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May God Give You Wisdom!" - the letters of Fr. John Krestiankin
Letters to laypeople...
"One of the most important and necessary gifts from God is the gift of discernment. We need it in everyday matters, and even more so in spiritual life.
Thank God for His mercy, that you have found faith; but even before this, dear T., though we lived in sin, we were not without God. You received an education; wouldn't it be a sin to forget about this?
Well what would happen if everyone took up floor rags and began to peacefully save themselves through the unaccountable washing of floors?
No, this should not be.
You will not be held accountable as a simple aunty with little understanding, but as a person to whom much was given."
"In the not so distant past, when your mind and heart had not yet come into contact with God's Truth, your reaction to your surroundings was the truth of your life. You did not act against your conscience.
It is quite another matter for a believing person to use such methods of protest - it would be a LIE against his faith.
God's Providence is always right. If He allows us to experience the bitterness of modern life, then with an undoubting trust in God, this is the only saving path for us. What do these words of the Holy Fathers mean: <<The last will be greater than the first?>> The last, who are weak spiritually and physically, impoverished in mind and heart, suddenly surpass in God's eyes those who labored in His fields for their salvation from childhood? But this is God's voice spoken through the saints.
During these terrible times when the spirit of Orthodoxy has become scarce in the world, the path of God's Truth means preserving faith and trust in God, not wavering or murmuring, preserving love for those who have gone astray, and pitying our enemies. This is how our salvation is wrought.
That is all."