Not acting.

Do not close the doors to those who come, whoever it is.

Do not refuse money (pride).

To confess everyone who comes as if it were his last, dying confession.

The priest listens to tearful confessions and listens with full participation, and, at the same time, he does not get tired, does not feel broken by this avalanche of human sin and sorrow that falls upon him, because he does not receive it (by the power of the grace of the priesthood) on his heart. This is how you should live.

In addition to parishes and common church life, we need what in ancient Russia was called a "small church" – i.e. such clots of church warmth, small churches of individual families, where communion of people would take place, which would be impossible in large, motley and fluid parishes. It is the duty of the priest to lead such groups, the goals of which may be different: the study of the Gospel or church services, the service of the sick and the poor. But the main thing is not even these tasks, but the communication of people with each other. It is difficult to even imagine how many lonely and wild people live among us.

When I think about what to say, I almost always have a real process of theological and verbal creativity, and the sermon itself thus becomes a reproduction. This means that this first process must be performed aloud, in front of people. But there are two conditions for this: a full heart and complete simplicity.

In order to speak without preparation, you need to have a precise topic in your head, divided into main thoughts. But the main creativity should take place during the sermon; otherwise you burn out while preparing, and you present only cold ashes to the listeners.

Somehow, in a sermon or general conversation, it is necessary to analyze the typical "stumbling-blocks," "domestic heresies," with which the majority of those who come to confession are infected. Here are some of the most common: God is not to be feared, the primacy of morality; the saints are selfish; the denial of fasting; the denial of the Old Testament; the superiority of home prayer.

Members of Christian Science reproach us, the Orthodox, for our lack of faith and inability to overcome our illnesses by the strength of the spirit. Their argument is that Christ has freed us from slavery to the flesh (Rom. 8).

What can I say to this?

— The gift of healing for Christians is not a gift of omnipotence and divine power over nature...

After all, the apostles themselves were sick, many righteous people (St. Ambrose) suffered from incurable diseases until the end of their days,

This is explained by the following. that as long as we live in this "body of death," we bear all the consequences of this, until the restoration of the universal, "always bearing in the body the deadness of the Lord Jesus" (2 Cor. 4:10).