grant my weakness in bearing this burden

I always have patience, but especially in the present

my condition! Knowing that, by definition,

of His all-holy righteousness, expressed in the face of

first mother to all wives, more are waiting for me

sickness of birth, I submit to this saint

determination with humility and complete devotion to Your will. But, Lord, strengthen my

infirmity in the hour of my release from the burden, send down Thy strength to my weakness for this, support my weak physique with it, protect me

me with Thy creation, Thy holy angels, whom I beget."

Is it possible for one who does not drink wine to be drunk and for one who drinks wine to be sober?

Perhaps, for the Scriptures say of one who is drunk "not with wine" (see Isaiah 51:21). Without wine he drinks

He who does not abandon the frenzy and does not restrain the riot of passions by pious reasoning. It is also possible for the one who drinks wine to be sober in soul and cheerful in all soul-saving

For if it were impossible, the holy

230 ARCHPRIEST VALENTIN MORDASOV, WHAT DO YOU ADVISE, FATHER? 231

The Apostle Paul would not have given his disciple, the Holy Apostle Timothy, the following advice: Use a little wine, for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments

(1 Tim. 5:23). For drunkenness is nothing but

the frenzy of the natural mind, the transformation of the heart, the impoverishment of meaning, the deprivation of reason: all of these

not only from wine drunkenness, but also from

from drunkenness, rage, and unseemly lust.1

How to love the Lord Jesus Christ?

Most of all, it strengthens and strengthens our love

Heartfelt Meditation on Sufferings to Christ

Christ. For this it is good to choose one of the sufferings of Christ every day, to meditate on it in detail, and to remember it more often during the day. From this we will always get

the spirit of patience, meekness, daily voluntary mortification, and grateful, completely

devoted love for Christ. "How do you spend

time?" the aliens asked one, almost not

who knew how to read the hermit. The hermit said:

"Our Saviour has endowed me with sight, and I have always