The Lord said to His disciples: "The days will come when you will desire to see even one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see; And they shall say unto you, Behold, here, or, behold, there, do not walk, nor pursue: for as the lightning flashing from one end of heaven shineth to the other end of heaven, so shall the Son of man be in his day" (Luke 17:22-24). So suddenly, so awesome will be His coming. It will be suddenly, when people will not expect it at all, on a day that only our Father in heaven knows.

But before this tremendous lightning flashes, Christ must, in His words, "suffer much, and be rejected by this generation" (v. 25). What suffering did the Lord Jesus Christ speak of here? He does not speak of His sufferings on the Cross, but of other sufferings which He will experience from people who have rejected Him all the days – from the Ascension to the Last Judgment. He knew that it would be difficult for Him to be rejected by the human race, that our sins would torment Him. All bloody wars between Christian nations cause great pain to His heart. We inflict this pain on Him with our lives, our sinful actions, evil thoughts, and impious words... We inflict this pain on Him when we serve our passions.

The Lord Jesus Christ speaks of this suffering: "I must suffer much, and be rejected by this generation." Mankind rejected Him for the most part... And we, His little flock, will be afraid to inflict even the slightest suffering on Him with our evil feelings, evil thoughts, and evil deeds. May the Lord God preserve you all from them!

How to Follow Christ

December 3, 1946

That's how few people in Simferopol need to listen to the word of God. Many thousands of people live in this city, and only a handful of people have come to listen to me.

So, does that mean I should stop preaching? No, because the holy Apostle Paul preached to a small number of people, he preached even to one person, he taught one person. And I don't know what is more necessary: to preach to a crowd of people or to a small handful of people. Because in this small handful there may be a person for whom what I am going to say will be especially important.

Our duty is to save everyone, to take care of the souls of all. Great is the joy in heaven for every sinner who repents. Great is our joy when we learn that what we have said in front of a handful of people has sunk deep into their souls. Therefore I will not cease to preach to you.

"It happened that while they were on the way, someone said to Him, 'Lord! I will follow You wherever You go. Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head. And he said to another, Follow me. He said: Lord! let me go first and bury my father. But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their dead, and you go and preach the gospel of the kingdom of God." And another said, I will follow Thee, O Lord! but first let me bid farewell to my household. But Jesus said to him, "No one who has put his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God" (Luke 9:57-62).

The Lord had no place to lay His head. He says that foxes have holes, and birds have nests, but He has to bow their heads for the time being. It is difficult to follow Christ, because one must be prepared for deprivation, for persecution, one must be ready not to have anywhere to lay one's head, not to have anything to eat.

But there were many people who did not stop at the fact that they would have nowhere to lay their heads on the way, many did not think about where and what to live, how to eat. There were many people who, without thinking or caring about anything, went into the wild deep forests, where there is no human soul, built themselves a hut and lived there. And the Lord did not leave anyone, no one died of hunger, the Lord led everyone along a difficult, thorny path, but led them to the Kingdom of God. The Lord commanded them to be nourished: people learned that a man had appeared in the forest who had given himself over to God; hunters accidentally found such a person, and there were good souls who took upon themselves the care of these people who had given themselves to God.

But there were also those who lived in terrible conditions, in wild places, of which not a single human soul knew. There were people like Anthony of Siysk, who ate only grass, roots and did not die, lived for many years, received the gifts of the grace of the Holy Spirit.

In order to follow Christ, one must be ready for deprivation, for reproach. The Apostle Paul says: "All; those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (2 Tim. 3:12), since there are so many, infinitely many who hate Christ. In our time, it is especially difficult to follow this thorny path.