WHY IS XENIA BLESSED?

So, Xenia gave up her house, clothes, money, gave everything away and remained a beggar. But that's not all. She went on. She gave up the most precious thing that a person has - reason.

"My house and my possessions are not mine, but Yours. Take it, Lord. And my mind is not mine. And take it away, Lord. That reason that whispers to me to live like others, to act moderately and cautiously, to take care of myself and to love You with caution, in moderation, as much as possible. Take it, Lord. Leave me only love for You, faith in You, and Your immeasurable mercy. And also hope for the salvation of my soul Andrei. And also love. Let faith, hope and love become my wisdom in place of the earthly empty mind, which cares about worldly things.

This is called the feat of foolishness.

We do not know what foolishness really is. We grin. Is a fool such a fool?

No.

Here is what Archpriest V. Zenkovsky and Archpriest G. Nefyodov write about the essence of foolishness: "Fools despise all earthly comforts, often act contrary to common sense – in the name of the highest truth. Fools take upon themselves the feat of deliberate madness in order to attain freedom from the temptations of the world – but in foolishness there is not a shadow of contempt for the world or rejection of it. Foolishness, first of all, values the external, fussy side of life, despises petty self-gratification, fears worldly comforts and wealth, but does not despise man, does not tear him away from life. In foolishness there is an aspiration for a higher truth, usually obscured by worldly pettiness, and yet it is not spiritualism, but only the same mystical realism, sacrificing the earthly for the sake of the heavenly.

Foolishness yearns for truth and love, and therefore it inevitably turns into the denunciation of all kinds of untruth among people – it has always attacked the state power especially often and severely, which humbly bowed down before the spiritual greatness of foolishness.