Elena Ivanovna Kazakova, Serbia, Belgrade, Groblyanskaya Street, building No 6

I am a contemporary of Fr. John, I deeply revere him and am deeply grateful to him for healing my father, who was terminally ill: articular rheumatism, two pneumonias, and pleurisy.

I was then 15 years old, the care of the family lay on me, because my mother had died long ago.

I sent a telegram to Fr. John, and my father began to recover the very next day, and when soon Fr. John arrived in Vilna, where we lived, then, not knowing my father, he went directly up to him and said: "Your Excellency, be healthy, be healthy."

From a letter by Olga Grekova, née Levanets, Jerusalem, Mission Russe, V. P. 818

Give to the one who asks!

After becoming a priest, Father John served the Liturgy every day without days off or vacations, even when he was sick. Every single day at exactly four o'clock in the morning, he came to St. Andrew's Cathedral. After the liturgy, he went to the poor quarters of Kronstadt. He talked to people, blessed them and gave away everything he had in his pockets. There were cases when the priest returned home without outer clothes and without boots – he even gave them to the poor. At first, his wife complained about him to the bishop: sometimes there is nothing to eat at home, and the priest distributes everything to the poor! But soon she realized that her husband would not change her way of life, because he lived according to the Gospel commandment: give to him who asks! I understood and put up with it.

Once I happened to observe such a scene. In the church, a young girl was praying before the icon. When she had finished praying, a man came up to her, whose face showed that he had been drinking heavily for a long time; asked for alms. Without a moment's hesitation, the girl pulled out her purse and gave him all its poor contents.

"Don't you see who you give money to? He will immediately drink everything you have given!" an elderly woman standing nearby exclaimed reproachfully.

–So what? - The girl was surprised, - He asked, and I gave what I had...

It often seems to us that we are responsible for the fate of the grace given, but this is not the case. After all, the Lord "commandeth His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust" (Matt. 5:45).

"In all things, therefore, whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye also unto them," says the Lord (Matt. 7:12).

"To everyone who asks you, give..." (Luke 6:30).