Do not be tempted by the illusions of the world; for they are passing yet the sin in them remains. The levity that this life offers is often a false light; something that promises warmth but leads one only into great darkness.
Rather let your hearts long for the Day when you are one with the Lord; where there is no beginning or end but only Love. Don't cling to passing moments of happiness. For each dissolves into shadow. Let the Lord awaken you from the dream to the Reality, the tears of repentance cleanse your eyes to see the radiance of His Light.
Are there days gone by, O daughter, to which
you would wish to return? They all attracted you like silk, and now remain
behind you like a cobweb. Like honey they greeted you, like stench you bade
them farewell. All were totally filled with illusion and sin.
See how all the pools of water in the moonlight
resemble mirrors; and how all the days that were lit up with your levity
resemble mirrors. But as you stepped from one day to the next, the false
mirrors cracked like thin ice, and you waded through the water and mud.
Can a day that has a morning and an evening as
doorways be a day?
O luminous Lord, my soul is burdened with illusions
and longs for one day—for the day without doorways, the day from which my soul
has departed and sunk into the shifting shadows—for Your day, which I used to
call my day, when I was one with You.
Is there any happiness gone by, O daughter, to which you
would wish to return?
Of two morsels of the same sweetness the second is
the more trite. You would turn your head away in boredom from yesterday's
happiness, if it were set out on today's table.
Moments of happiness are given to you only in order
to leave you longing for time happiness in the bosom of the everhappy Lord; and
ages of unhappiness are given to you, to waken you out of the drowsy dream of
illusions.
O Lord, Lord, my only happiness, will You provide
shelter for Your injured pilgrim?
O Lord, my ageless youth, my eyes shall bathe in
You and shine more radiantly than the sun.
You carefully collect the tears of the righteous, and with them You
rejuvenate worlds.
Prayers by the Lake III
St. Nikolai of Ochrid
