name as the sin of despondency. Dealing with it can be very difficult, but possible.

Fellowship with the Lord

Any prayer is a dialogue between man and God. If you want the Lord to answer your prayer, you need to pay attention to the following:

• Prayer is communication with God, conversation with him, so be serious;
• It is necessary to offer prayer yourself;
• Close your eyes while saying words to make it easier to concentrate;
• Prayer must come from the heart.

Only when you understand this, only then will you begin to fight laziness correctly, and your words will be heard by God.

Believe in the power of prayer!

The most powerful prayers will not work if you do not believe in their power. Below are several varieties of prayers that will help you fight the disease of laziness.

Orthodox prayers for the disease of laziness. Laziness is considered the machinations of the Evil One, and therefore requires the adoption of special measures - prayers. Only through it is it possible to cure delusion. Orthodox prayer from laziness will cure idleness and a sense of laziness. Turning to the Lord, a person admits that he is lazy and asks to overthrow the lazy burden from him. Prayer appears here as a disease that must be got rid of in order to gain happiness. Ascends often to his Guardian Angel.

Prayer to the Guardian Angel

“Angel of God, my holy guardian, given to me from God from heaven! I diligently pray to you: enlighten me today, and save me from all evil, guide me to a good deed, and direct me on the path of salvation. Amen."
forgiveness of sins and mercy and consolation to every soul that is grieving and embittered, and deliverance from troubles, sorrows and illnesses. Grant, Madam, protection to this temple and these people (and observance of this holy monastery), preservation of the city, our country from adversity. deliverance and protection, let us live a peaceful life here, and in the future we will be able to see You, our Intercessor, in the glory of the Kingdom of Your Son and our God. To Him be glory and power with the Father and with the Most Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen."

Orthodox prayer from laziness to Saint Alexander of Rome. He asks the blessing of the saint for healing from a lazy illness. Recognizes the weakness of the spirit of the one who offers prayer. A petition is raised to Alexander of Rome to overthrow laziness in order to gain the opportunity to do good deeds.

Prayer to Alexander of Rome "From laziness"

“Lord Jesus Christ, listen to Your servant who suffers for Your name, and give Your grace; let, where my memory will be honored, miraculously serve the healing of the sick to the glory of your name.
In the earthly vale we are tormented by many sorrows, troubled by close troubles, embarrassed by a storm of temptations and temptations,
Depressed by various illnesses, we weaken in spirit and fall into despondency and spend the short days of our life and inactivity. having no acquisition behind us, since we have no good works by which we could be justified in the future life and receive eternal blessedness. Therefore, we implore you, holy martyr Alexander, help us to cast off the burden of negligence and laziness, so that we can cheerfully embark on the exploits of industriousness and remain firm in striving and doing spiritual things while gaining salvation for you. And hear our prayer for the sick, Saint Alexander, and heal us, suffering from bodily and spiritual ailments, appearing to help us, because you, before your death, prayed for those who would honor your memory, so that they would be delivered from all diseases. So, for us, who make your memory, take care and save us from illnesses and the weak, calling you, heal, so that the name of God will be glorified by all at all times.
Amen."

You can turn to your Guardian Angel with prayer words to get help from him. At the same time, it is not at all necessary to memorize the texts of precisely those prayers - use the words that you yourself wish. The main thing is that they come from the heart.

What to expect after reading the prayer

In fact, everything depends solely on the well-being and desire of the person praying. Prayer to the Guardian Angel only helps to reunite with holiness, admit mistakes and find their solution. The one who prays accumulates internal forces, persuading himself to rise and begin to act.

Willpower will help you get what you want.

Offering prayers to the Guardian Angel, a person concentrates on the result. It is thanks to this concentration that he begins to believe in his accomplishment, struggling with laziness. He begins to have ideas that need to be urgently implemented, and nothing will keep the fire of enthusiasm in place.