Rejoice, Virgin Mary,
Blessed Mary, the Lord is with you;
Blessed are You among women, and blessed is the Fruit of Your womb,
For you gave birth to the Savior of our souls.

In Russian:

Mother of God Virgin Mary,
filled with the grace of God, rejoice!
The Lord is with You;

Blessed are You among women and blessed is the fruit,
Born of you, because you gave birth to the Savior of our souls.

Listen to prayer:

About prayer: Virgin Mary, rejoice... .

In 2018, on April 7, or 25 according to the old style, the entire Orthodox people remembers the great event - the Good News that Archangel Gabriel brought to the Virgin Mary. This holiday is called the Annunciation. Of the four evangelists, only Luke described this joyful event: Mary learned that the Savior of all people would be born to Her.

Virgin Mary, rejoice... - this is good news to the world

The Heavenly Messenger addressed Mary with a strange greeting: “Rejoice, Full of Grace! The Lord is with You, blessed are You among women.” These words became the beginning of one of the most common prayers: “Virgin Mother of God, rejoice.” The second part contains a greeting from her pious relative Elizabeth, who at that moment was preparing for the birth of the great prophet himself, John the Baptist.

Seeing Mary, she was filled with the Holy Spirit, and realized that before her was the Mother of the Messiah, whom the Jewish people were waiting for, according to the prophecies. Elizabeth, the first of the people, echoing the Archangel Gabriel, announced His imminent incarnation on earth, saying: “Blessed are You among women, and blessed is the fruit of Your womb.”

How often do you pray to the Mother of God?

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History of the spread of prayer

Beginning in the 5th century, after the Third Ecumenical Council, the “Angel's Message” (as this prayer is sometimes called) began to spread and was used everywhere when singing hymns and reading sermons in which the Blessed Virgin was praised. Similarly, the Romans sing Ave Maria, which means: Hail Mary...

Note: All Christians, regardless of denomination, venerate the Mother of God, but we have a special relationship with Her: She is the patroness of Russia, who has repeatedly shown miracles of salvation from enemies.

Over time, hymns became part of the Divine Service, as the troparion of Vespers at the all-night Sunday vigil. At Matins - mentioned three times. It is used without restrictions in home and cell prayers and is included in the morning and evening rules. And Seraphim of Sarov recommended: if you cannot master the Rule, replace it with reading the most important prayers:

• Our Father - 3 times;
• Virgin Mary, rejoice... – 3 times;
• Symbol of faith - 1 time.

He gave advice to those who practice unceasing prayer: before lunch, read to the Mother of God..., and after to Jesus: "Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner". Even during his lifetime, the Mother of God Herself appeared to the holy priest several times, to whom he incessantly prayed. On Her instructions, a ditch was dug around the Diveyevo Monastery.

They walk along it reading 150 prayers “Virgin Mother of God, rejoice.” You can use a certain scheme, which is borrowed from Catholics, the so-called Rosary (when, after every ten Songs of the Mother of God, they remember the events of her life and say the prayer “Our Father”).

When they read “Virgin Mother of God, Rejoice”

In addition to divine services, rules and canons, people turn to the Most Holy One on various occasions and needs. She responds to our requests quickly and quickly, since the Lord cannot refuse Her anything. While maintaining reverence for the Queen of Heaven in your heart, you can use this prayer:

• Bless the food.
• Ask for cover and protection when leaving home.
• Protect from dangers while on the road or at work.
• Stop the flow of bad thoughts.
• Soften the hearts of evil people when they offend or insult.
• Correct family troubles, troubles, sorrows, illnesses.
• Calm anger, drive away demons, attract calm, etc.

Note: You can make requests in your own words by saying the words of this Song three times. If protection is needed constantly, then the prayer is read continuously as soon as the opportunity arises.

How to pray correctly?

For prayer to help, it must be done correctly. It's hard work and not everyone gets the results they want. The holy fathers, who had the fruits of prayer, give advice on how to learn to have a request fulfilled.

The main thing is the faith with which a person turns to the Mother of God, and inner repentant humility. Pray like children who ask something from the most loving mother. Simeon of Athos wrote a lot about this:

• The words of a short prayer pronounced with attention will be heard by the Lord (Mother of God) faster than scattered verbosity. That is, it is better to say one thing from the bottom of your heart than 100 without thinking about it.
• When the heart of the person praying is pure, like that of a child, and the words are spoken from the heart, he quickly receives grace.
• If what you ask for is given, you feel how quickly help comes, do not be proud of it. Otherwise you will lose everything.
• Without humility, true prayer will not work. If it is not there, appeals, praises and requests are in vain.

Popular wisdom: On Annunciation - the bird does not build a nest, the girl does not braid her hair. Spring is coming into its own. The peasants believed that on this day the whole earth rejoices, nature awakens, and Heaven is open for the unhindered offering of prayers of believers.

Prayer of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary

First prayer

O Most Holy Virgin, Mother of the Lord of the highest powers, Queen of heaven and earth,
city ​​and our country, Omnipotent Intercessor!

Accept this song of praise and gratitude from us, Thy unworthy servants,
and lift up our prayers to the Throne of God Your Son,
may he be merciful to our iniquities,
and will add His grace to those who honor Your all-honorable name and with faith and love worship Your miraculous image.

For we are not worthy of receiving mercy from Him, unless You propitiate Him for us, the Lady,
for all things are possible for You from Him.

For this reason we resort to You, as to our undoubted and speedy Intercessor:
Hear us praying to You, cover us with Your all-powerful protection,
and ask God Your Son:

our shepherd is zeal and vigil for souls,
the city ruler is wisdom and strength, the judges are truth and impartiality,
a mentor of reason and humility,
love and harmony for the spouse, obedience for the child,
patience offended, fear of God offended,
to those who mourn, complacency, to those who rejoice, abstinence,
to us all the spirit of reason and piety, the spirit of mercy and meekness,
spirit of purity and truth.

To her, Most Holy Lady, have mercy on Your weak people;
Gather those who are scattered, guide those who have gone astray to the right path,
support old age, keep young people chaste, raise babies,
and look upon us all with the gaze of Your merciful intercession,
raise us up from the depths of sin and enlighten the eyes of our hearts to the vision of salvation,
be merciful to us here and there, in the land of earthly arrival and at the terrible judgment of Your Son;
Having ceased in faith and repentance from this life, our fathers and brethren began to live with the Angels and all the saints in eternal life.

For you are, Lady, the Glory of heaven and the Hope of earth, You, according to God, are our Hope and Intercessor of all,
flowing to You with faith.

We therefore pray to You, and to You, as the Almighty Helper, with
We commit ourselves and each other and our whole life, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Second prayer

To my Most Blessed Queen, to my Most Holy Hope, friend to the orphaned and strange Intercessor,
help for those in need and protection for the embittered, see my misfortune, see my sorrow:
I am overwhelmed by temptation everywhere, but there is no intercessor.

You yourself, help me as I am weak, feed me as I am strange, instruct me as I am lost,
heal and save as it is hopeless.
There is no other help, no other intercession, no consolation except You,
O Mother of all those who mourn and are burdened!

Look down on me, a sinner and in bitterness, and cover me with Your most holy omophorion,
May I be delivered from the evils that have befallen me, and may I praise Your revered name. Amen.

For many hundreds of years, humanity has known a fairly large number of different prayers that can create a real miracle. The Hail Mary prayer falls into this category. The words spoken in this prayer can instill peace and faith in success into people’s souls.

What do they pray for?

Every Orthodox person pronouncing this text can ask the Saint for the following deeds:

• health for their children;
• admonishing those people who turned away from the church and lost their faith;
• meeting with a missing person;
• consolation;
• godly life;
• so that after the death of a person, the Mother of God would meet his soul;
• protection from various temptations;
• cheerfulness;
• God's grace;
• peaceful death;
• protecting your loved ones from various bad people and their actions.

The text of the prayer “Rejoice Theotokos” has a very strong influence, but in order for the request to be heard, it is highly recommended to read it alone and in front of the icon of the Mother of God. It is believed that the Mother of God is merciful to all believers and helps almost everyone who has deep and pure faith in their heart.

When will reading a prayer help?

As already reported, reading the prayer to the Mother of God in Russian should only be done with sincere intentions. With each new pronunciation of the text, a person becomes closer to the Lord.

It is worth noting that only faith in a higher power and correct prayers can heal not only mental injuries, but also physical ones. There are cases when the Mother of God came to Orthodox Christians in dreams and spoke with them, answering various questions that interested them. Moreover, she provided solutions to their problems, which at first glance seemed hopeless.

Some believers said that by reading the text of the prayer to the Virgin Mary in Russian, they found their love, and subsequently had children and lived in prosperity and health.

Moreover, saying the words of prayer, they asked for their relatives, so that their life would be easier, they would not meet evil people, etc., all this came true after some time. Our Lady hears everyone and if someone really needs help, she comes.

But all requests must be made only from a pure heart; there will be no effect from prayer if a person simply and mechanically reads the text with malice or lack of faith in what is happening.

Text of the prayer Virgin Mary, Virgin Mary, Rejoice in Russian

Virgin Mary, Rejoice, Blessed Mary, the Lord is with You! Among women, You are the most blessed. Blessed is the Fruit of Your womb, because You have given birth to the Savior of our souls.

How to read text correctly

It is believed that in order for requests to be heard, one must say the “Hail Mary” prayer 150 times. This should be done every morning, ideally, the reading should be divided into 10 times and after that remember any segment from the life of the Mother of God. It is best to go to the temple and read the text directly in front of the icon, but if this is not possible, then you can carry out this procedure at home, alone and also in front of the icon.

If a Christian has not previously come into contact with this rule, then he is allowed to initially read the prayer 50 times, but constantly increase it up to the required number.

Since the number of repetitions of the prayer is quite large, it is allowed to use rosary beads during the process. There has long been a belief that rosary beads are a kind of amulet that protects people from evil people and their curses, evil spirits, attacks of demons, various sorcerers and magicians.

The prayer should be read only with deep faith and requests should not sound like demands. If all the rules are followed, undoubtedly, the Mother of God will help the suffering person and give her protection and assistance. Do not despair if it seems that prayer does not help and you are not heard - this is not so. Sometimes it seems to us that at the moment we need to do exactly this, but people are often mistaken and only the Lord sees everything and knows better how everything should be.

What to do to make your prayer heard

So, in order for the prayer “Hail Mary” to be heard, an Orthodox Christian needs to read the prayer every morning 150 times. Requests should not sound like demands, but simply a request from the Most Holy Theotokos for help. If a person with malice and lack of belief in what is happening simply mechanically reads the text and waits for a miracle, then it probably won’t happen. The Mother of God helps only those people who have pure thoughts and souls.

From ancient times it was believed that the Mother of God helps almost all people, therefore this prayer has very great power and is among the miraculous.

Prayer Hail Mary - text in Russian was last modified: July 8th, 2017 by Bogolub

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When man was created by God, his body was immortal, alien to diseases and carnal sensations inherent in it at that time. With such a body, with such sense organs, a person was capable of sensually seeing spirits and could communicate with them. The holy body of a person did not serve as an obstacle to communication with spirits. Dressed in it, a person was able to live in paradise, and now only saints are able to stay there. With the sinful fall of man, his soul and body changed. This fall for a man became his death.

Visible death is the separation of the soul from the body (previously those who have already died due to a departure from the true life that God gave us).

We are born already killed by death.
The diseases of our body are a consequence of the fall of sinful man. Our body has become on a par with animals. The body serves as a prison and a prison for the soul. In this state, our bodily senses are unable to communicate with spirits and cannot see, hear or sense them. The holy spirits abandoned man as not worthy of such communication, and fallen spirits hold the soul of man in captivity in order to strengthen their power over him. We, sinners, need to know that communication with holy angels is not typical for us and that communication with rejected spirits who sensually appear to a person in sin is characteristic of us - these are demons, not holy angels. Although demons, when appearing to people, take the form of bright angels to deceive, they try to assure that they are human souls and not demons, although they reveal secrets, they cannot be trusted. They mix truth with lies for the most convenient deception.

In my practice, I often came across people who claimed that Jesus is always with them, that he dictates what they should do, what object to take and in what order, even dictates how to cook borscht. But you must understand that these can only be demons, since Jesus would have taught different truths. He would help the soul to find Spiritual Light, and not please the body and stomach. In the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul says: “And no wonder: for Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore, it is not a great thing if his servants disguise themselves as servants of righteousness: but their end will be according to their works.”

Every person should know that one should not trust spirits when they appear in a sensual image, not enter into conversation with them, not pay any attention to them, and consider their appearance to be the greatest and most dangerous temptation. During this temptation, all thoughts must be directed to God with a prayer for mercy. The desire to see spirits, the curiosity to learn something about them is a sign of great recklessness. Knowledge of spirits is acquired in a completely different way. Open communication with spirits for the inexperienced is the greatest disaster or serves as a source of the greatest disasters. The Bible says that during the fall of the first people, God pronounced judgment on them even before their expulsion from paradise, making them leather garments and clothing them in them. Leather vestments signify our sinful flesh. In our sinful body evil is mixed with good, and we are drawn either to evil or to good. Demons are always directed towards evil.

For a successful entry into the world of spirits, each person needs a certain time to wander the earth, according to the law of God. We call this wandering earthly life. Frivolous people who do not know Christianity are carried away by curiosity, ignorance, and unbelief, not realizing that by entering into such communication with spirits, they can cause themselves the greatest harm: people who have given themselves over to sinfulness and have departed from God enter into this communication for the most vicious reasons for the most vicious goals.

At the discretion of God, spirits appear only in times of extreme need for the purpose of saving and correcting a person. The sensual vision of spirits without the spiritual constitutes a superficial concept of them. Only true Christians achieve a spiritual vision of spirits, while people of the most vicious lives are most capable of a sensual vision. Who sees spirits and is in sensual communication with them? Magi, people exhausted by drunkenness and debauchery. Only through Christian asceticism is the correct, legal entry into the world of spirits achieved. The true ascetic of Christ is brought into vision by God Himself; sensual vision of spirits is granted only to some ascetics. Evil spirits are bound (powerless) in their actions in relation to the ascetic of Christ by the power and wisdom of God guiding him, and, despite the fact that they breathe malice against the servant of God, they cannot cause him the harm that they would like. If the demons see that one of the Christians is beginning to strive and succeed towards God, then they approach him and begin to put obstacles in his path: sinful thinking. Not having time to seduce the heart through secret action through lust, they approach in another way and attempt to frighten with empty ghosts, taking on various images - now women, now animals, now reptiles, now the greatest giants. If during this attempt they find a soul strengthened by faith and hope, then they bring with them a leader (the Devil).

There is only one God we should fear. Demons should be despised and not feared. The great weapon against them is honest life and faith in God. They know the grace that the Savior gave against them to the believers and said to His seventy disciples:

« Behold, I give you power to tread on snakes and scorpions, and nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits obey you: but rejoice that your names are written in heaven».

If demons come to you at night and start talking about the future, talking about themselves - we are angels, then do not believe them. They are lying. Don’t listen to them and don’t pay attention, but immediately mark yourself and your home with the sign of the cross, turn to prayer, and you will see that they will disappear. They are timid and extremely afraid of the sign of the cross, because the Savior with the cross deprived them of their strength and handed them over to shame. You can quickly distinguish the presence of good spirits from the presence of evil ones. The appearance of holy spirits does not cause confusion in the soul. The prophet Isaiah says about the holy angel: “He will not cry out or lift up His voice; He will not let it be heard in the streets.” This is because the Lord, who is our joy and the power of God the Father, is co-present with the holy angels.
On the contrary, the invasion of evil spirits is accompanied by noise, knocking, sounds and screams, similar to that produced by ill-mannered children, pirates and robbers. Their presence causes fear, melancholy, disgust from achievement, laziness, despondency, fear of death, and sinful lusts to appear in the soul.

Do not be afraid when you see evil spirits, be calm, pray: joy and such a state of mind are a sign of the presence of holy spirits.
The Lord does not allow us to be deceived by evil demons. When the Devil approached the Lord with temptations, the Lord forbade him with the following words:

« Get away from Me, Satan, for it is written: “Worship the Lord your God and serve Him alone.”».

Do not be proud of the power of casting out demons and the gift of healing diseases. He who does not expel does not deserve surprise. As long as the Lord is with us, enemies will not be able to harm us. The fallen spirits hate the human race so much that if they were allowed to do so by the right hand of God, they would destroy us instantly. Man arbitrarily rejected communication with God and the holy angels, arbitrarily entered into communication with evil spirits, rejected by God, hostile to God, and submitted to evil spirits. Salvation to fallen man was granted by God: by granting the right to choose to accept or reject this salvation. For a person, either captivity or struggle are inevitable. Fallen spirits try to keep a person in their captivity.
A person is helped by the Divine grace given to him at Holy Baptism, without which the struggle with spirits and liberation from captivity is impossible.

The Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, set an example of asceticism over Himself, taking on all our weaknesses, except sin: first the tempter Devil appeared to him in the desert, then, after the victory over the Devil, the holy angels came to the Lord and served him. This is what the Gospel proclaims to us.
Experienced mentors forbade young monks from the intense feat of fasting, vigil, and seclusion, during which deeds spirits soon began to appear sensually and deceive the ascetic, leading him to injury and death.

Very few people are capable of openly fighting demons. The only correct entrance into the world of spirits is Christian asceticism. God himself introduces spirits into this vision. Anyone who intrudes into the sensory vision of spirits independently acts incorrectly, contrary to the will of God: it is impossible for such a person to avoid deception and the damage that follows deception. The very intention of entering into the knowledge of spirits has its origin in deception and self-delusion.

Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov. On the sensual vision of spirits

“Beware lest anyone deceive you, lest you be led astray; For many will come in My name, saying that I am He, and will deceive many.”. (Matt. 24:45).

In modern human society, mainly in educated society, many doubt the existence of spirits, many reject it. But they exist! The existence of good and evil spirits becomes quite clear and obvious to those who have engaged in a correct and detailed study of Christianity.

The vision of spirits is purely. In the ordinary state of fall, in which all humanity finds itself, we do not see spirits either sensually or spiritually; we are stricken with extreme blindness. But our failure to see something does not in any way serve as a sign of its non-existence. To fight the enemy, you must definitely see him. Without a vision of spirits, the struggle with them does not take place: there can only be fascination with them and slavish obedience to them. Having called on Divine grace to help my feeble-mindedness, I will talk about the sensual vision of spirits and about the danger and uselessness of vision.

* * *

Before the fall of man, his body was immortal, alien to ailments, alien to his real fatness and heaviness, alien to sinful and carnal sensations, now natural to him. His feelings were incomparably subtler, their action was incomparably more extensive, completely free. Clothed in such a body, with such sense organs, man was capable of sensually seeing spirits, to the category of which he belonged with his soul, and was capable of communicating with them. The holy body of a person did not serve as an obstacle for him, did not separate him from the world of spirits. Man, clothed in a body, was capable of living in paradise, in which only the Saints are now capable of dwelling.

Both the soul and body of man were changed by the fall. We need to cleanse ourselves through thorough repentance, we need to feel at least to some extent the freedom and height of the spiritual state in order to acquire an understanding of the disastrous state of our body, the state of its deadness caused by its alienation from God. In this state, the bodily senses are incapable of communicating with spirits; they do not see, hear, or feel them.

All of us, who are in slavery to sin, need to know that communication with the holy Angels is uncharacteristic of us due to our alienation from them by fall, that it is characteristic of us, for the same reason, to communicate with rejected spirits, to the category of which we belong in soul - that The spirits that sensually appear to people who are in sinfulness and fall are demons, and not holy Angels. Although demons, when appearing to people, most often take the form of bright Angels for the most convenient deception; although they sometimes try to assure that they are human souls and not demons; although they sometimes predict the future; although they reveal secrets, one should not entrust oneself to them. For them, truth is mixed with lies, truth is used at times only for the most convenient deception.

Demons do not know the future, known to the One God and to His rational creatures to whom God is pleased to reveal the future; but just as smart and experienced people foresee and predict events that are about to happen from events that have happened or are happening, so cunning, experienced crafty spirits can sometimes predict with certainty and predict the future. They often make mistakes, very often lie and with unclear promises lead to bewilderment and doubt. Sometimes they can foretell an event that is already intended in the world of spirits, but has not yet been carried out between people. Thus, before the temptations befell the righteous Job, the allowance of these temptations had already been decided in the council of God and was known to the fallen spirits (Job, 1). Thus it was decided at the judgment of God, known to the holy heavenly powers and the rejected angels, and handed over to the execution of the evil spirit in the battle of the king of Israel Ahab before the king entered the campaign (1 Kings, 22, 19-23). This is how the devil predicted to Saint John, Archbishop of Novgorod, the temptation that he subsequently brought upon him (Cheti-Minea, September 7). There were cases when holy Angels appeared to sinners, but this happened according to the special vision of God and was extremely rare. So to the false prophet and sorcerer, i.e. a holy angel appeared to a person who was in special close communication with demons (Num. 22).

Exceptional cases, according to the special judgment of God, should not have any influence on the general rule for everyone. It consists in not trusting in any way to spirits when they appear in a sensual way, not entering into conversation with them, not paying any attention to them, recognizing their appearance as the greatest and most dangerous temptation. During this temptation, we must direct our thoughts and hearts to God with a prayer for mercy and deliverance from temptation. The desire to see spirits, the curiosity to learn something about them and from them is a sign of the greatest recklessness and complete ignorance of the moral and active traditions of the Orthodox Church. Knowledge of spirits is acquired in a completely different way than what an inexperienced and careless examiner assumes. Open communication with spirits for the inexperienced is the greatest disaster, or serves as a source of the greatest disasters.

After our fall, we are in the region of fallen spirits, surrounded by them, enslaved by them. Not being able to break into us, they let us know about themselves from the outside, bringing various sinful thoughts and dreams, with them attracting a gullible soul into communication with them. It is not permissible for a person to eliminate God’s gaze by his own means, and not by the will of God to open his feelings and enter into obvious communication with spirits. But this also happens. It is obvious that by one’s own means one can achieve communication only with fallen spirits. What attracts people to enter into open communication with spirits? Those who are frivolous and ignorant of active Christianity are carried away by curiosity, ignorance, and unbelief, not realizing that by entering into such communication they can cause themselves the greatest harm; people who have given themselves over to sinfulness and have departed from God enter into this fellowship for the most vicious motives and for the most vicious purposes.

What happens to us according to the providence of God is always filled with the greatest wisdom and goodness, it is done out of essential necessity for our essential benefit, and not at all to satisfy our curiosity or any other petty, unworthy of God, impulse. For this reason, the usual order and course are very rarely disrupted, and it is very rare that a person is introduced into the sensory vision of spirits.

I will give an example that explains to us with what saving precaution for us, for the purpose of the greatest benefit for our soul, God allows us the sensory vision of spirits. In Africa there was a publican named Peter, a most hard-hearted man, who gave alms to a beggar once throughout his entire life, and then not out of a movement of compassion, but out of a passion for anger. When Peter was carrying a large amount of loaves, the beggar began to relentlessly ask him for alms. Peter, angry and unable to hit the beggar with anything else, threw bread at him. Two days after this incident, Peter fell ill. The disease intensified, the patient was very exhausted and seemed to be approaching death. In this situation his eyes opened. He saw scales in front of him, on one side stood dark demons, on the other - bright Angels. The demons, having collected all the evil deeds committed by Peter during his life, put them on the scales.

The light-bearers, not finding any good deeds to contrast with the evil deeds of Peter, stood in despondency and said to each other in bewilderment: “We have nothing here.”

Then one of them said: “Exactly, we have nothing here except one bread, which Peter gave to Christ two days ago, and that was against his will.” The angels put the bread on another scale, and it immediately began to pull the first one. Then the light-shaped men said to the publican: “Go, poor Peter, add some bread to this, so that the dark-shaped murins do not kidnap you and throw you into eternal torment.”

Peter recovered, became unusually merciful to the poor brethren, depleted his very significant estate on them, gave freedom to the slaves... so that through humility he could become even closer to God, to whom he had already become assimilated through alms. Peter was granted great spiritual gifts (Cheti-Minea, September 22).

According to God, spirits appear only in times of extreme need, for the purpose of saving and correcting people. They appear in such a way that their occurrence cannot have harmful consequences. The world of spirits was opened only to the most perfect Christians, but there were very few such Christians even in the most flourishing times of monasticism, according to the testimony of St. Macarius the Great. The property of all visions sent by God, according to the remark of St. John the Climacus, is that they bring humility and tenderness to the soul, filling it with the fear of God, consciousness of its sinfulness and insignificance.

On the contrary, the visions into which we arbitrarily invade, in opposition to the will of God, lead us into arrogance, into conceit, and bring us joy, which is nothing more than the satisfaction of our vanity and conceit that we do not understand. Demons, most often appearing in the form of Angels, try to flatter a person with praise, to amuse his curiosity and vanity, then they conveniently plunge him into self-delusion and inflict on him severe spiritual sin.

Nowadays, many allow themselves to enter into communication with fallen spirits through magnetism, and fallen spirits usually appear in the form of bright Angels, seduce and deceive with various interesting tales, mixing truth with lies - always causing extreme mental and even mental disorder. The use of magnetism is a branch of sorcery. With him there is no obvious renunciation of God, but undoubtedly there is a hidden renunciation, since at the present time in general the devil is very much covering his networks.

Saul, the king of Israel, who clearly did not depart from God, but often violated the commands of God, completed his iniquities by communicating with a sorceress (Gen. 31:24). He knew that magic was a grave sin, for he put to death all the magicians in the land of Israel, but he decided to take an action that was clearly repugnant to God. Wanting to know what the outcome of the battle he intended to engage in with the Philistines would be, Saul asked the sorceress to summon the soul of the deceased prophet Samuel from hell to confer with him. The sorceress performed this. Appearing in response to her call from the underground dungeons, the prophet predicted the king's defeat and death in battle. Saul, instead of plunging into repentance, fell into despair: the appearance of the prophet and foreknowledge of the future, instead of benefit, brought him the greatest sin. The army of pagan Syrians, which entered the land of Israel, suddenly saw a regiment of holy angels and fled (1 Sam. 28).

Fallen spirits carry out the work of destroying people with incomparably greater success than the most malicious people. The damage to people lies in the mixture of good and evil in them. The damage of fallen spirits consists in the complete predominance of evil in the complete absence of good. The abilities of fallen spirits far exceed those of fallen humans. Demons flow freely and quickly around the universe, freely doing things that are completely impossible for humans. If the demons see that one of the Christians is beginning to struggle and succeed, they will approach him and begin to place obstacles in his path. These obstacles are sinful thoughts.

But having been repelled, the demons do not stop fighting: they attack again with evil cunning and insidiousness. Not having time to seduce the heart through secret action through lusts, they approach in a different way and try to frighten with empty ghosts, taking on various images, now women, now animals, now reptiles, now the greatest giants, now many warriors. But you shouldn’t be afraid of these ghosts either: they instantly disappear if you protect yourself with faith and the sign of the cross.

Demons are daring and extremely shameless: defeated in one way of fighting, they resort to another. They imagine themselves to be gifted with prophecies, able to predict the future. They stretch like a ghost to such a height and width that they touch the roofs of houses. If, even during this attempt, they find a soul strengthened by faith and hope, then they bring their leader with them.

Demons are malicious and try only to cause harm. They do nothing for the reason that they cannot do anything, they can only threaten, they cannot refrain

from evil, they are eager to cause us any harm, having a completely directed will towards this. Having no strength, they are tormented by the sight that they cannot fulfill any of their plans. If they had any power, they would not have approached with noise, in various ghosts, they would not have organized forges, changing images. Demons, having no power, act out a kind of theatrical performance, changing their appearance and horrifying children with noise and their ugly faces.

But perhaps someone, based on the story of Job, will ask in refutation of what has been said: why was the devil, armed against this righteous man, able to do everything: he took away the property, and killed the children, and struck himself with stinking leprosy? This was accomplished not by the power of the devil, but by the power of God, who handed Job over to the devil for temptation. The devil himself asked to do what he had done.

The more persistently the demons act against us, the more zealous we should be in asceticism. There is no doubt that they are afraid of sweating, vigils, prayers, meekness, silence of heart, contempt for money and vain glory, humility, love for the poor, mercy, goodness, and most of all, godliness in Christ.

The invasion of evil spirits is accompanied by noise, knocking, sounds and screams. Their presence causes fear in the soul, confusion and bewilderment in the thoughts, melancholy, disgust from achievement, laziness, despondency, memories of relatives, fear of death, then sinful lusts, cooling of jealousy for virtues, moral disorder.

And let the following serve as a sign for you of their coming. If fear does not recede from the soul, then this is a sign of the presence of enemies. Demons, seeing that a person is afraid of them, strengthen the ghost in order to strike with great fear and abuse, subjugating it.

One should not be vain about the grace-filled power of casting out demons; should not be extolled by the grace-filled gift of healing illnesses. The one who casts out demons deserves no surprise, nor contempt does the one who does not cast them out.

The holy teachers of Christian asceticism command us to protect ourselves during such phenomena with the sign of the cross, close our eyes and pray to God to cover us from all the snares and deceptions placed upon people by the spirits of evil. The fallen spirits hate the human race so much that if they were allowed to do so by the invisibly restraining right hand of God, they would destroy us instantly. For inexperienced beginners, the only way to avoid deception, damage and death is a decisive renunciation of all vision, due to a complete inability to make a correct judgment about it.

Demons try to conform to circumstances, to a person’s way of thinking, to his inclinations. To some ascetics they present piles of gold and silver in order to find an echo of a dream in the spiritual passion of greed, if it is hidden in the soul. For others, for a similar purpose, meals are presented with abundant food and drink; for others - vast halls, resounding with music, with crowds of dancers; others appear in the form of women who arouse lust with their own beauty and artificial adornment. They tried to mislead others with voices and prophecies, as if divine. To others they appeared in the form of absent relatives and acquaintances; others - in some form characteristic of humans, persuading those who see them so that they do not doubt them, do not think that they are rejected spirits, trying to assure that they are human souls, whose fate has not yet been decided and who for this reason are wandering around a land without shelter. At the same time, they compose some interesting tale that can arouse the curiosity of the frivolous, presenting a lie as the truth.

Wandering spirits are also trusted by those who do not believe in the existence of evil spirits. This is what evil spirits need: thieves and murderers can then commit all kinds of atrocities when the people against whom their anger is directed do not even believe their existence.

It is very natural that fallen spirits try to keep us in their captivity and communication when we want to break communication and free ourselves from captivity. Very few people are capable of openly fighting demons.

The only correct entrance into the world of spirits is Christian asceticism. The only correct entrance to the sensory vision of spirits is Christian prosperity and perfection. It is God Himself who introduces into this vision those who are to enter it. He who intrudes into the sensual vision of spirits spontaneously acts incorrectly, illegally, against the will of God: it is impossible for such a self-willed person to avoid deception and the self-delusion and damage that follows deception. The very intention to see spirits is the beginning of deception and self-delusion.