It was a long way to the monastery where they were going, and they wanted to get there for the service, and especially for dinner. To be a guest, to a festive dinner - this pleasure so rarely fell to their lot. They had to hurry, and linger on the road to bandage the wounded man and carry him somewhere to the shelter, they did not have time. An hour later, the abbot walked the same way. The bitten old man still lay motionless by the road, and it seemed that life had almost left him. Only occasionally did he moan softly. The hegumen approached him, and his heart contracted with compassion. He bent down to the unfortunate man, bandaged his wounds as best he could, and lifted him from the ground, trying to bring him to his feet. It was impossible to leave the dying man in the forest.

"Can you go somehow?" he asked. The old man only groaned muffled.

"Leaning on me," the abbot continued, "we will move together, slowly..." I know a house not far from here...

He embraced the old man with his decrepit arm and tried to make him go. It was all in vain: he could not stand on his feet and hung on his arm like a sack of dust. Then the abbot knelt, laid the wounded wanderer on his old shoulders, rose slowly and dragged his burden, groaning, stumbling, and barely stepping over with his weak legs; For his advanced years, the weight was beyond his strength.

He had little hope of informing me. But his heart was bursting with pity, and he could not leave the poor man without help either. And the strange thing was that as he moved forward, the weight on his shoulders became lighter and lighter, and finally the feeling of it ceased completely.

The abbot looked around and was stunned. There was no one on his shoulders! The old man disappeared.

And only from afar came a small voice: "It is impossible to fulfill your prayer, for the deeds of your brethren are different from yours... Compel them to follow in your footsteps: otherwise they will not enter the Kingdom of God.." [St. Basil of Kineshma, Demon on the Ev. of Mr., pp.254-255.]

And now our common misfortune: egoism, or selfishness, pushes a person away from serving others. Love for another person sometimes cannot break through the asphalt of this demonic filth.

"All sacrifices and alms to the poor," writes John of Kronstadt, "will not replace love for one's neighbor if it is not in the heart; therefore, when giving alms, one must always take care that it is given with love, from a sincere heart, willingly, and not with vexation and grief at them. The very word alms shows that it should be a deed and a sacrifice of the heart, and given with tenderness or regret for the plight of the beggar." [Ibid., p. 243.]

We open various foundations, restore destroyed shrines, rant about love for the whole world and..! we push away the sick from us: "No, no! I don't do that, go to Fr. N."

Selfishness shackled hearts with fear. It is even better to forbid reprimands, prayers for the sick, then you can say to the troubled conscience: "Is it really forbidden, but I would be glad..."

13. Is it really possible that prayers for the sick with incantatory prayers will be prohibited?

Not only is it possible, but it is happening everywhere. Venerable archpriests oppose reprimands, declaring that now it is impossible to do this, and it was possible only earlier, when

They give different arguments in favor of their views. Bishops forbid so as not to have unnecessary worries and troubles. An opinion is developed: all this is the business of psychiatrists, and not ours, since no one understands this now, there are no those old men who died out like mammoths. The priest is assigned the role of a doctor's assistant: to calm and guide. And then they will sort it out and cure it.