And now the Cross of Christ shines in the blessed land of Russia, which the gracious Lord plucked out like a brand out of the fire (Zech. 3:2). He plucked it out suddenly, at a time when no one expected it, and restored it again in the light of the resurrection.

For me, it was a very pleasant surprise that the famous ancient monastery – the Holy Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius – should translate my book into Russian. Therefore, the Orthodox monastic theological brotherhood "Savior", of which I have the honor and blessing of God to be a member, readily granted the monastery the right to translate this book in the hope that it would help the revival of Orthodoxy in Russia. Members of our brotherhood – clergy and laity – lift up a prayer with all their hearts that this book would strengthen in our brothers of the same faith faith in the Conqueror of death and the omnipotent and all-wise Helmsman of history and human affairs.

For us Orthodox, the words of the Apostle Paul: "Christ, having risen from the dead, dies no more: death has no more power over Him" (Romans 6:9) – does not allow our hope for eternal life with God to fade, no matter how many enemies and difficulties we encounter in this temporal world. Therefore, the focus of our entire life is in the victorious hymn of our Church:

"Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!"

Nikolaos P. Vasiliadis

St. Easter 1995 Athens

{p. 5}

"AN UNFLATTERING EXTORTIONIST OF THE HUMAN RACE"

A question that shakes a person

In human life, there are two most important, mysterious and awe-inspiring events – birth and death, and death causes stronger experiences and more complex problems. We face death at every step of our lives. Death is always near us, as is life. Death is the shadow of every earthly creature, its inevitable and inevitable end. Since we were born, we must also die.

At the same time, of all earthly creatures, only people think about death. The animal spends its days not even suspecting death, and therefore cares only about what is needed at the moment. It does not question why the world exists, does not reflect on why the world is the way it is, and what happens to those creatures that disappear from the face of the earth. The situation is different with people. Man, thanks to the reason with which God has endowed him, is vividly aware that he is mortal. Pascal likens man to a reed, brittle but thinking, and adds: "But even if he is destroyed by the universe, man is still more exalted than it, for he is aware that he is parting with life [...], and it [p. 6] (the universe) is not conscious of anything" [1]. Thus, man is the only earthly creature endowed with the ability to cognize and comprehend the phenomenon of life. For a person, death becomes a truly purely individual, purely personal event of existence. And since he knows that sooner or later he will meet death, this circumstance becomes the most difficult and painful phenomenon of his life.