If you are looking for love for yourself – you are deceived and on the way to hell! We go to Church not for love for ourselves (because I am already loved – I am divinely loved every moment!), but for the fire of Love, to Love! Therefore, in the Church – painful, burning (“hellish”) treatment from pride-egoism, the cross-patience (“he who endures to the end will be saved-healed!”), not enjoyment-bliss from love for oneself beloved and dear! Love is a Cross!!! The Church is a Hospital, a Healer from the disease of pride-egoism, lovelessness, emptiness, meaninglessness, therefore, as a loving Mother, to all who come to Her, offers (in the Divine Love of the Holy Spirit) medicine and treatment – God’s commandments and the Cross (announcement – until the patient humbles himself), further (after announcement-preparation with commandments and the Cross) surgery (baptism with the Holy Spirit, transplantation of the Body of Christ), and then a long rehabilitation (Eucharist and Cross: assimilation of the New Body of Christ). But people, as soon as they hear about the Cross treatment (“Through many tribulations, we must enter the Kingdom of God!”), run away, and do not even want to listen about the Cross (“foolishness, temptation”), they go further looking (if anyone is still looking?!) for what resonates with their egoism-pride, – so that egoism does not suffer and love to be felt!? Complete deception, self-deception and foolishness!
In the Church, they fight for Love, to acquire Love (for Others), because everyone is already Divinely Loved! Therefore, a Church listener (one who listens to the word of God and fulfills it), zealously fulfills all God’s commandments (He who loves Me keeps My commandments (the will, desire) of the Beloved, that is, God. And every commandment-willingness of God is Love and Good-Wellbeing. One can only fulfill the Good will of the neighbor (Other)). The announced one tries to love (even if he does not have Love, which is a Gift of God, God Himself, the Holy Spirit), and realizing his impotence, inability to love, – humbles himself and is contrite, and in humility and self-giving, in absolute (loving) trust in God (“I am the servant of the Lord…”) accepts the seed, the spark of Love (= the Holy Spirit), which in the Sacrament of the Eucharist is fanned into the eschatological flame of Eternal Life! Love is a gift given to those who strive to love (“needy, poor” in love), seek love (not for oneself, not selfish pleasure-favor) – communion, communication in Good with the Other! God gives grace, that is, Love, to the humble! Only meek and humble-hearted people love! Pure in heart from pride-egoism and its fumes – passions! In the hospital, we are not looking for pleasures and comfort (love for ourselves), but for health, healing! The main thing is good treatment – humbling pride, and everything else (politeness, compliments, correctness, smoothness, “pampering” – this should worry us the least: if such is present – good, and if not, then don’t need this oiliness-morality; on the contrary, we need and benefit (in moderation, timely and by strength): strictness towards us, persecution and reproach – deserved and undeserved, timely and untimely, but this is all at the discretion of the elder-friend-advisor!). There should be strictness and demandingness in the Church (towards oneself)!
We go to Church not because there I will be loved more (I am Divinely loved, regardless of where I am: in heaven or in hell; doing good or evil, sinning or not sinning; every created being is Divinely Loved at every moment: and the Most Holy Mother of God, and the devil, satan, all benefactors and all criminals, and all, and everything, but we receive love, feel love for ourselves directly proportional to our love (= humility) – who loves more, is more loved! The Mother of God loves God the most (the humblest), therefore the Most Blessed, the Most Graceful! In the Church, we feel more love (for ourselves) not because I began to be loved more, but because in the Church I am healed, that is, humbled, becoming capable of feeling love (seeing gifts, presents, and accepting them) and thanksgiving. The disciple whom the Lord loved – is the apostle of Love, who loved the Lord the most among all the apostles, therefore felt the Love of God the most! We go to Church not for love for ourselves (God is Love: we are Divinely Loved always and everywhere, and nothing can be added to this Love!), but for love for the Other, for the ability to love (= humility), for the power to love (and, as a consequence, to feel Love)! The one who seeks love for oneself – is deceived, because he seeks what he has fully (more than I am loved now – no one will ever love me more!), but what we really need is to love, to acquire love, to accept the Holy Spirit (“by Whom Love is poured into our hearts”)!
If you do not feel love for yourself in the church-parish (from the priest, the priest’s wife, the deacon, the sexton and from the parishioners-parishioners) or in the family (from the husband, wife, children, parents…) and this lack of love, this state (of deprivation, unhappiness) either stands still or even grows – then this is a warning signal for you! You are not improving, not healing, and the state of pride-egoism worsens and brings you closer to hell, hellish isolation, to self (better to be alone!?), or egoism-pride drives you (with the cooperation of the devil) to change the community-parish (or monastery), or to divorce, or run away from home (with the satanic thought: someone else will love me, love me better, more!? There is only one legitimate and necessary reason to change the church-parish – heresy; or when you follow (with discernment and advice) everything that your spiritual father-advisor tells you (“doctor”-assistant of the Healer Christ), and it gets worse for you (the symptoms of sin (flesh-egoism) are gaining strength – evil grows both in word and deed, or everything has stopped in place – this is a signal that something needs to change: either the ward in the hospital and the doctor (spiritual father-advisor), or yourself; in 99.9..9% of cases – you need to change yourself, that is, the reason is in me, not in the ward or in the friend-advisor! But now more than ever, let us be vigilant, for many heretics, false prophets, false teachers, antichrists have entered the world and the mystery of lawlessness is already working with incredible cunning, deceit, deception – in an angelic guise! Be vigilant! So as not to be tempted and instead of the Church of Christ not to fall into an autocephalous, canonical, local… synagogue of Satan, instead of the Shepherd to come across a wolf, instead of a doctor – on a seriously ill senseless cripple!!! The antichrist takes care that his followers feel good, that they always feel “love” (so that they do not forget that they are “loved”; so that human passions: lust, vanity, greed (at least in promises) are satisfied!), “freedom” (the egoist is given the freedom to indulge, satisfy his lusts: “to unbridle, to bridle”, that is, to subordinate to the will of the antichrist) – and modern people like this (permissiveness)! (We testified about this in detail in III ch. (theoretically and with examples-illustrations of modern reality, “by their fruits…”), now the situation has not improved, but on the contrary – everything is going to the end). Be vigilant and pray! Stand in the Truth!