– 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.

– Geronda, does pain harden a person?

– If a person does not treat pain spiritually, then it can harden him. However, when he treats it spiritually, he has peace and is comforted by divine consolation. Then the disease becomes a holiday, a celebration. A person rejoices, because he will be numbered among the confessors and martyrs. The holy martyrs forgot the pain because their love for Christ was stronger than their pain and neutralized it.

– And isn't a person who experiences pain and does not treat it spiritually purify?