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.

The first, about whom the Gospel tells, who wanted to follow Christ, wanted to bury his father first. "Let the dead bury their dead," the Lord answered. "Go and preach the Gospel." The words seem to be cruel. How can you not bury your father? These words were spoken by the Lord, which means that they are not cruel, but full of truth.

One must understand spiritually: of course, the Lord was not so cruel as to forbid the burial of one's father, but it was necessary to understand these words spiritually. How? This meant: if you want to follow Me, — abandon all worries about the dead, about the corruptible, about the perishing; direct your thoughts to God, get away from this sinful land, lift up your heart to grief, forget about dead deeds. Go and preach the Gospel.

This is the teaching to us, the pastors of the Church. It is necessary to go far, far away from all dead deeds, to raise the mind and heart to heaven, to the spiritual, to think about the things above, and not about the earthly, as the Apostle Paul demands. Dead deeds must be left behind, leaving the dead to bury the dead. The dead in spirit are many, infinitely numerous, let us leave them to occupy themselves with dead works, and Christians must turn away from dead works.

Another asked to go with the Lord, but asked permission to take leave of his family. His heart was drawn to the Lord, but his concern for his family and his attachment to his family made him look back. "No one who looks back is trustworthy for the Kingdom of God."

He who has laid his hand on the plow, the plough that will plow the field of God, on which the holy seeds, the seeds of righteousness, grow, must not look back. He must strive with all his thoughts to God. You cannot look back, regret what you have left behind, you cannot remember how you lived before, you cannot regret anything left behind in the world. If you have left the world, do not remember the world.

Love the Lord with all your heart, destroy the remnant of your love for the world, do not look back, do not remember your past life, when you thought little about God, when you thought about how to live better, more cheerfully. Forget about your former life, and do not forget to renounce the deeds of your former life.

Never say: today I will live as before, I will do what I used to do, and tomorrow I will leave it all behind. If you think like that, you will not follow the Lord. And tomorrow you will say the same. Tomorrow you will imagine pictures of life abandoned by the oboe, and tomorrow you will postpone a new life for tomorrow. And my conscience will remind me: leave it now, leave it now. And conscience will repeat its own, remind you of the same thing. If you do not listen to the voice of conscience, then he will fall silent completely, and what he has been putting off for tomorrow will remain postponed forever. What should be forgotten will not be forgotten.