the monastery [Theme]

To atone for your transgressions.

- Not the saddest, but the wisest.

God is looking for a reason to have mercy on people and the world. Monks give this reason.

He took with him some food and in the summer, alone, went through the dense forest, along the paths to this monastery, and the course there was forty versts. He walked for almost a day, and told me that he never had any fear, and sometimes he even slept in the woods. Coming to the monastery, he went to the abbot, who loved him very much, sat with him for a long time, walked around the monastery with the monks, went with them to the field, to the church, to the services and, having lived like this for a week, peacefully and without any doubt went home; but at home, too, no one thought to worry about him - after all, he went "on a pilgrimage", and nothing could be. We must think that there was almost no evil hooliganism in the village at that time, life went according to the long-established Orthodox calendar, everyone knew the unwritten charter of life; no one would have thought to offend or simply frighten a boy who was walking alone through the forest to a distant monastery, and even more so the landlord's son.

Live where God has led, and do nothing else. And in the monastery not everyone is saved, and in the world not everyone perishes. So live with compassion for one another and bear the weaknesses of your own and those of your loved ones.

With a mortal body.

- That's right, it's just that the Lord is not at home now. He's visiting an orphanage down the street today.

- As a child, I thought that greatness awaited me. I wanted to go to a monastery and serve God.
- And I had the opposite: my father wanted me to become a priest, but I did not want this, so he said that I was obsessed. It's funny, you wanted to be a saint and I wanted to be a sinner.

help. If I take offense, I will shave off my hair and go to the monastery. In the female ...

Remember Lot's wife? Go don't look back. This is the first thing for us monks.

Politics is the monastery in which many climb with their charter

Monasteries are no better than prisons. In those and other disappeared without trace quite a large number of people.

I do not mean that you have to go to mount Athos and become a monk. However, if God calls you, it will be great. But this is not important. No need to go to monks because you're lonely and it's depressing.
We are all in this world alone - and married and unmarried. In any case, each of us lives alone with his "I". You and your soul - you're all alone. But when we truly witness to Christ, we realize that everything is this life, really stupid nonsense and the Only thing That accompanies us in life eternal is the Lord.

And the monk Varlaam? This is truly the figure of a curious, deep, Russian. Such a man lived in the era of Ivan the terrible. Gains somewhere in the North. He served as a priest in a small temple. His name was at that time Vasily. Mentioned his hot temper, the purity of the faith, fearlessness in spiritual work. Since the ascetic is strong, it means that the devil does not sleep. Fought a young priest to idolatry by local fishermen. The devil could not stand, and left, promising to avenge the ascetic. Compelled it to Basil that his wife committed the sin of adultery. Like Vasily it with my own eyes saw. Decided to "chastise" mother, to do religious rites. And during the ceremony - whether by accident, not by chance you? - priestly thrust a spear that the Holy communion in the altar is prepared, in the heart of his beloved wife. Whether the devil so cleverly played their parts, whether the jealousy in the young priest leaped, but the mother was not to blame.
Buried the body of his wife in the churchyard. He went to the Confessor to the monastery. The Abbot gave him a new name Barlaam and put a strange penance. Ordered to dig up the body, to sit in a boat and drive it along the coast of the Barents and White seas. And to fast, to pray until, until the body of his wife will not rot. Three years Varlaam obediently executed the orders of the Abbot, suffered hunger and cold, and prayed, lamented. The day came, when the monk was forgiven. Sent in such cases special signs. In a narrow water Strait, which is due to marine worms were dying ships and people, Varlaam was able to hold the boat. "Drill ship" retreated from those places, and that was evidence of forgiveness. The miracle was performed.
I do not consider this story a fairy tale. In allegorical form the history of this repentance, which changes the human soul as a matrix.
From the point of view of psychology, much is clear: the person who commits a sin, feels a strong physical impact. The stronger the sin, the deeper the wound. If the wound is not treated by repentance, and be drawn into the nostrils the powder, or pour a wine pain, sin for a time ceases to be felt. But the wound is not tightened, it bleeds. There are deep feelings of sin, strong remorse that causes a person to change substantially. He can not be the same. This is not for everyone.



Explanation of the quote:

Thinking of the nature of repentance.
from the novel "Psychologist and a psychopath".