St. Seraphim’s spring
One and a quarter miles from the monastery was a spring called the Theologian’s Spring, and over it was an icon of St. John the Theologian. Near the spring was the empty cell of the reposed Fr. Dorotheus. Making his way to the far desert past this area, Fr. Seraphim saw the Mother of God below the spring, and on the knoll were Apostles Peter and John. The Mother of God struck the ground with her staff, so that a spring welled up in a fountain of bright water from the earth. Here the Mother of God gave Fr. Seraphim commandments concerning the building of Diveyevo Convent, about which we will speak further in the course of the narrative.
Fr. Seraphim decided to dig a well over his healing spring, and completed it by his own labors. Having dug out the well, he built a frame around it and filled it in with stones. The well came to be known as Seraphim’s well. The Saint told monk Anastasius to pray to the Mother of God, and ask her to make the water in the well capable of healing diseases. “And the Mother of God,” he added, “promised to give the water a greater blessing than that of the Bethesda waters of Jerusalem.” The healings were not slow to begin. Diveyevo sister Paraskeva Semyonovna was sick and coughing. “Why are you coughing … stop, enough!” Fr. Seraphim said to her. “I can’t, Batiushka!” she answered. Then Fr. Seraphim scooped up some water with his sleeve and doused her with it. The illness immediately left her, and never returned.
From St. Seraphim Wonderworker of Sarov and His Spiritual Heritage by Helen Kontsevich (St. Xenia Skete)
Mrs. P. I. Shrarina, who from the year 1827 enjoyed Fr. Seraphim’s particular trust, witnessed that even a year prior to the first outbreak of cholera in 1830 and 1831, he said, “God’s wrath is upon Russia, and a death-bearing cholera is approaching. Be vigilant and pray, that the hour of death may come upon you unawares.”
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St. Luke the Surgeon, Archbishop of Simferopol
“Drink Holy Water, the more often, the better. It is the best and most effective medicine. I’m not saying this as a priest, I’m saying it as a doctor, from my medical experience.”
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God is the life of all free beings. He is the salvation of all, of believers or unbelievers, of the just or the unjust, of the pious or the impious, of those freed from passions or those caught up in them, of monks or those living in the world, of the educated and the illiterate, of the healthy and the sick, of the young or the old. He is like the outpouring of light, the glimpse of the sun, or the changes of the weather which are the same for everyone without exception.
Abba Pambo said, “If you have a heart, you can be saved.”
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An old man and a brother lived their ascetic life together. Now the old man was charitable. It happened that there was a famine and people came to his door seeking alms, and in charity the old man gave to all who came. Seeing what was happening, the brother said to the old man, “Give me my share of the loaves, and do what you like with yours.” The old man divided the loaves and gave alms from his share.
Now many people hastened to the old man, learning that he supplied everyone, and God — seeing that he supplied everyone — blessed these loaves. But when the brother had consumed his own food he said to the old man, “Since I have only little food left, abba, take me back into the common life again.” The old man said, “I will do as you wish.” So they began again to live in common. When scarcity broke out again, the needy came back seeking alms.
Now one day the brother came in and saw they were short of loaves. A poor man came, and the old man told the brother to give him alms. He said, “It is no longer possible, father.” The old man said to him, “Go in and look.” The brother went inside and found the bin full of loaves. When he saw that, he was filled with fear, and taking some he gave to the poor. In this way, he learned the faith and virtue of the old man, and he gave glory to God.
From “The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers,” by Benedicta Ward, (Oxford: SLG Press, 1985), p. 42
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There was an old man living in the desert who served God for so many years and he said, “Lord, let me know if I have pleased you.” He saw an angel who said to him, “You have not yet become like the gardener in such and such place.”
The old man marvelled and said, “I will go off to the city to see both him and what it is that he does that surpasses all my work and toil of all these years.”…
So he went to the city and asked the gardener about his way of life…. When they were getting ready to eat in the evening, the old man heard people singing in the streets, for the cell of the gardener was in a public place. Therefore the old man said to him, “Brother, wanting as you do to live according to God, how do you remain in this place and not be troubled when you hear them singing these songs?”
The man said, “I tell you, abba, I have never been troubled or scandalized.” When he heard this the old man said, “What, then, do you think in your heart when you hear these things?” And he replied, “That they are all going into the Kingdom.” When he heard this, the old man marvelled and said, “This is the practice which surpasses my labour of all these years.”
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It was revealed to Abba Anthony in the desert that in the city was someone like him, a physician by profession, who gave his surplus to those having need of it, and who all day sang the Trisagion with the angels.
St. Anthony the Great said The world is maintained through God’s providence and there is no place which this providence does not touch.
He is called a saint who is pure from evil and sin. So the greatest perfection of the soul, a state most pleasing to God is absence of evil in man.
Through the loving-kindness of our Creator, there are very many ways to salvation, which convert souls and lead them to heaven.
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Elder Sophrony of Essex
‘In difficult times, when all my efforts have failed to conform the events of my life towards the Gospel teaching, I would pray in the following manner:
“Come and make Yourself one with my will. Your commandments do not fit within my narrow heart, and my finite nous does not comprehend their content. If You are not well pleased to come and dwell within me Yourself, then I will inevitably be led towards the darkness. I know that You do not work through force, so I entreat You: Come and take charge of my house, and wholly renew me. Transform the hellish darkness of my pride into Your humble love. Transfigure with Your Light my corrupted nature, that no passion might be able to remain within me that would prevent Your coming with Your Father (John 14:21-23). Make me a dwelling place of that holy life which You Yourself have allowed me to taste of here in part…Yes, O Lord, I entreat You, do not deprive from me this sign of Your goodness.” ‘
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