There
were two monks who fell prey to lust and left their monastery. In the meantime
they started saying to one another, “What's the use for us in falling into this
fornication and giving up on our monastic living? We will have to suffer
hellfire and torment. Let us return to the desert.”
As soon
as they returned, they confessed what they had done and asked the elders to
give them a penance. The elders decreed that they had to spend a year in
confinement on bread and water. The monks looked exactly the same weight.
When the
penance period was over, they were discharged from the confinement, and the
elders were surprised to see one of the monks sad and pale, while the other had
a joyful and radiant face. It was a surprise because the monks had eaten the
same amounts of food. So the elders asked the sad brother, “What have you been
thinking about in your cell?”
“I was
thinking,” he said, “about the wrongdoings that I had committed, and about the
torment that I was destined to, and by reason of the voice of my groaning my
bones cleave to my skin (Ps. 101:5).
The
elders went on to ask the other monk, “What have you been thinking of in your
cell?”
He
replied, “I was thanking God for setting me free from the iniquity of the world
and from future suffering and for bringing me back to this Angelic lifestyle,
and, as I was thinking of God, I was excited.” The elders stated, “Both kinds
of repentance are equal in the eyes of God.”
Long time
ago, an old man was talking with his grandson. This was what he said:
— There
is a war inside each person's heart, which resembles a fight between two
wolves. One of the wolves represents the evil: jealousy, envy, self-pity,
egoism, arrogance, and dishonesty. The other wolf represents the good: peace,
love, hope, truth, kindness, and loyalty.
The boy
was moved by his grandfather's words. He thought about it for a while and then
asked:
— Which
of the wolves will win in the end?
The old
man smiled and responded:
— The
wolf whom you feed will always win.
A barber
told his client:
– If
there is a God, why are there so many ill people? Where do homeless orphans and
unjust wars come from? If there really was a God, there would be no suffering
and no pain. It is hard to imagine a loving and omnipotent God who lets all
these things to happen. That's why I don't believe that there is a God.
The
client replied:
– You
know what? There are no barbers.
– Why? –
the barber exclaimed. – One of them is in front of you and you can see me.
– No! –
the client protested. – There are no barbers, or else there weren't so many
unshaven and uncut people like that man over there walking down the road.
– Well,
my dear, it isn't the barbers’ problem! People simply don't come to me.
– That's
right! – the client nodded. – That's exactly what I want to say: There is a
God! People just don't look for him and don't come to him. That's why there is
so much suffering in the world.
There
were some monks who were discussing humility. A noble man from Gaza heard them
say that the closer one gets to God, the more sinful he considers himself to
be. He was amazed:
— How can
that be?
He was
eager to know what these words meant.
One of
the monks replied:
— Sir,
who do you think you are in your town?
The noble
man answered:
— I think
I am the greatest and the most important man in my town.
— What if
you go to Caesarea, what would you think of yourself?
— I would
consider myself to be the last of the gentry.
— Who
would you be in Antioch then?
— I'd be
counted among the commoners.
— What if
you go to Constantinople to the Emperor's Court, who would you be?
— I’d
consider myself a tramp.
— This is
how saints look at it. — the monk said, — the closer they get to God, the more
sinful they feel. When Abraham saw the Lord, he called himself dirt and ashes.
Before
the dismissal, a priest announced:
– Next
Sunday, I'll be talking with you about lies. Please read the Gospel of Mark,
Chapter 17, to understand what I'll be speaking about.
The next
Sunday, before he started preaching, the priest ordered:
– Those
of you who have read the seventeenth chapter of Mark, please raise your hands.
Almost
all the parishioners raised their hands.
– You are
the very people who I would like to talk to about lies. – the priest commented.
– There is no such chapter in the Gospel of Mark.
A novice
asked his elder:
— Is it
true that happiness is not the same as having a lot of money?
The elder
confirmed that it was totally true. This is how he proved his point: you can
buy a bed but not a healthy sleep; you can buy food but not appetite; drugs but
not health; slaves but not friends; women but not love; a house but not a home;
entertainment but not fun; education but not wisdom. And the list is
incomplete.
There was
a man who did not believe in God and was never shy to tell everybody about his
attitude towards religion. His wife, on the contrary, believed in God and
reared their children in the faith in spite of the rancid remarks of her
husband.
One
winter night, the wife and the children went to a village church, expecting to
hear a sermon about the Nativity of Christ. The wife invited her husband to go
to the church with them but he declined. “All that story is absurd.” – he said.
– “Why would God need to humiliate himself and appear on earth as a man? It's
ridiculous!”
His wife
and children left, and he was alone. After a while, a strong wind started
blowing and a snowstorm broke out. The man looked into the window but all he
could see was endless snow. He sat comfortably in the chair and prepared to
spend the rest of the evening in front of the fireplace. All of a sudden, he
heard a loud clap: something hit his window. He came closer to the window but
he was unable to see anything. When the blizzard somewhat faded, he went
outdoors to see what had caused the loud noise. He saw a flock of wild geese in
the field near his house. They were heading south but got caught up in the
snowstorm and could not go any further. They lost their way and found
themselves at his farm without food or shelter. They were flying low above the
field, blinded by the snow. It must have been one of those geese that knocked
into the man's window. He sympathized with the poor birds and decided to help
them. He thought that the cowshed was the most suitable place for them. It was
warm and safe, and they could easily spend the night in the cowshed and wait
for the blizzard to stop. He went to the cowshed and opened its doors wide. He
was standing there, waiting for the geese to walk into the cowshed.
However,
the geese were flying around in circles and apparently didn't notice the open
cowshed door or didn't understand what it was for. The man tried to catch their
attention but he only scared the geese. The man went back home and returned with
a loaf of bread. He scattered breadcrumbs along the road leading to the
cowshed. The geese didn't fall for it, either.
The poor
man was on the brink of despair. He sneaked up on the geese from behind and
tried to drive them to the cowshed but the geese were even more terrified and
started flying in all directions, except the direction of the cowshed. There
was nothing that could make them go to the cowshed, where they could be warm
and safe. “Why don't the geese follow me?” the man exclaimed. “Can't they see
that it's the only place where they can survive during this blizzard?” He stood
there thinking and realised that the geese simply didn't want to follow a human
being. “If only I were a goose, I could have saved them,” the man said aloud.
He came up with a brilliant idea. He went to his cowshed, took one of his geese
and brought it into the field, far from the wild geese who were flying in
circles. He released the goose. The goose flew through the flock of wild geese
and returned to the cowshed. One by one, all other geese followed him.
The man
stood there quietly, and all of a sudden he once again heard the words that he
had uttered moments before, “If I were a goose, I could save them.” Then he
recalled the words he had said to his wife earlier, “Why would God become like
us? It's ridiculous!” Suddenly, it dawned on him that it was precisely what God
had done. We used to be like those geese: blind, forlorn, and doomed. God sent
his son to become like one of us, so that He could show us the way to salvation.
When the
wind and the blinding snow started to calm down, his soul was also relieved and
comforted by this wonderful thought. He suddenly realised why Jesus had come.
Years of doubt and disbelief dissipated together with the snowstorm. He fell to
his knees in the snow and said his first prayer ever, “Thank you Lord for
coming to this world in human form to deliver me from the tempest!”
Translated from: https://azbyka.ru/days/
CONVERSATION