– If he is a worldly person, then with a worldly song, if he is a spiritual person, then with a spiritual song... One day my father had a high fever and a terrible headache. Do you know what he did? He ate salted herring, drank a glass of wine and sang a song: "Wake up, my unfortunate, disenfranchised people." Then he sang a few more partisan songs, and his head went away! In this way, so that the pain may dissipate, we will sing spiritual songs! I remember how I once caught a cold, and I had such a terrible headache that my head was splitting. Well, I began to sing a very beautiful chant, and the headache went away. Indeed, psalmody together with the Jesus Prayer is very helpful in such cases. It makes the soul tender, delights it, because constant sorrows and pains oppress the soul, and it cools down. And last night I couldn't sleep from the pain either. I even thought that if I died before dawn, then one long day would come for me. After all, in other life there are no sunsets or sunrises... But then I accepted... an analgesic "pill" - sang the troparion "By the illnesses of the saints, who have suffered for Thee, beseech the Lord, and heal all our illnesses..."[112]. The effect of this pill turned out to be long-lasting, it lasted all night! Do doctors have such pills?

– Geronda, they say that at night the pain intensifies.

– Yes, a person gets worse at night. But, in addition, during the day, communicating with people, talking, patients forget about their pain. At night they are left alone with themselves, their mind goes into pain, and it seems to them that it intensifies. There is no getting away from pain during illness, but the task is to turn the knob of [spiritual] attunement to a different frequency in order to forget about these pains. After all, if you treat pain incorrectly, then it hurts you twice as much. If you think about pain, the pain gets worse. But if you include a good thought in your work, for example, if you remember those who are even more hurt than you, or if you sing something churchly, then the pain is forgotten.

– Geronda, pain usually warns that something is wrong in the body. In this regard, what attention should be paid to pain?

"You need to test how strong you are, and be attentive in accordance with this. Especially when it comes to an elderly person. Attention is needed here, because if you continue to drive the old car at the same speed as it drove when it was new, then it will fly to pieces: the wheels will fly in one direction, the carburetor in another... When I had lower back pain, I could not pray the rosary while standing. Seeing that my condition had improved a little, I tried to get up: standing I prayed the rosary and made prostrations. My lower back hurt again. I sat down a little. Then I said to myself: "Come on, try again." The same thing happened again. My lower back hurt again. Then I refrained from standing on my feet and bowing, but my thoughts were calm.

– Geronda, if I know that my pain does not have any other side effects on the body, then it does not bother me. However, it bothers me if I know that a serious illness manifests itself through pain.

– Look, for example, a sick lower back may not have serious consequences for the body, but this pain shackles, "paralyzes" a person, and he cannot move. But the body can tolerate pain of a different kind.