Date: 2026-08-15T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Sermon; Theophan the Recluse; path to salvation; Orthodox catechetical sermons; the Church and the Mysteries; walking the commandments; Russian Orthodox spirituality; how to be saved; Religion & Spirituality; Christianity / Orthodox; Christianity / Christian Living / Spiritual Growth
Description: A lawyer once put a single question to Christ: what must I do to inherit eternal life? Saint Theophan the Recluse hands that question back to every soul unsettled by the competing voices of the age, and answers it without evasion. Christianity itself is the one road God has traced to His Kingdom. Hold the faith whole, draw the Church's Mysteries into yourself, keep the commandments under lawful shepherds — walk that ordered path, and you will not miss salvation.

Five Instructions on the Path to Salvation

Theophan the Recluse

Royal Archives

2026

Copyright

The modern English translation and the cover design are © 2026 Royal Archives. All rights reserved.

The underlying source text is in the public domain.

Published by Royal Archives

First published 2026

Translated by Royal Archives

Source: Пять поучений о пути ко спасению / свт. Феофан Затворник.

Cover: Rainbow (Радуга, 1900–1905) by Arkhip Kuindzhi (Russian, 1841/42–1910), Wikimedia Commons, which is in the public domain.

Edition identifier: urn:royalarchives:pjat_pouchenij:en:1

Introduction

The Author

Saint Theophan the Recluse was born Georgy Vasilievich Govorov on 10 January 1815 in the village of Chernavsk, in the Oryol region of central Russia, the son of a parish priest. His schooling followed the ordinary ladder of a clerical family—the district church school at Livny, the seminary at Oryol, and finally the Kiev Theological Academy, from which he graduated in 1841 with a master’s degree in theology. Before completing his studies he had already given himself to God under another name: in 1840 he was tonsured a monk and took the name Theophan, after Theophanes the Confessor, and the following year he was ordained to the priesthood.

The two decades that followed carried him through nearly every kind of service the Church of his day could ask of a learned monastic. He taught moral and pastoral theology, served as a rector, and spent years attached to the Russian ecclesiastical mission in Jerusalem and a diplomatic posting in Constantinople, where he deepened his Greek and immersed himself in the ascetic literature of the Christian East. That immersion bore its most lasting fruit later, when he rendered the great anthology of the Philokalia — the collected counsels of the fathers on prayer and inner watchfulness—from Church Slavonic into a Russian his contemporaries could actually read. In 1859 he was consecrated a bishop, taking the see of Tambov, and in 1863 he was transferred to the ancient see of Vladimir. He was, by every account, a diligent and much-loved pastor, tireless in preaching and in the founding of schools.

Yet the office did not hold him. In 1866, after some twenty-five years of active service, he petitioned to be released from the administration of his diocese and withdrew to the Vysha Hermitage, a quiet monastery in the Tambov region, as its resident. For six years he lived there among the brothers, attending the services and receiving visitors; then, after Pascha in 1872, he closed his door. For the remaining twenty-two years of his life he saw almost no one, celebrating the Liturgy alone in a small chapel he fitted out in his cells, and pouring his energy into an enormous correspondence and a stream of spiritual writings that reached far beyond the walls that hid him. He died at Vysha on 6 January 1894, on the eve of the feast of the Theophany. Nearly a century later, in 1988, the Russian Orthodox Church numbered him among the saints; he is commemorated as Theophan the Recluse of Vysha, and his memory is honored well beyond the borders of his own communion, wherever readers turn to the Christian East for guidance in the life of prayer.

The Work: Occasion & Purpose

The Five Instructions on the Path to Salvation belong to Theophan’s years as a preaching hierarch. They are a set of sermons delivered aloud to a gathered congregation, spoken long before the silence of reclusion—the internal evidence is plain throughout. The preacher addresses his hearers directly as “brothers,” turns at one point to the “mothers and fathers” among them, and opens each of the later instructions by recalling what he told them “in the previous discourse.” They form, in other words, a deliberate series: five discrete homilies preached in sequence, each picking up where the last left off, so that together they make a single sustained argument rather than five separate occasional pieces.

Their purpose is catechetical in the oldest and best sense. Theophan is answering, for ordinary faithful, the one question he takes to be more urgent than any other—the question the lawyer of the Gospel put to Christ: “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” But he presses it in a setting he judges peculiarly unsettled. His hearers live amid a clamor of rival voices: not only the honest diversity of pious counsel within the Church—one saying pray, another weep, another give alms — but, more corrosively, the confident new philosophies of the age, which promise a comfortable earthly happiness and pass over the salvation of the soul in silence. Into that confusion he means to speak “one clear word.” The instructions belong to the same pastoral labor as his celebrated longer manual, The Path to Salvation; here that vision is compressed into a form a parish could hear in five settings and carry home whole.

Argument & Structure

The five instructions build a single, cumulative case, and their order is the argument.

The first poses the question and clears the ground. Theophan strips the Gospel lawyer’s guile away and hands the same words back to any soul asking in earnest, from real need. He then surveys the surrounding noise unflinchingly—the competing counsels within the Church, and beyond them the flatteries of a worldly wisdom that treats blessedness as a human right already possessed and bends every effort toward sweetening this life. His answer is disarmingly simple: you need not go searching for the path, because you are already standing on it. Christianity itself is the sole road God has traced across the earth to His eternal Kingdom. Be a true Christian, and you will be saved. He closes with a compact formula that the rest of the series will unfold: hold what the Church teaches, receive the graced powers of the Mysteries and kindle them through her services, and walk the commandments under the guidance of lawful shepherds.

The second takes that formula apart to show its working members, using the homely image of a road one must travel. Four things are needed. First, sound and reverent teaching of the faith—the light that reveals the path and everything around it; without it a traveler stumbles in the dark. Second, the Mysteries, in which divine strength is given to a people too weak of themselves to walk—baptism regenerating, chrismation strengthening, communion uniting, repentance raising the fallen. Third, the whole surrounding life of the Church—her services, prayers, feasts, and fasts—which Theophan likens to the air that fans a dropped spark into flame, and to a hedge that fences the traveler from the enticements of the world. Fourth, the counsel of lawful shepherds at the forkings of the way, where a living and experienced voice must tell each soul what the general word of Scripture cannot specify for its own case.

The third presses the point that none of the four is optional and none suffices alone. Salvation is worked only where all are present together; drop one, and the whole is endangered. Theophan answers three tempting shortcuts in turn: the notion that one may “believe as you wish, only live well,” which quietly discards sound doctrine; the notion that a few external works of piety can stand in for keeping the commandments; and the notion that “churchness is for the simple folk,” while the enlightened need only an inward, mental service. His governing image is medicine: a remedy heals only when compounded of every ingredient the prescription names, and to omit one is to forfeit the cure.

The fourth turns from the abstract path to the hearers themselves. They already possess all these means—a lawful pastorate, the Mysteries, the proclaimed faith; salvation stands so near it can almost be touched. What, then, remains to be done? First, thanksgiving: we were born into a saving order and carried along it by Mother Church before we could even ask, a grace many nations never receive. Then, a wholehearted giving of oneself to that order—an unshakeable conviction that repels the proud questioning of “why this, why that”; a sympathy of the heart, since the heart is single and cannot be lodged both in the world and in the Church at once; and a zealous, unmixed fulfillment of all that salvation requires. The instruction ends on the apostle’s urgency: now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.

The fifth closes with a picture rather than an argument—a vision Theophan recalls from an ancient collection of the desert fathers’ sayings. A despairing elder is shown a great river in which the world drowns amid its passions; radiant youths in boats who reach out every instrument of rescue to any who will grasp it; an abyss at the river’s end for those who refuse; a far shore where the rescued are washed, clothed, and set walking; and a hard, shining mountain they climb toward an uncreated light, refreshing themselves at buildings scattered along the ascent. Theophan then reads the image plainly for his hearers: the river is the world, the youths are grace and its angels, the shore-house is the Church with her baptism and repentance, the mountain is the labor of cleansing the heart, the buildings are the temples of God, the cloud is a peaceful death, and the light beyond is paradise. It is the whole of the four preceding instructions turned into a landscape, and it ends where they do—on a single verse, “run so as to attain.”

Theological & Spiritual Significance

The enduring interest of these homilies lies in how firmly Theophan binds the interior life to the ordinary, visible life of the Church. Much devotional writing, then and now, tends to set the two apart—to prize inward feeling and treat sacrament, service, and pastoral obedience as outward scaffolding one might eventually dispense with. Theophan will not allow the separation. In his account the “spark” of grace is genuinely inward and personal, but it is received through the Mysteries and fanned into flame only within the Church’s common worship; the private and the corporate work as one organism rather than as rivals. This is the same conviction that animates his translation of the Philokalia: the ancient science of watchfulness and unceasing prayer is offered to lay believers living wholly within the sacramental round, never reserved for spiritual elites.

Equally striking is his diagnosis of his own century, which has worn well. He names, without polemical heat, a worldly wisdom that keeps the vocabulary of blessedness while emptying it of the soul’s salvation, substituting self-reliance, comfort, and reputation for the one thing needful. His reply is a summons back to a path he insists is already laid and already trodden by “so many holy people” before us. The pastoral tenderness is characteristic: the sinner is a sick man in a good hospital who need only accept the treatment, and the whole series is finally an invitation rather than a threat. Because Theophan writes as a physician of souls rather than a controversialist, the instructions speak readily across confessional lines, to any reader who takes the pursuit of eternal life to be the serious business of a life.

Suggestions for Reading

These five homilies reward being read as they were preached—in order, and preferably at a measured pace, one instruction at a time. They were composed to be heard across five separate settings, and each opens by gathering up what came before; a reader who moves straight through in a single sitting will still follow the argument, but something of its deliberate, cumulative weight is felt best when the instructions are allowed to settle between readings, as a congregation would have received them.

Two features of Theophan’s method are worth watching for. The first is his fondness for a single governing image carried across a whole discourse—the road with its light, its travelers, and its forkings; the spark that needs air to become flame; the compounded medicine that fails if one ingredient is dropped. He returns to each image deliberately, and following it is often the quickest way to grasp his point. The second is the way the fifth instruction gathers the rest. A reader who has held the four “working members” of the earlier sermons in mind will recognize each of them again in the elder’s vision—the rescuing youths, the shore-house, the buildings on the mountain—and will find that Theophan has quietly translated his whole argument into a story one can remember long after the reasoning has faded. Newcomers to nineteenth-century Russian spiritual writing will find here an unusually clear and inviting door into it, and a natural threshold to Theophan’s fuller manual, The Path to Salvation.

The Text & This Edition

This edition presents the Five Instructions on the Path to Salvation in a fresh, complete English translation made directly from Theophan’s Russian. The source is the public-domain Russian text of Пять поучений о пути ко спасению as preserved in the digital library azbyka.ru; the underlying work is long out of copyright. No prior English version was used as an intermediary—the rendering was made from the Russian throughout.

The house conventions of this series apply. Theophan is named as the Church has always received him—Saint Theophan the Recluse—with the critical questions of nineteenth-century biography kept where they belong and out of the title page. Those who prepared the translation are credited as translators, never as authors. Scripture is a special case worth noting: Theophan quotes and alludes to the Bible constantly, and he does so in the Slavonic and Russian Synodal wording familiar to his hearers. Rather than replace his citations with the phrasing of a standard English Bible—which would silently reshape his emphases—this edition renders each quotation from the wording he actually used, so that the scriptural voice matches the register of the sermon around it. Chapter-and-verse references are given in the plain Arabic style used throughout these editions (for example, Luke 10:25). The five instructions are presented in their original sequence and in full, with nothing abridged, so that the cumulative argument the preacher built across five occasions reaches the reader intact.

Instruction One

“Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Lk. 10:25)

So once a lawyer questioned the Lord! And he questioned the Lord with the intent to tempt Him, as if out of mere curiosity about what the Teacher would say, for he himself knew what answer ought to be given. But one may ask about the path to salvation not from idle curiosity, but from a sincere desire to receive a direct answer to it—an unknown or forgotten answer, asking out of vital need, because the soul aches and the heart is tormented by uncertainty—what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Such painful uncertainty is all the more natural when the realm of thought surrounding the questioners is most uncertain, and when they encounter disagreement in the writings and words of humans. And are we not in such a situation now? Look around and you will see that even those among us do not speak with one voice. One says, for instance: pray, and the Lord will save you; another says: weep, sorrow, and God will not despise you; a third says: give alms, and they will cover a multitude of sins; that one says: fast and give yourself to prayer in God’s house; and yet another says: abandon everything, flee to the desert and dwell there. So many different answers from our own! And these are all truths, saving principles with which one must inevitably meet on the path of salvation. As for those who count themselves among us but have ceased to be so—I mean Christians who have been drawn away by the spirit of the age and false wisdom—those who have appropriated some healthy notions borrowed from Christianity and imagined great things for themselves, have left us and separated themselves in heart from Christ the Lord, though their lips still confess Him—as for them, among them there is even more sad and painful disagreement, turning away from the path of truth and wandering at the crossroads of falsehood. Have you yourselves not sometimes heard in conversation, or read in a book, how some people reason about an order of things that ought to be according to their understanding, instead of what now exists? About the salvation of the soul there is not a whisper. Eternal blessedness, if it is even acknowledged, is already considered as if possessed, as some right of humanity, and all care is turned to how, as an addition to that, to sweeten earthly life and turn it from sorrowful into paradise. In this spirit one person proclaims: believe nothing but your own mind, follow the impulses of your nature, be independent, live for your own pleasure and do not allow another’s hand to lie upon your neck—and you will be happy; another preaches: wherever public entertainments, theaters, and such things are not found—there life is not life. There you hear: one cannot go by the straight path, one needs the skill to live—the skill to conduct affairs so as not to lose one’s interest and not let others discover one’s plans, intentions, and feelings (this they call prudence…); here it is said that if you do not defend your honor and dignity, you will perish.

Do you notice what dark philosophy this all is! Yet it constitutes, one might say, the foundation of worldly customs, and you can encounter it freely in common conversation, in large gatherings, in printed books—not just one. Now imagine what must occur in the mind and heart of your acquaintance, and sometimes, perhaps, your daughter and your son, when in one place, another, a third, they encounter such words, when in one book they read such thoughts, and in another and a third even worse—and this not for one day or month, but for whole years; when moreover they see around themselves customs saturated with the same spirit, and then in their own heart, tempted by seductions, whimsical thoughts arise, shaking their good disposition—imagine that all these varied impressions come together at once in a young, and perhaps not young, soul—what then must such a heart feel, especially a heart that has not yet forgotten the Lord and treasures the word of truth that came from God’s lips? I hear from the depths of that heart a cry like the cry of the apostles frightened by a storm, and of Peter beginning to sink: Lord! Save me, I perish. Lord! What shall I do to be saved? Mothers and fathers! Do you hear this cry?

Do not think that I have been carried away. No! I deliberately wished to show how natural it is, especially now, to ask about the path to salvation, or the path to the Kingdom of Heaven. And I am certain that if the Lord Himself were now to stand here among us, all those seeking solid good and seeing how the present spirit, present teaching, present order contradict one another, would all as one turn to the Lord first of all with the question: Lord! What shall we do to inherit eternal life? What shall we do to be saved? But, brothers, the Lord is “yesterday and today and forever the same” (Heb. 13:8). Then to the Jew He told him to seek the answer in the law: “what is written in the law…, how do you read it?” (Lk. 10:26) Now to the Christian He would undoubtedly command to turn to the Holy Gospel—in general to the New Testament teaching or to God’s Church—and would ask him: what is contained here, how do you understand it? It is evident that the Lord, turning the Jew’s attention to the law, wished to impress upon him: you have no need to ask, the path of salvation is inscribed in the law; do thus—and you will be saved. The law was given for that very purpose, to lead you to salvation. Something similar should be said to Christians, troubled by the doubts that have been cast upon them: you have no need to ask! Christianity itself is the sole path to salvation. Be true Christians—and you will be saved. But what is the holy Church for, what are the dogmas and commandments for, what are the holy Mysteries for, our fasts, vigils, prayers, blessings, and more? All this, all that is held by the holy Church, is the sure path to salvation. Whoever sincerely receives and diligently fulfills all that the holy Church commands is not outside the path of salvation. Therefore if this is in us, we should not share in questioning, but should glorify God; not seek where salvation is, but receive it ready, lying before us or embracing us; with all our strength offer glory, honor, and worship to the Lord who saves us in His holy Church. What then should we do? Hold the sacred truths in reverence and walk unflinchingly in all the teachings, statutes, and decrees of the holy Church, heeding no empty musings of newfangled philosophy, which seeks to destroy all and builds nothing.

I think that in our minds there still remains uncertainty—what exactly must we do to be saved? Now I will answer you in a few words: believe in all that the holy Church commands you to believe, and, receiving the gracious powers through the Mysteries and kindling them through all other sacred services, prayers, and institutions of the holy Church, walk unflinchingly in the path of the commandments announced to us by the Lord Jesus Christ, under the guidance of lawful shepherds—and you will be saved. I defer a detailed exposition of this to another time and conclude my words with a prayer that the Lord grant you light and understanding, so that you may know Him and clearly understand the path of salvation that He brought to earth and established in the Church and through which so many holy people have already been led to paradise—that you too all may not be deprived of this blessed hope. Amen.

Instruction Two

From our previous discourse there remains for us the explanation of one quite important position. We told you that now too, amid the great disagreement of the people around us, it is natural to ask: Lord! What must I do to inherit eternal life? Lord! What shall we do to be saved? We also said that such a question is unnecessary for a Christian living in the heart of Christ’s Church, according to the spirit of Christianity; because Christianity itself is the sole path, traced by God on earth, to the Eternal Kingdom, or the path to salvation. Why should one who walks this saving path ask about the path to salvation? Be a true Christian—and you will be in paradise; be a true Christian—and you will be saved.

But it may not be clear to everyone what it means to be a true Christian, or what exactly Christianity presents as an indispensable condition for salvation and at the same time as a decisive sign that someone is heading to eternal life and not to ruin. Explanation of this very point remained for us. Then we answered this with a general statement—now we will elucidate it in detail, taking as our guide a comparison of the path to salvation with an ordinary road.

For one preparing to travel, to complete his journey successfully, he must know this path, know its direction and length, as well as all that might be encountered along its course; and in the actual traveling he must see both it and all that surrounds it. So too the Christian wishing to attain eternal life must know both the path leading to it and everything connected to it, all that is above it, around it, and ahead of it—he must illuminate the intellectual atmosphere with a collection of sound notions about all that exists and happens. He must know: what is God? What is this world, how it stands and where is it led? What are we, why are we here and what awaits us beyond the grave? How should we conduct ourselves in relation to all that surrounds us: toward the supreme Being—God, toward our brothers—humans, and toward the invisible world—angels and saints? He who knows all this walks in light; but he who does not know sits in darkness, and if he should try to walk, he will stumble, because darkness blinds his eyes. And only Christianity dispels this darkness, giving true answers to all this in its teaching. It teaches that God, in the Trinity worshipped—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—created all by a single word of His, sustains all by the word of His power, and leads all to His appointed purpose, and especially preserves man and, when he fell, supernaturally restores him in Christ the Savior, enlightening him through revelations and guiding him by commandments, which determine all his necessary relations and constitute properly the path which he should follow. The sum of all these notions is the light pointing us to the path and illuminating it. So learn the Orthodox teaching of Christianity and hold it with all your heart—and you will see the path into the Kingdom, all that surrounds this path, and all that might be met in its course. This is the first.

But let one know the path, and let the path be illuminated—what good is this knowledge if there is no strength to walk it? A sick man, paralyzed, without legs, lying by the path he must necessarily walk—and so necessarily that if he does not walk, he will perish—will only be more distressed by knowing and seeing this path. We would be in such a position if the Lord, having enlightened us with the light of knowledge, had not given us strength to walk according to this light’s guidance; for we ourselves cannot walk, we have no strength, we are paralyzed, we are broken. But do not be troubled! “All… the divine powers… that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3) have been prepared for us by the Lord, who called us “into His marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9), and are given to every believer in the holy Mysteries of the Church, given abundantly, as much as each desires and is able to receive. Baptism regenerates, chrismation strengthens, holy communion most truly unites with the Lord Jesus Christ, holy repentance raises up the fallen, who falls again after baptism, and so forth. Every Mystery gives a special divine strength needed by man on the path to the Kingdom of Heaven… So, knowing the Mysteries held by the Church, be as often as possible a partaker of them with faith and according to all the order established in the holy Church of God—and the divine powers necessary to complete the path to the Kingdom of Heaven will never be exhausted in you. This is the second.

But on the path our strength can weaken and be exhausted, temptations and enticements can meet us. From the first our walking should cease; from the second we should take a false direction; the end of both is ruin. What is to be done? One must renew strength and cast off temptations and enticements. What is needed for this? One thing—to unflinchingly fulfill all the statutes of the Church and all her rites—the sacred services, prayers, and rites of sanctification. And here is why! In the holy Mysteries we receive the grace of the Holy Spirit as a divine spark falling into our nature. As for a spark that has fallen into matter to turn into flame, air is necessary and movement of that air, so likewise a certain atmosphere is necessary and movement of that atmosphere for the divine spark of grace that we receive in the Mysteries to penetrate our nature and turn into flame—this atmosphere is constituted by our churchness: all the rites of sacred services, prayers, and sequences of the Church surrounding a person in all his circumstances; and the movement of this atmosphere is the unceasing succession of the Church’s sacred rites one after another and man’s continuous participation now in one, now in another. Here are meant the daily services: vespers, matins, the liturgy, church feasts, processions, prayers for various occasions—in homes and churches, pilgrimage to holy places, and most especially the holy fasts with confession and communion of the Holy Mysteries. The more zealously one participates in all these sequences, the more strongly the spark of grace will burn in him until it becomes a flame consuming his entire being—soul and body. He who acts thus will never exhaust his strength, will never lose courage on the path, and will not fall into carelessness. This same way is also given us to cast off the temptations and distractions of the world. He who lives according to the Church’s rule, like one hidden behind a hedge, does not fear its seductions. Churchness is like a chanting and exorcism against the darkening produced by the breath of worldly spirit. If this infection touches someone—flee to church and it will depart; or be unfailingly faithful to the Church’s guidance—and the world will find no opportunity to touch you; for all that exists in the world exists also in our Church, only in its purest and most divine form… There are entertainments—we have holy feasts; there are balls—we have church services; there are theaters—we have divine sacred rites. Let each compare which is better and do not be seduced by empty enticements or abandon what is true, fruitful, and nourishing for them. So live by the Church—and you will live as in a spiritual atmosphere and a fence, your strength will never weaken in you to continue the path, and no enticements will lead you astray. This is the third.

To avoid wearying you, I will speak the fourth point briefly.

There may be obstacles on the path one cannot imagine how to overcome; there may be snares spread that one cannot avoid; there may be junctions of paths where one cannot determine which way to go; a cloud may come that will hide the path entirely and terrify with thunder and lightning—to whom then should one turn? What is to be done? Who will help in all such cases? Angels from Heaven? But they appear only in extraordinary circumstances, leaving the usual course of affairs to the order existing among us. So who will help? Shepherds—spiritual fathers, who are given to the Church, according to the apostle, so as not to allow Christians to be swept away by confusion and to lead all unfailingly on the path to eternal life, teaching each to attain “to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). So be obedient to the guidance of spiritual fathers—and you will avoid wrong paths and stumbling blocks on the way to the Kingdom of Heaven, and will quickly and safely reach the gates of paradise.

Here is all that Christianity offers us regarding the path of salvation: (1) to know and hold the Christian teaching, which imparts sound notions about all that exists and points out the very path to the Kingdom—in the commandments; (2) to be under the action of the holy Mysteries of the Church, through which are given the powers that pertain to life and godliness; (3) to participate in all the sacred rites, prayers, and sequences of the Church as appointed by the rule, so as thereby to kindle in ourselves the spark of God’s grace and cast off the enchantments of the world; (4) to entrust ourselves to the guidance of lawful shepherds and spiritual fathers and obey their guiding instructions. So learn and hold in your heart all that the holy Church teaches, and, receiving the gracious powers through the Mysteries and kindling them through all other sacred rites of the Church, walk unfailingly in the path of the commandments written for us by the Lord Jesus Christ, under the guidance of lawful shepherds—and you will undoubtedly attain the Kingdom of Heaven and be saved. Amen.

Instruction Three

In the previous discourse we arrived at the following conclusion: know and hold in your heart all that the holy Church teaches, and, receiving divine powers through the Mysteries and kindling them through all other sacred rites and prayers of the Church, walk unfailingly in the path of the commandments commanded to us by the Lord Jesus Christ, under the guidance of lawful shepherds—and you will undoubtedly attain the Kingdom of Heaven and be saved. And this is the answer, the direct and sole answer to every questioner: what must I do to inherit eternal life? All who have been saved were saved thus, and not by another means, and all who are now being saved are saved thus, and not otherwise.

There would be nothing more to say about this. But I fear there may be someone among you who judges this wrongly. Does not someone think that not everything said is equally necessary, or not all of it is necessary for everyone—that without something one might perhaps get by, not diminishing one’s salvation; something might be left to choice, not being obligatory for all. For this reason I feel compelled to make clear to you that all we have said, that is, sound teaching of faith, living by the commandments, receiving the Mysteries, participation in all the prayers of the Church, and guidance of lawful shepherds—all this is essentially necessary in the work of salvation, so that salvation is accomplished only where all these are present together; where something is lacking, the work of salvation is subjected to great danger and corrupted. For what salvation can be expected by one who does not hold the true teaching of faith and the Church, and thinks wrongly either about God, the world, and man, or about our present corrupted state, or about the means of our restoration, which is unique, or about death and our future fate, or about any dogma whatsoever, when the Lord Himself says that if someone denies “His words” “in this adulterous and sinful generation,” He also will deny that one before His Father in Heaven (Mk. 8:38)? And whom will the Lord deny, where will such a place be? Surely not in the Kingdom of Heaven. Yet there are people who say: believe as you wish, only live well and fear nothing—as if one can live well without having sound notions about the subjects conveyed by true faith. Do not be deceived, brothers! True life consists not only of conduct but also of a sound way of thinking, so that whoever lacks the latter should not be said to have a corrected and good life. On the other hand, to live well means to live in a way pleasing to God; a life pleasing to God is entirely conducted according to God’s will, and one of the first determinations of God’s will toward us is to believe in Him whom He sent, that is, in the Lord Jesus Christ and His divine teaching. Therefore he who says: believe as you wish, only live well, when truly believing is a commandment, resembles a man who undermines the foundation upon which he seeks to build a house, or one who wishes to cross a river on a boat that he himself consciously shatters under himself.

What salvation can be expected by one who transgresses any of God’s commandments, for example: the commandment of righteousness or mercy, temperance or diligence, chastity or non-possession, marital fidelity or any other, lessening the gravity of his sins by some distortion, saying: nature draws me, the heart demands; or trying to hide their ugly appearance from conscience by some visible, not overly difficult works of piety, for example: attending churches, acquiring precious icons, and lighting lamps? What salvation, I say, can be expected by such people, when it is directly said that if you wish “to enter into life, keep the commandments” (Mt. 19:17)? That the unrighteous, of whatever kind, cannot inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9)? External works of piety are indeed necessary, and essentially necessary, in the work of salvation, but not these alone: there is also the necessity of fulfilling all the other commandments of God. “These you ought to have done,” says the Lord, “and not left the others undone” (Mt. 23:23). As one cannot walk without legs or fly without wings, so one cannot attain the Kingdom of Heaven without fulfilling the commandments.

How again do some willfully contrive to accomplish their salvation by themselves, not receiving the divine powers pertaining to life and godliness through the holy Mysteries and not kindling them through the sacred rites and prayers of the Church? I have already explained that we, fallen creatures, are weak and cannot take a single step on the good path without special grace; that this grace is received in the holy Mysteries and, when received, is like a small spark at first, which then grows into flame through active participation in all the rites of the holy Church of God. All this is clear in itself and is known by experience and attested by all. Yet there are people who say: all this churchness is necessary for the simple folk; for those who understand the matter, mental, spiritual, or heartfelt service to God alone is sufficient. Blessed are you, simple souls, who unhesitatingly receive all and readily obey every voice of the Church! You are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in due season. But those who understand the matter—in their own way, of course—are like in a spiritual sense thin grass growing on dry, stony, or sandy ground, showing barely weak signs of life; or worse still: they are like seeds smothered in the earth itself, not sprouted or frozen. Imagine rain, snow, and fierce wind in the weather, and place a person in such weather in the open air without proper clothing—how long will he live? Precisely in such circumstances are those who shun the Mysteries and all our life-giving churchness. Such people are pitiable! Egoism and willfulness gnaw at their bones.

Finally, the Lord chose apostles, the apostles entrusted their work to bishops, appointing presbyters as their helpers. All of them together constitute the divinely-established pastorate in the Church, whose work is to lead all to the measure of a complete man, “to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13), sanctifying through the Mysteries, kindling through sacred rites, and especially guiding by counsel through the many-forked path toward spiritual perfection. And thanks be to the Lord that it is so! We are blind; as the blind need a guide, so we need one to point out the path to God’s Kingdom—in many cases we need a person who, as it were, took us by the hands and led us out of the confusion of thoughts and feelings into which the enemy and our own lack of understanding sometimes casts us. Do not say that the guide for all is God’s word—we ourselves will read and see what is necessary. God’s word contains general guidance for all, but what exactly is necessary for me and in my circumstances must be explained by another—a living, experienced voice. Without this, I must wander at crossroads and be in constant danger. And this is why pastoral guidance and counsel is needful to us. How then do some, and perhaps not a few, seem to think that they have no other obligations toward their shepherd than to call upon him when the need arises to perform a Mystery or some other sacred rite? Such people forget that “where there is no guidance, the people fall, but in abundance of counselors there is safety” (Prov. 11:14).

From all that has been said the same conclusion comes forth again: if you desire salvation—know and hold in your heart all that the holy Church teaches, and, receiving divine powers through the Mysteries and kindling them through all the sacred rites and prayers of the Church, walk unfailingly in the path of the commandments commanded to us by the Lord Jesus Christ, under the guidance of lawful shepherds—and you will undoubtedly attain the Kingdom of God and be saved. All this is essentially necessary in the work of salvation, necessary all together and for all. Whoever does not accept or rejects one thing has no salvation—he will not heal his infirmities and will not escape illness. The Church of God is a healer holding in her structure the cure for every spiritual sickness of ours. The component parts of this cure are: Orthodox teaching, life according to the commandments, the Mysteries with the sacred rites of the Church, and the guidance of shepherds. As in bodily illnesses medicine is healing only when it is composed of all the substances listed in the prescription, so in our spiritual illness healing can only come to us when we receive all the elements comprising the sole cure of our spirit—Christianity, or the Church. Take away some element from bodily medicine—it will no longer have its effect. Do not receive something that necessarily enters into Christianity or the Church—and you yourself deprive yourself of healing so necessary to you, and consequently remain in the same uncured, ruinous state—thus you will not be saved and will not see the Kingdom of Heaven. Amen.

Instruction Four

Discussing before the path to salvation, we learned that whoever desires to save his soul must know and reverently hold the divine teaching of the holy faith, must receive divine powers through the holy Mysteries and kindle them through all church sacred rites, and then with their help walk the path of God’s commandments under the guidance of lawful shepherds. We also saw how all this is necessary, and necessary all together, so that it is vain to flatter oneself with hope of salvation if one willfully rejects any one of these elements that accomplish salvation.

Turning now to ourselves—to the order of life that prevails among us—what do we find? We find that all this already works among us, that we are not deprived of lawful, divinely-established pastorate through which the saving Mysteries are performed for us with all sacred rites, the holy faith is proclaimed and God’s commandments are interpreted; that consequently we possess all the means pertaining to life and godliness, or we live in a saving, so to speak, atmosphere.

Salvation is so close to us that it can, as it were, be touched. How painful it will be if, at the hour when the destiny of each of us will be decided, we find that we have not accomplished our salvation! Thinking of this, one cannot hold back from the question again: what then shall we do? What shall we do with these divine means of salvation, that we may be saved?

Here is what we shall do:

1. Let us give thanks to the Lord for His good will toward us—let us give thanks that as soon as we are born we enter into a saving environment and find ready all that is necessary for salvation, and before we come to consciousness we are already carried along the saving path—by the common flow of the saved. As in visible nature the tiniest insect, when born, finds all that is necessary for its existence around itself, so the Lord surrounds us with warm care as soon as we appear in the world, and continues this care until the end of our lives. From the cradle our Mother Church takes us into her embrace—regenerates us to new life, nourishes us and guards us on all our paths, and does not leave us until she commits us to the grave with words comforting for the living and not powerless for the departed: “give eternal rest to the servant, O Lord, in blessed repose,” or “to the handmaid.” By what have we deserved all this? By nothing. There are many nations that know not the true path. Those born among them must labor hard to seek this path, and will they find it? But we enter it without any effort on our part, we find it without seeking. Why is it so? Only God knows. But in all of this action of divine providence we cannot help but see a special will of God toward us.

Let us give thanks to the Lord for all this divine providence toward us! Let us give thanks also for the conviction itself that we possess truly saving means; for bound up with this conviction is another conviction—in God’s special nearness to us, in the fact that the one true God is our God and we are His people. And there can be no greater blessing than this on earth.

2. Hearing this, more than one of you may be ready to exclaim, as if already grasping salvation: My Lord and my God! But do not forget, brothers, the word of the Lord: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom” of God (Mt. 7:21). So again the question: what else must we do? Here is what we must do. With all our thought, all our heart, and all our strength let us give ourselves to this divine ordering of our salvation, namely:

a) Let us keep “an unshakeable conviction” in the truth of this ordering of salvation and its urgent necessity for all. Ah, brothers! Overcome the temptation of your mind and the false wisdom that reaches your ears from others. Do not give way to doubts and do not allow the rash and proud questioning—“why this” and “what for that?” “It would be better thus” or “so”—to shake the peace of your faith. Repel these seductions. We are not the first. How many have already been saved by this path! We are sick, we are being treated. Does a doctor explain to a sick patient why he treats him thus and not otherwise? Let us be silent and humbly submit to all as to God’s ordering;
b) and not only this; let us also add “sympathy” to all this ordering, that is, so arrange ourselves that our heart finds satisfaction both in the worthy reception of the Holy Mysteries and in every worship service and sacred rite, in listening to the proclamation of divine truths, in heeding the guidance and counsel of shepherds, and in every work generally prescribed by God’s law. Whoever has sympathy for something is drawn to it. Whoever has sympathy for the works of salvation is drawn to them. Has someone sympathy for something else? Toward that he runs. That is why while some hasten to church, others go to the theater, a ball, or an entertainment… But you yourselves know what to expect from the latter. Transfer your heart from these vain places into the glorious realm of God and find there comfort and the fullness of heart’s content. Where your treasure is, says the Lord, there your heart will be. Thus, where your heart is, there is your treasure. What treasures does the world offer? And are they worth defiling the heart with them, a heart destined to be the dwelling place of God? Let none think that it is possible to combine both! No, it cannot be. Our heart is one and simple, so that where it is, there all is, and in another thing it is no longer there, and cannot be. Therefore he who is in the world with his heart is in the Church without his heart. And conversely, he who is in the Church with his heart is in the world without his heart. He must be without his heart somewhere. And without a heart—what kind of life is that! In the world it is good to be without a heart, but in God’s Church to be without a heart means to be a hypocrite before the eyes of God, before the all-seeing God.

That is why everything prescribed must be accompanied by:

c) “zealous, unfailing, and unmixed fulfillment of all” that is required for salvation. If one thing, then one thing: you wish to be saved, hold to the works of salvation; you do not wish, do as you please—only know that you cannot serve God and wealth. Let us resolve, brothers, to go firmly the path of salvation, not turning either to the right or to the left. Let us reject double-mindedness and straighten our halting feet! What would you say of a sick person who lies in a good hospital, is watched over by a good doctor, receives medicines directly against his illness, and neglects all this—does not listen to the doctor, does not take the medicines? What would you say also of someone standing before a clear spring, feeling thirsty and having the opportunity, even being urged, to quench his thirst from this very spring, who instead abandons it and runs to a river full of mud, reptiles, and stench, and drinks from it, water that does not quench his thirst? Certainly you would not approve of either. But will we not pronounce this judgment upon ourselves if, possessing all the means of salvation, we do not use them as we should? And will not God’s reproach be directed at us: “They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and dug for themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jer. 2:13). Thus, brothers, thanks be to the Lord that He has, in His great mercy, brought His salvation so close to us. But let us also exert our own effort! The path of salvation is indicated and made clear. It is before us. Yet we will not be saved if we do not walk this path! Look once more at all the ordering of this path together! We have said: know and hold the teaching of faith and, receiving power through the Mysteries, walk the path of the commandments under the guidance of shepherds. Here knowledge of faith and the commandments, the Mysteries with all the sacred rites and the guidance of shepherds constitute the ordering of the saving path, which is outside us. The work of salvation itself consists in what? In walking this path. Let us walk then! “Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2). Amen.

Instruction Five

While I was thinking what to say to you in conclusion of our discourses about the path to salvation, there came to mind a story which I once read in one of the ancient paterica (collections of the fathers’ sayings). It is very close to what we have been discussing, and I do not consider it superfluous to pass it on to you now in the form it presents itself in my mind.

A certain wise elder, living in remote solitude, fell into despair, and darkness of thought began to crush his soul, suggesting to him doubt whether he was proceeding rightly and whether there was hope that his labors would finally be crowned with success. The elder sat with bowed head. His heart ached, but his eyes gave no tears. Dry sorrow tormented him. While he was thus afflicted with grief, an angel of the Lord appeared to him and said: “Why are you troubled and why do such thoughts enter your heart? You are not the first and not the last to walk this path. Many have already traveled it, many are traveling, and many will travel it to the bright mansions of paradise. Come, I will show you the different paths by which the sons of men walk, and also where these paths lead. Look—and be instructed!”

Obeying the angel’s gesture, the elder rose and went; but hardly had he taken a few steps forward when he became lost in thought and was absorbed in contemplation of a wondrous vision that opened to his spiritual eyes. On his left he saw dense darkness, like an impenetrable wall, from within which were heard noise, turmoil, and confusion. Looking more carefully into the darkness, he saw a wide river in which waves moved back and forth, to the right and to the left; and each time a wave appeared before his eyes, someone distinctly seemed to whisper in his ear: this is a wave of disbelief, heedlessness, indifference; this is one of cruelty, debauchery, bribery; this is one of luxury, amusement, envy, discord; and this one of drunkenness, impurity, idleness, infidelity of spouses, and so on and so on; and every wave turned before him an innumerable multitude of people, raising them from the river and plunging them again into its depths. In horror the elder cried out: “Lord! Will all these perish and is there no hope of salvation for them?” The angel said to him: “Look farther—and you will see God’s mercy and truth!”

The elder looked again at the river and saw it along its entire width and length covered with small boats in which sat radiant youths with every kind of instrument for the rescue of the drowning. They called all to themselves and extended hands to some, lowered rods and boards to others, threw ropes to yet others, and sometimes thrust hooks and grapples into the depths, trying to catch anyone there who might come forth.

And what happened? Very few responded to their call, and fewer still made proper use of the rescue instruments offered to them. The greater part scornfully rejected them and with a kind of wild delight sank in this river, which gave off vapor, stench, and smoke. The elder extended his gaze far along the river and at its end saw an abyss into which it plunged. Youths in great number swam swiftly in boats here and there, right at the edge of the abyss, carefully offering help to all; but despite this, every minute, at every point of the river, whole thousands of people together with the river were cast into the abyss, from which were heard only cries of despair and grinding of teeth. The elder covered his face and wept.

And there came a voice from Heaven: “It is bitter, but who is to blame? Tell Me, what more could I have done for their salvation that I did not do? But they obstinately reject all the help offered to them. They would reject Me if I came down to help them in the most hopeless places of their suffering.”

Having found some comfort, the elder turned his eyes to the right, toward the bright east, and was consoled by a glorious vision. Those who, heeding the call of the radiant youths, gave them a hand or grasped at some instrument of salvation, were drawn by them to the right shore.

Here they were received by other persons, who led them into small, orderly buildings scattered in great numbers along the whole length of the shore, where they were washed with clean water, clothed in clean garments, girded, shod, given a staff, and, after being strengthened with food, sent on their way—farther to the east, with the command not to look back, to go without stopping, to look carefully at their feet, and not to pass a single building like the others without entering it to refresh themselves in it with food and counsel from those whose care these buildings are entrusted to, as well as to all who enter them.

The elder swept his eyes along the shore and saw that along its entire length these rescued people were preparing for their journey. Joy and courage were imprinted on the face of all. It was evident that they all felt a special lightness and strength and were irresistibly drawn to the path, the first stages of which were strewn with pleasant flowers.

The elder then turned his gaze farther to the east, and behold what was revealed to him!

A pleasant meadow ended not far from the shore; beyond it mountains began, lying in ridges in different directions. They rose higher and higher, intersected by chasms, now bare and rocky, now covered with shrubs and forests. Everywhere on them were seen traveling laborers. One was climbing a steep slope, another sat in exhaustion or stood lost in thought; that one was struggling with a beast or serpent; one was going straight to the east, another in an oblique direction, and yet another was cutting across the paths of others; but all were in labor and sweat, in struggle and straining of body and soul. Seldom did a traveler always see the road: often it vanished entirely or scattered into many paths; in some places mist and darkness hid it, in others a chasm or steep cliff blocked it; there wild beasts from the forest or venomous serpents from the crevices barred the way. But here is what is marvelous! Everywhere on the mountains there were scattered beautiful buildings, like those into which the rescued ones were first received. As soon as a traveler entered them, as he was commanded in the beginning, then, no matter how exhausted he was before, he came out refreshed and full of strength. Then beasts and serpents could not endure his gaze and fled from him; no obstacles halted him for long, and he easily and quickly found the hidden path according to the directions he received in those buildings. Every time someone overcame an obstacle or defeated an enemy, he became stronger, taller, and more handsome; the higher one climbed, the more beautiful and luminous he became. Near the summit of the mountain the land became smooth and flower-covered again; but those who entered it soon passed into a bright cloud or mist from which they appeared no more.

The elder raised his eyes above this cloud and from beyond it or beyond the mountain saw wondrous light of indescribable beauty, from which came to him sweet sounds: “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord of Hosts!” (Is. 6:3) The elder, moved with compunction, fell to the ground, and over him sounded the word of the Lord: “Run thus so that you may attain” (1 Cor. 9:24).

Rising again to his feet, the elder saw that from various heights of the mountain a considerable number of travelers in different places were swiftly running back to the river, some in silence, others with shouts and curses and abusive words. To each of them calls came from above and from the sides: “Stop, stop!” But driven by some small, dark-skinned beings, they did not heed the warning and again sank into the foul-smelling river. Then the elder cried out in astonishment: “Lord! What is this?” And he heard in reply: “The fruit of self-will and disobedience to the divinely-established order!”

The angel showing this to the elder then asked him: “Are you comforted?” And the elder bowed to him to the ground.

I think, brothers, there is no need for me to say much to explain this vision for you. The river is the world; the people sunk in it are those living according to the spirit of the world, in passions, vices, and sins; the radiant youths in boats are angels and the grace generally calling to salvation; the abyss into which the river plunges is ruin; the beautiful building on the right shore is the Church, where through the Mysteries of repentance or baptism the converted sinners are washed from their sins, clothed in the garment of justification, girded with power from on high, and set on the path to salvation; the ascent of the mountain with its various difficulties represents the different labors in cleansing the heart from passions; the beasts and serpents are the enemies of salvation; the smooth land toward the summit is the pacification of the heart; the bright cloud hiding the travelers is the peaceful death; the light beyond the mountain is the paradise of the blessed; the buildings scattered on the mountain are the temples of God. Whoever enters these buildings on the journey, that is, receives the Mysteries and participates in the sacred rites and prayers of the Church, makes use of the counsel and guidance of shepherds, easily overcomes all obstacles and quickly advances toward perfection.

But whoever willfully rejects them, not submitting to the guidance and counsel of shepherds, soon falls, and the spirit of the world draws him away again.

I consider any further exhortation to this unnecessary.

I only beg you, brothers, save yourselves from this wicked generation! Amen.

Scripture Index

Every Scripture reference identified in this book, sorted in canonical Bible order. Tap a reference to jump to the verse where it appears.

Proverbs
Proverbs 11:143. Instruction Three
Isaiah
Isaiah 6:35. Instruction Five
Jeremiah
Jeremiah 2:134. Instruction Four
Matthew
Matthew 7:214. Instruction Four
Matthew 19:173. Instruction Three
Matthew 23:233. Instruction Three
Mark
Mark 8:383. Instruction Three
Luke
Luke 10:251. Instruction One
Luke 10:261. Instruction One
1 Corinthians
1 Corinthians 6:93. Instruction Three
1 Corinthians 9:245. Instruction Five
2 Corinthians
2 Corinthians 6:24. Instruction Four
Ephesians

Ephesians 4:132. Instruction Two; 3. Instruction Three

Hebrews
Hebrews 13:81. Instruction One
1 Peter
1 Peter 2:92. Instruction Two
2 Peter
2 Peter 1:32. Instruction Two

The Author: Saint Theophan the Recluse

Saint Theophan the Recluse (1815–1894) is among the most beloved teachers of the spiritual life in the Russian Orthodox Church. He was born on 10 January 1815 in the village of Chernavsk, in the Oryol province of central Russia, and given the name Georgy Vasilyevich Govorov. His father was a parish priest, and the boy was raised in the ordered piety of a country rectory. He studied first at the theological school in Livny, then at the Oryol Seminary, and finally at the Kiev Theological Academy, from which he graduated in 1841. The ancient monasteries of Kiev, and above all the Monastery of the Caves, left a deep mark on him during those years.

In his last year as a student, in 1841, Georgy Govorov was tonsured a monk and given the name Theophan, after Saint Theophan the Confessor, a defender of the holy icons. He was soon ordained hieromonk and set on the path of teaching and administration in the Church’s schools: he served in the theological schools of Kiev, as inspector at Novgorod, and as an instructor in moral and pastoral theology at the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy. For several years he lived in the Christian East, attached to the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission, where in Jerusalem, Constantinople, and on Mount Athos he studied, copied, and gathered the writings of the Fathers that he would later render into Russian. In 1857 he was appointed rector of the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy.

In 1859 he was consecrated Bishop of Tambov and Shatsk, and in 1863 he was transferred to the ancient see of Vladimir. As a bishop he was known for gentleness, tireless preaching, and care for the education of his people, founding diocesan schools for girls in both dioceses. Yet the labours of administration drew him away from the inner life he most desired. In 1866, at his own request, he was released from the government of his diocese and withdrew to the Vyshensky Hermitage, a quiet monastery he had come to love while at Tambov.

At Vysha, Saint Theophan gradually gave himself wholly to prayer and writing. Beginning in 1872 he entered strict reclusion: he no longer left his cell for the monastery church, received almost no visitors, and lived for the remaining years in two small rooms, celebrating the Divine Liturgy alone in a chapel he had arranged. This seclusion, far from being idleness, became the most fruitful period of his life. From it flowed the works for which he is remembered: The Path to Salvation and What the Spiritual Life Is; his translation and great expansion of the Philokalia (the Russian Dobrotolyubie) and of other monastic writings; Unseen Warfare; his commentaries on almost all the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, together with expositions of several Psalms; and an immense correspondence, in which he answered, often at the rate of dozens of letters a day, the spiritual questions of people throughout Russia. In 1890 the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy conferred on him a doctorate in theology.

Saint Theophan reposed on 6 January 1894, the Feast of the Theophany whose name he bore, at the age of seventy-nine, and was buried at the Vysha monastery. In 1988, during the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church that celebrated the millennium of the Baptism of Rus’, he was numbered among the saints. His feast is kept on 10 January.

His significance for the Church lies in the way he gathered the whole ascetical and patristic inheritance of Orthodoxy and made it speak to ordinary Christians. He wrote not for specialists but for anyone seeking God, tracing with unusual clarity the movements of the heart, the discipline of unceasing prayer, and the long work by which grace and human freedom together bring a soul to salvation. In his Scripture commentaries this same pastoral aim is at work: he reads the sacred text through the eyes of the ancient Fathers and turns every doctrine toward the reader’s own inner life. For this the Russian Church honours him as a Father in her own age and a sure guide on the path of salvation.

Colophon

Five Instructions on the Path to Salvation
by Theophan the Recluse.

This edition was produced by
Royal Archives.

The cover features
Rainbow (Радуга, 1900–1905)
by Arkhip Kuindzhi (Russian, 1841/42–1910), Wikimedia Commons, which is in the public domain.

The text is set in Palatino and Georgia.

The first edition of this ebook was released on
August 16, 2026.

Table of Contents

- Title Page
- Copyright
- Introduction
- Instruction One
- Instruction Two
- Instruction Three
- Instruction Four
- Instruction Five
- Scripture Index
- The Author: Saint Theophan the Recluse
- Colophon