Death is different. The Word of God calls the death of sinners cruel (Psalm 33:22), even if outwardly it was ordinary and calm. It is fierce because behind its gates begin fierce torments, endless sorrow. "When such calamities await sinners, what will it profit them if they end their lives at home and on their beds? Nor will the righteous be harmed by ending their present life by the sword, or by iron and fire, when they have to pass on to eternal blessings. Verily, the death of sinners is cruel. Such was the death of the rich man who showed contempt for Lazarus and, although he ended his life at home, on his bed, in the presence of friends, with his own death, but, after his departure, burned in fire and could not find there any consolation in the well-being of the present life" (St. John Chrysostom, Discourses on Statues, 5.1).

The death of any Christian who has lived in a way pleasing to God is not shameful, that is, irreproachable. Honorable in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints (Psalm 115:6). Honest means honorable, with honor. In the prayerful petition it is also called peaceful, i.e. in peace with God. In the Holy Bible, we see not only the life of the righteous, but also their blessed death: the death of the patriarchs, who were filled with life (Genesis 25:7; 35:29; 49:33), the mysterious death of Moses on Mount Nebo, from the top of which he saw the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 34:1-7), the quiet death of David, who died in a good old age (1 Chronicles 29:28), the martyrdom of the Apostle Stephen, who prayed for those who stoned him: God! do not impute this sin to them (Acts 7:60). The Word of God gives special honor to those who were with God in the great battle of good and evil: blessed are the dead who die in the Lord; to her, saith the Spirit, they shall rest from their labors, and their works shall follow them (Rev. 14:13).

In order for us to be vouchsafed an unashamed end, we must begin each day with the thought that nothing has yet been done for salvation, and there will be no more day. The Lord, Whom we not only trust, but also trust in everything, gives everyone the opportunity to prepare themselves by faith, good works, and the fulfillment of the Gospel commandments for this special day. Then every Christian can "meet death without fear, peacefully, without shame, not as a terrible law of nature, but as a fatherly call of the immortal Heavenly Father, holy, blessed, to the land of eternity" (St. John of Kronstadt).

How do I know if I am destined to get married?

Priest Athanasius Gumerov, a monk of Sretensky Monastery  

The need for human warmth and the desire to have a family are natural and are not sinful thoughts if a person lives in abstinence and keeps purity. The most important thing is not to perceive your current state as a misfortune or a failure in life. The opportunity to build a family is not gone yet. People get married after 30 years. Trust God in everything. Perhaps the Lord keeps you from sorrows and bitter experiences, which are so many in our time for people living in families. How great is the number of divorces! How many families in which husband and wife live under the same roof as complete strangers. Instead of warmth and joy, there is cold and melancholy. And how many parents shed tears for their disobedient children, whom the world has caught in the disastrous networks of drug addiction, sexual promiscuity and crime.

Take advice that will help you. Do not torture yourself with thoughts of loneliness. The Lord knows better than we do what we need. God has given you the most precious gift – faith, without which no person can have true happiness. The modern Athonite Elder Paisius, who prayed with pain and love for every suffering person, wrote: "There is no greater joy in the world than the love of God, which even in this life, together with divine tenderness, is given in abundance to the zealous children of God, and which can only be experienced, but not expressed in words. But even greater is the love that God preserves for us in paradise and does not give us now, because we cannot contain it in our mortal hearts" (Letters, Holy Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, 2001, p.134).

How to understand: a person is strong in spirit and what cowardice is?

Priest Athanasius Gumerov, a monk of Sretensky Monastery  

The expression "strong in spirit" is indeed very vague and vague. Depending on spiritual and moral values, everyone puts their own meaning into it. As a result, there is an extreme semantic variety. This is easy to see with examples. In the fiction of the 19th century, this expression was applied to people who were cheerful, far from despondent. In Soviet literature and journalism, it was ideologized. "Strong in spirit" were called people who are ideologically stable.

F. Nietzsche divided all people into three types: "strong in spirit", "strong in muscles and temperament" and "not outstanding in either one or the other – mediocre". The former make up the "elite". Speaking of them, he shows a morbid bitterness against Christianity for its sympathy and compassion for the weak:

"What's good? - Everything that increases a person's sense of power, the will to power, power itself.

What's wrong? "Everything that comes from weakness.

What is happiness? — A sense of growing power, a sense of overcoming opposition. Not contentment, but the desire for power, not peace in general, but war, not virtue, but the fullness of abilities...