When the Lord comes to a person, He brings her His peace: Peace to all! Peace to you! When the Lord enters that person’s heart, he pacifies hit. The heart starts to be thankful to God and inspired with the love that gives her the opportunity to build the Kingdom of God around herself, to spread the peace of Christ around. The peace of God is a reward given to us.

The sinful world, no matter how tempting it might be, no matter how attractive it might be for the natural man, is death. The world without God is a fruitless desert where there can be only torment and suffering and by no means joy or the light of love. The God’s world is the Kingdom, and this Kingdom is in our hearts when God dwells in us, when we are looking for God’s truth and reject human justice. It is through repentance, through renunciation of our egos, through humility that we let God into our hearts. This is when we start to belong to Christ, and this is when Christ begins to change our lives so that things we considered the norm, things we got used to, are no longer acceptable. Thus an individual is transformed.

Click here for handpainted icons of Christ

The peace of God allows one to see her life not as a meaningless and aimless chaos but as an earthly path that leads into the Kingdom of Love. Peace is the gift that the Lord brings to the earth. Once people hid from God in the paradise, they lost peace. They started to look for joys and pleasures of their own; they began to build their own world where there was no place for God. A poor cave was the only place left for the Divine Child. All other places were occupied: hotels were packed and palaces were shut for the Saviour. This is why the Lord knocks at the heart of every person. He says, “I will give you My peace; I will give you My love.” However, the person replies, “Give me health, give me success, give me wealth, give me happiness on earth.” If the person does not receive these worldly pleasures, she rejects God. She says, “God doesn’t help me. I came to God, I wanted Him to give me joy but I have to suffer even more. I came to God because I wanted Him to heal me from my illnesses but my illnesses are more severe than ever.” This is why not every soul will dare ask God to enter her heart; not every soul will remain in the church when trials begin.

How people hurry to get holy water on Epiphany! How they hurry to have their Easter cakes and foods consecrated!

On the other hand, how hard it is for a person to repent, how hard it is for her to come and humble down and leave behind her ego, her sins, and to leave behind that part of her life that lacks God’s truth! Needless is to say that the peace of God is the lot of courageous souls, it is for the souls that struggle with the sin inside themselves. “I torment my tormentor!” Sin lives inside me. It will never come to terms with God’s presence inside us. So we have to choose. Something’s got to die. Either my ego, my self-love, my sin will die, or I will be left without God forever. The peace of God is the Kingdom of Love where God invites all of us to come. But how can a person who got accustomed to sinning reject the sin and give all her life into God’s hands? Therefore, certainly, I would like to say that the peace of God is a gift of God to the person who got lost, who suffers, who is miserable and makes everyone around miserable, too. One should accept this gift and not be doubtful or lose heart. We know that this peace of God makes people not only happy while praying and relieved thanks to God’s love but also leads them to the Golgotha and the Garden of Gethsemane, where they will have to endure contempt, mockery, and resentment. Nevertheless, the person will put up with it if she has experienced the joy of encounter with God inside her heart, if she has really found God and His peace, because there is nothing better or greater than that either in this life or in the age to come.

Archpriest Andrew Lemeshonok

CONVERSATION

We often need to look no further than to the words of the Holy Scripture when we seek guidance, wisdom or advice. The Bible repeatedly mentions and underlines traditional Orthodox Christian values in regards to family. Therefore, it is necessary to once again draw inspiration from the word of God, as a reminder of what true Christian love in marriage is and attempt to understand God’s providence when it comes to family. Here are just a few quotes from the Holy Scripture in regards to family along with a few icons of families who have been glorified by God and have become saints as well as family decorative images:

“Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.” (Colossians 3, 19)

“For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body.” (Ephesians 5, 23)

Conception of Blessed Virgin Mary

“The wife has not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband has not power of his own body, but the wife.” (1 Corinthians 7, 4)

“But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is god.” (1Corinthians 11, 3)

“For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the lord the church.” (Ephesians 5, 28)

“Likewise, you husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.” 1 Peter 3, 7

“A worthy wife brings joy to her husband, peaceful and full is his life. a good wife is a generous gift bestowed upon him who fears the lord” (Sirach 26, 2-3)

Wedding Stained Glass Panel

“Therefore as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.” (Ephesians 5, 24)

“…as the sun when it ariseth in the high heaven; so is the beauty of a good wife in the ordering of her house.” (Sirach 26, 16)

“…likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;” (1 Peter 3,1)

“…whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the lord.” (Proverbs 18-22)

“A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband: but she that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones.” (Proverbs 12,4)

“Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.” (Proverbs 14, 1)

“A gracious woman retaineth honor: and strong men retain riches.” (Proverbs 11, 15)

CONVERSATION

“Dear Father Andrew, dear brothers and sisters! I would like you to explain to me the relation between the mind and the heart, between thoughts and feelings. How can I evaluate properly which thoughts or feelings I can trust? How can I be sure that my feelings are true? How do I check them out? How can I‌ tell whether my heart feels right or wrong? Which thoughts are fake, and which are true? We often say, “I felt that you was feeling bad”. And that was real. Or, as Elder Sophrony writes in his letter, “I was praying for you last night; my soul was sorrowful because you had a great temptation and were suffering from deep depression.” The person who the Elder prayed for was indeed dealing with that kind of struggle. How can I‌ know that my heart feels the other person properly? I would like brothers and sisters to share their thoughts about it and maybe give some examples from their own lives.”

Nun Juliania (Denisova): It is hard to reply to this question on the spot, one has to get ready for answering it.

Archpriest Andrew Lemeshonok: Impromptu. Be always ready, like a pioneer. How can you get ready? You should live like a Christian.

Nun Juliania (Denisova): With real-life examples?

Archpriest Andrew Lemeshonok: You may or you may not use them. How can we not be misled in our feelings or emotional states? Can we trust them or not?

Nun Juliania (Denisova): One's soul experiences various conditions. Now I can tell you this: “Do not trust yourself.” This is the golden thread that runs through everything, this is why I prefer not to trust my feelings. I would rather measure thrice and cut once. I would rather not believe than be fooled. If I need to deal with a certain situation, and I‌ feel that I should do this or that, I prefer not to trust myself and to seek advice instead. When I‌ came to the Convent, I was very surprised at the behavior of Nun Eupraxia. She would approach one sister or another and ask her, Tell me, what should I do: this or that? And the sister would tell her, “I think that perhaps you should do this.” Nun Eupraxia would reply, “Well, then it must be from God.”

Archpriest Andrew Lemeshonok: Do you do the same?

Nun Juliania (Denisova): I ask my spiritual father and my Abbess for advice.

Archpriest Andrew Lemeshonok: Thank you. Nun Maria (Litvinova), please.

Nun Maria (Litvinova): As far as real-life examples are concerned, they are usually related to one's special ones. I do not consider it to be something extraordinary if a certain person reacts to your worries, emotions, and thoughts. It may be a physiology-related phenomenon that everyone may have encountered. I recall how I‌ was anxious when my father drove to his dacha. He was 82 or 83 already by that time, and he was reluctant to admit that it was impossible for him to drive on his own. One day, he was very angry with me for not trusting him. He said, “You don't trust me, but I am able to do everything on my own.” So he left and drove alone in his car, and I was very nervous. I was sitting at home, waiting for him anxiously. He must have come home already but he didn't. I was sick from anxiety. Fifteen minutes later, I‌ suddenly felt at peace. I became absolutely calm. I thought, “He must be somewhere near.” And voilá — the doorbell rang ten minutes thereafter. I experienced such occasions quite often, so I think one can trust this feeling.

Relationships, words, and how we feel others are a different story. Here I agree with Mother Juliania because today you think one thing, and tomorrow you think otherwise. I was always angry with my friends when they admired me. It was hard for me to endure that because I saw that it was wrong. It looks like they love you only because you are good in some situations but if you do anything wrong, you become an enemy, and so you cannot be forgiven or sympathized with… For me, it was terrible.

It is crucial to remember that there is God in every human. I used to love that person, I had a good attitude towards her, which means that this period of adversity is bound to pass, and we must only remember the most important and essential things. Even siblings may quarrel or be offended by one another, but anyway, your brother or sister will forever remain your close relative. Similarly, a friend, a sister in the Convent or in the Sisterhood must also be close and special for you. I believe that this is the only thing you can trust, while everything else is temporary.

Archpriest Andrew Lemeshonok: Thank you. Nun Euphrosinia, please.

Nun Euphrosinia (Nelyubina): Life in the Convent teaches a different attitude, a different experience, and a different angle of perception. More often than not, mind and soul do not agree with one another. An individual is torn apart. When you are in such a state, you should refrain from making any serious decisions. First of all, you have a spiritual father. If he happens to be unavailable at that particular moment, you should pray and ask any sister. I believe that if you ask God to make you wise, He will answer through any person and He will send His help.

Archpriest Andrew Lemeshonok: Yes, if only you have faith.

Nun Euphrosinia (Nelyubina): The Lord may act not only through a sister I respect because she possesses certain qualities, be they intellectual or personal, but also through any person. Of course, I have had a lot of occasions to prove that. Right now, I cannot recall any of such occasions but there have been plenty.

Nun Juliania has told us about the method Nun Eupraxia used. I have also found this method useful, and it really helps me. It can be called “consideration with advice”. Generally, the more one lives in the Convent, the more one is able to see what a failure she is. Before coming to the Convent, I was often chasing my own passions and thoughts. I made a lot of mistakes because of that. If I had had an understanding of the spiritual living, I would have avoided many mistakes. Although they say that a negative experience is an experience nevertheless, I think that it is best avoided because it ruins the soul of an individual and may even kill it.

Yulia Kostyukevich: My entire life has been a tumult of feelings that dragged the reason, that is, feelings came first, and then the reason processed them. In this process, I absolutely trusted my feelings, that is, I was ready to follow them. These experiences appeared like real. The contradiction between the real circumstances and the mood I was in due to my feelings, was what, in fact, led me to church. I realized that feelings were unreliable for guidance. My reasoning processed them and convinced me that I was to follow them. In short, I was a full-blown object for my aims and intentions, and they appeared to be so true because “I felt this way.” Even my students often say, “That's how I see it.” We draw a portrait, and there is an evident distortion of proportions but they say, “That's how we see it.” Here, of course, it's something of a self-justification because the reality is one thing, whereas the vision and the way a person responds to this reality are a totally different thing. This is why the fact that I came to church helped me to learn the most important thing that feelings are not fit to rely on for guidance.

St Ignatius (Bryanchaninov) has an essay about feelings and passions… He wrote a remarkable passage saying that all good inside a person is always mixed with the fallen nature and is therefore useless in God's eyes. Feelings are allegedly good but since they have your own ego, your self-love or vainglory as their source, your truth is a lie before God. So my task for today is not to rely on my feelings. I would like to learn how to put up with circumstances that do not fit in with my soul. For example, when I go to the hospital unit, I have a very real feeling that it hurts, and I would rather make a dozen steps back than one step forward: these are the feelings that haunt me on my way to the unit. I know from my experience that this uneasiness will be there every time I do this but also that there is going to be a breakthrough after this initial feeling.

I have had an interview earlier this week, and I recalled the words of St Ignatius (Bryanchaninov) again. He said that Christ could not be anything but the Winner. Therefore, contrary to your feelings, especially if they are related to your obedience, you should bear in mind and in the heart the certainty of the imminent breakthrough, even if your heart trembles. With regard to obedience, you should go or crawl there — maybe someone is even able to fly — whether you want it or not.

As far as the questions of to be or not to be, to do or not to do are concerned, the sisters have already dwelt on them. I might only add that I have grown helpless over the years, and I try to ask for advice. Some people are surprised, “Can't you decide on your own what to do?” I cannot because I know what my feelings are worth. This is why I pray and go on to ask for advice. We have mentioned not once during our meeting that God can give you the answer through any person, we even brought to mind the talking donkey from the Old Testament, but I usually ask the people who love me or care for me… I believe that the Lord can give me the answer through them. When I hear that answer, I do my best to agree with it, although my feelings may not even expect that answer. So today I have the task I have voiced now: not to be guided by my feelings but ask God to make me strong enough to accept the reality that my feelings won't accept.

Now to the worries about our special ones. When it seems to you that there is something happening in a land far, far away, and if you are worried by that (it does not matter if this feeling is true or not), I have to make effort to pray this situation through. This effort invariably reduces the anxiety level. In fact, sometimes when you call the person you were praying for afterwards, you learn that there indeed was something happening with her. However, knowing how little feelings are worth, you should not come to a conclusion that the next time when you feel tense, that is the case again, because your worries may be baseless. You should pray by all means if you are anxious, for there is no such thing as excessive prayer.

I am uneasy when I feel too well because it may lead to relaxation, and relaxation always leads to something bad. I am afraid of being too relaxed, as this may lead me to looking here and there and enjoying the sun, so to say.

So, perhaps, the result of such self-searching might be that you try to ask God to help you trust Him. Given that you can look inside yourself and see how ruined you are, you call upon God's mercy and ask Him, “Lord, you see that filth of mine: shew me a token for good.” That is what I think of feelings.

Nun Maria (Derzhanovich): There are various periods in a person's life. At a certain point, I was eager to feel something. Later, I came to realize that it was 99 per cent fake. Even when you see other people feeling something, and their feelings are from God. As in the case of Tatiana Masalovich: she had a lot of feelings that stemmed from her kindness and love, but she was very exhausted because feelings drain out power. There are plenty of examples of that. Although there is something sinful in these feelings, God still blesses them because the person has good intentions.

Living in a monastery, you learn that the main feeling you should have is mistrust of yourself. Regardless of how good and loving a person might be, if she trusts herself while doing her obedience, all those feelings cannot save her. After ten years in the convent, I see from my own experience, as well as from others' experience, that if you do not have this mistrust, you will not be able to lead the monastic life. Feelings of love will not help you in a monastery, if you do not have a commitment to obey and to humble yourself down.

Novice Yekaterina (Sergeyeva): There must be a unity of souls of some sort, when people can feel one another. It seems to me that this is an aftermath of the unity that was destroyed by sin. As far as my feelings are concerned, they all are distorted so I try not to analyze whether they are right or wrong because often suspicions and sinful thoughts creep in. Whenever you face something you do not understand, you should pray and ask your spiritual father, the abbess or a sister, and this will be the proper way. On the other hand, I have always been interested in how a mother feels her children.

Archpriest Andrew Lemeshonok: Each person passes through various times and emotional states in the course of her life. When a person has just turned to God and is reading books on asceticism extensively, she may have a burning desire to imitate the saints, although she is but a baby, and a capricious and self-centered one; and if she says that she does not want to be guided by her feelings but rather led by the Spirit, it might be a horrible parody of the truth about God.

I would like to speak in defense of feelings: Although, naturally, I agree with the quotation “You should not trust yourself until you die,” we have to live anyway. If someone has got rid of all feelings, this does not make her spiritually advanced. Our Metropolitan Philaret is an emotional person but his emotions are noble. Saint John of Kronstadt also was an emotional man, and some people even suffered from it, but all his emotions were directed towards pleasing God. His sorrow from sin was also a feeling, a feeling that his soul had sinned. He was climbing the Heaven to ask for forgiveness.

What will we become if we are left without feelings? It is frightening to imagine that. Saint Ignatius Bryanchaninov wrote sober and truthful words about feelings but life can be different. Of course, you cannot go far with your feelings. However, when a person is in an emotionless, strained, depressed, or indifferent mood, she is close to death. This is why we have the spirit, the soul, and the body.

Words about the physical life may seem more or less familiar to us. An emotional person needs certain sensations, emotions, moods, she subsists on it. A spiritual person, on the contrary, subsists only on what comes from God, she does not accept anything else because all emotional states carry a fly in the ointment, i.e., the sin. This is why it is important for us to determine what state we are currently in, what our measure of growth is today. Here the circumstances of our lives must also be taken into account, as well as our responsibilities with regard to our special ones, and a whole lot of other factors. Even monasteries are different from each other.

Each individual goes through certain stages. When one's soul grows, she moves on from one stage onto the next with pain. This is typical of us today.

Due to the fact that we are infected by the sin, it is dangerous to rely on our own feelings because, for example, if we feel hurt or distrustful, the enemy will quickly paint such images in our heads that it would be hard to get rid of them, if at all possible. Therefore, seeing that even in this body-centered and emotional condition we still use something that is related to spiritual life, it might be called our partial obedience, a sort of renunciation, rejection of our opinion at a certain moment. We realize that in order to go forward, in order not to make mistakes and not to be on the leash of the sin, we must first of all struggle with ourselves and look for God's truth instead of our own truth. This does not come easily, and we require special grace of God, a lot of patience and discretion, which we do not have today, unfortunately. Of course, Rome was not built in a day, and an individual cannot become spiritual from a flesh-centered one at once. If she has been in Church for just a couple of years and already starts to look down on everyone else, that's a sad joke.

We surely have intuition but we should not trust ourselves, we should not insist on the way we feel, our moods and visions, and we should not be stubborn. If you see that you have made a mistake, you should admit it and humble yourself down, asking for forgiveness.

When someone is in search of goodness, light, purity, and God's truth, and when she sees her infirmity (and as a rule, the more she strives for the good, the more clearly she can see her inability), this is very good. That person considers it to be the way it should be and does not claim anything as her own. This is very beautiful. Unfortunately, today we all are very emotional and spiritually fragile, and we have a lot to do, perhaps, in order to make a step forward and to be able to say, “Now I can clearly assess this or that situation; now I am no longer influenced by these emotional states; the Holy Spirit lives in me, and I want only the things that God wants.”

Take, for instance, the prayer of our Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane. As a human, He prayed, “Lord, may this cup be taken from Me.” What is this prayer like? It is emotional. However, this emotional prayer was overridden by His obedience to the will of the Heavenly Father, “Yet not as I will but as You will.”

Prayer in Gethsemane

Therefore, it is important to perceive the measure of our maturity, our condition, and not to be terrified by the fact that we see ourselves not as we would like to see ourselves, not as saints with halos around our heads, but rather as weak human beings. The Apostle says, “What can I boast of? My own weaknesses.” Thus, one's own condition, intuition, and feelings are not enough to be able to look for God's will. One needs a confirmation. This confirmation is to be found in the circumstances of one's life, in the words of the people one trusts, and in prayer. I do not think that one should cast lots because the coin may turn the wrong side up, and thinking that our prayer is so strong that it can make the coin turn the side that God wants it to also is a way of testing God, I suppose. Asking, knocking, searching is the right way. By doing so, a person will certainly find what she is looking for.

When we feel our mutual influence on each other, when we feel our mutual responsibility, we come to realize that our sin is more than our own defeat: it inflicts pain on our special ones, too. When a person prays for the entire world, her soul is open to God, and the Love of Christ who came to save sinners — not the people you like or your relatives but actually everyone — dwells in it. This is why monasticism means more than advancing from being an emotional person to a spiritual kind of person. You have to be sorry for each brother or sister. This is a height to climb. We should be talking about it but in fact we are not ready to climb this height nowadays; that is why we need a lot of spiritual food that the Lord feeds us with. We need to experience God's love towards us and trust God in order to have something inside us changed and to really let God into our lives. When a person, especially one who spent many years in suffering and sorrow, with spiritual discretion, fighting the flesh and the blood, she is rewarded with a vision of the eternity. This is a very beautiful and important testimony of the fact that the Lord can truly dwell in a person's heart and direct his life, and not only visit him briefly.

CONVERSATION

“Those who pray before your holy icon, O Lady, Are vouchsafed healing and receive the knowledge of the true faith”

Everyday we ask the Mother of God for intersection and for her help. Today’s post will focus on the Belorussian the Icon of the Mother of God of Zhirovichi, through which there have been many miracles and in front of which many people who have prayed in front of the icon received and answer to their prayers. The icon itself is very small, only 5.6 by 4.4cm. The icon is oval shaped made from imperial jade with the image of the Most Holy Theotokos and Christ Child carved unto it. The icon is currently located in western Belarus in the Dormition cathedral in Zhirovichi Monastery. Here are just few miracles beginning with the miraculous appearance of the icon:

1st Miracle

The Zhirovichi Icon of the Mother of God appeared in the 15^th century in the vicinity of Zhirovits on the Grodnensk frontier. In the forest, belonging to the Orthodox Lithuanian dignitary Alexander Solton, shepherds beheld an extraordinarily bright light, while peering through the branches of a pear tree that stood over a brook at the foot of a hill. The shepherds came closer and saw a radiant icon of the Mother of God on the tree. With reverence, the shepherds took the icon to Alexander Solton. Alexander Solton did not pay any attention to the report of the shepherds, but he took the icon and placed it in a chest.

On the following day, Solton had guests, and he wanted to show them what had been found. To his amazement, he did not find the icon in the chest, although he had seen it shortly before this. After a certain time the shepherds again found the icon in the same place, and again they brought it to Alexander Solton. This time, however, he received the icon with great reverence and vowed to build a church in honor of the Most Holy Theotokos at the place of the icon’s discovery. Around the wooden church a settlement soon gathered and a parish was formed.

2nd Miracle

A woman who lived near the monastery where the Icon of the Mother of God of Zhirovichi was located, was suffering greatly during childbirth. Even the most experienced doctors could not ease her pain and the woman could have died. But when she was allowed to venerate the Holy Icon, she gave birth to healthy baby and was quickly healed herself.

3rd Miracle

A woman by the name of Anna Gerchingova was dying from tuberculosis. When her relatives came to visit her, they decided to stop at the monastery and pray in front of the icon and shortly after, Anna was miraculously healed.

4th Miracle

A boy by the name of Gennadi from the age of 9 had a growing and inoperable brain tumor. The doctors admitted that they was nothing they could do, while the boy suffered from pain and was in the intensive care unit five times. The child was slowly dying. With hope and faith, the mother took him to the Zhirovichi monastery and to the spring where the icon appeared. Later, when the doctors did another cranial CT scan, they could not find the tumor! The family is now a constant visitor of the monastery and the icon as they continue to glorify God and thank the Mother of God for her interssession.

5th Miracle

Anna Meleshko, a resident of a village by the name of Belaia (white), lost the ability to speak. After suffering from the illness for two years she was healed after praying on front of the icon, confession (written on a paper) and partaking of the Holy Communion.

6th Miracle

A woman who’s leg had to be amputated due to a spreading illness, was miraculously healed after venerating a printed copy of the Zhirovits Icon of the Mother of God.

7th Miracle

A boy named Parfenii from a village called Orgodnik, was healed from his illnesses after paying in front of the icon.

8th Miracle

Osip Vernat, a rich landowner from the Sinchak village, was suffering from a horrible and unknown illness. He could not get any help from the various doctors. He decided then to pray in front of a copy of the holy icon and promised to go to the monastery for a pilgrimage. Before he could finish saying his promise, he was healed.

Sources:

https://oca.org/saints/lives/2011/05/07/101325-icon-of-the-mother-of-god-of-zhirovits

http://zhirovichi-monastery.by/monastyr/obraz/2

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8 Miracles of the Icon of the Mother of God of Zhirovichi

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