May the Lord make you wise, understand and do not be confused.

Letter 9

19.4.1946

So we entered the Holy Forty Days. St. The Church cries: "Let us fast with a pleasant fast, pleasing to the Lord; true fasting is the alienation of the wicked, the abstinence of the tongue, the deferral of wrath, the excommunication of lusts, the utterance of lies, and the transgression of perjury, of which there is impoverishment, the true fast is also acceptable."

On Forgiveness Sunday, after dinner, a break for 1/2 hour; At 7 o'clock all the monks gathered in the church, sang the Paschal canon, read prayers for the coming sleep, and then venerated the icons. The abbot asked forgiveness, made a prostration to the ground, and all the brethren also bowed down to the ground, and all came up in turn, kissing the ramen, one by one, and only one heard: "God will forgive me, and forgive me, a sinner," then they went silently to their cells.

A good custom, somehow responds well to the soul, everything has been reconciled. They do not work all this week, they will take communion on Saturday.

I congratulate you on the Holy Synod. The Forty Days; help you, Lord, to spend it in Christian piety and meet the Bright Resurrection of Christ.

Letter 10

10.7.1046

Christ is in our midst!

My desire for thee, that thou shouldst lead a spiritual life, and that thou shouldst express all that was in thy soul, for the sake of God, for the salvation of thy soul: "Take heed that ye walk dangerously," says the Apostle, and all our precautions, without the grace of God, are shattered to pieces, for it is not in our power to stand firm in virtue, as I have told thee before; We must strive for virtue and compel ourselves strongly, this consists in our free will.

You now have an idea of the inner life and a certain skill; force yourself to pray inwardly more often, as much as you have strength and time, exercise yourself in mortal memory and pray to God that He would give you a mortal memory. Notice what our temporal life is: inconstant, changeable, and fleeting, it draws the inattentive to absent-mindedness; And in order to acquire one's inner peace, one means is unceasing prayer. Boredom and sadness will pass, be patient, do not lose heart, God help and protect you.

It is not correct to believe the rumors of outsiders; people are like people, sometimes they make an elephant out of a mosquito and see only infirmities, and they cannot know cell tears, and are not able to penetrate into the inner life of a solitary monk. The degrees of spiritual prosperity are different, and only the spiritual can cognize the spiritual. It is most useful to see everyone as good, and yourself as the worst; If you only take care of yourself, then you will see yourself as the worst, as I have told you before.

I always remember you in my unworthy prayers, and according to your faith may God's mercy be with you.