Father Pavel himself had long felt the desire to tell his grief to the "gentle father." The kind face of the priest and especially his eyes were disposed to this - intelligent, serious and as if sad, and yet sparkling with affection and warmth. Such people do not ask about someone else's grief out of curiosity.

"I got on trial," Father Pavel began, "I got married without documents... You see, it turned out like this - a guy and a girl came to me. Marry us, father, I'm an orphan, and she's an orphan, we worked together at a factory not far away... sin confused, but I want it to be in the lawful, in God's way, but the trouble is that we do not have documents. She lived with an aunt, ran away, and there is no passport, and I have an expired one, he sent it to replace it, but to this hour something is not sent.

"How can you do that," I said, "you can't get married without documents.

"Well, father, is it really better to live like this, without the law?"

"And that," I said, "is your business. Go where you came from.

They stand, they do not go; The bride burst into tears, the bridegroom fell at my feet... What to do here? I felt sorry for them. He opened the church and called them.

"Well," I said, "that you are of age, I see for myself, and you swear to me before the Lord God and before His Most Pure Image that there is no kinship between you.

Swore. I took and married them. Live, they say, God be with you... and I did not even take anything from them for the wedding, because I see that there is really nothing to take from them. Well, so that it did not reach the authorities, I did not enter it either in the metric or in the search, but simply gave them a certificate that they were really legally married. That's how it would have turned out, but you see: I've made friends here. Once I quarreled with a neighboring priest, and he took it and denounced me to the consistory. Well, you know... Judged... The investigation was... And they sentenced me to a monastery, which means to repentance. I went to the bishop, thinking he would have mercy. Where is it, he did not even accept. Through his cell-attendant he said: "Tell this scoundrel not to dare to show himself to me." So I was offended. "If so," I said, "tell the bishop that not only will I not go to the monastery, but I will not return to the parish..." Let him appoint anyone in my place... He turned and left. So he left the place. I wanted to find some private classes, but who needs a full-time priest. He wanted to become a worker, but they did not accept him: it was inconvenient, they said, to pile a sack of flour on the back of a man in a cassock... I've decided to look for a place in a foreign diocese, maybe I'll find a bishop with a good soul somewhere... will get into the situation. I am going to the local bishop; Good, they say, but it is evident that I have such a misfortune: on the way I find out that he is not at home. Transferred... And they are waiting for a new one in his place. What, as soon as they send some half-witted lord, and go again... And at home the family... Soon you will have to put your teeth on the shelf. Well, how can you not drink it?

"Do you know what," said the priest, reviving, "if I were you, I would do the same. It is not the priest's business to conduct a prenuptial search and witness the documents of the newlyweds. The correctness of the documents will not add to the grace of God, just as the absence of them cannot serve as an obstacle to receiving God's blessing. Marriage existed in the first centuries of Christianity, when they had no idea about metrics or about our usual marriage search books. It would be a different matter if you married minors. This would be a great sin, because you would turn the sacrament of marriage into an empty invocation of the name of God. There would be no grace in the sacrament. This is the same as praying for the healing of an already dead person from an illness, that is, performing the sacrament of unction over a corpse. By marrying minors, you violate the law of nature, according to which only persons who have reached a certain age and physical maturity can marry. But the law of nature, like moral laws, is the same law of God. God has ordained both. You understand what nonsense it turns out to be: on the one hand, you violate the law of God, on the other hand, you ask God to give grace to fulfill this violated law. Of course, the grace of God does not work, and instead of the sacrament, it is profaned. And those who are related cannot be married, why, you know this yourself.

So, you have not committed a sin. It is true that you have been punished for not observing the formalities, but has it not been endured, if only for the sake of the joy you have given to the married couple? Come, we were happy... thanked you...

- Of course! One of these days I am going on a steamer... wharf... I had to buy something to eat. I got off at the pier and squeezed my way to the merchants. I heard suddenly: "Hello, father, would you like some apples, take them." "Why," I said, "don't you take it, and how much will you give it back?" - "Why, father," he said, "is it possible for you to... Take it this way. Don't you recognize me?" Yes, this is my fiancée without a passport. "Well," I said, "do you live?" - "Thank God," she said, laughing herself, so joyful, "son," she said, "God gave it." - "Well, God bless you!" - "Thank you, father, but take the apples, don't be disdainful." He pokes all his apples into my hands along with the basket. What to do? Took. After that, all the way, I treated almost all the passengers with them...

"Well, you see... And you began to drink it. You need to fight grief, but pray to God more earnestly. Prayer invigorates a person, refreshes his mind, and a person with fresh strength will always find a way out for himself. You have a kind soul, you have strength. So do not destroy yourself and others. Well, it seems that we are already approaching the city. We'll have to go soon... This is also my first time coming here. Recently I have just received an appointment... Here's the thing - you will come to see me in the city, my apartment will be next to the cathedral. We'll talk to you later. Maybe we'll come up with something. And now goodbye for now. We need to get ready.

Father stood up, gave his hand to Father Pavel and kissed him three times.

"Goodbye," Father Pavel said embarrassedly. - Thank you for your kind word and forgive me... I didn't know you were...