Everyday Saints and Other Stories Quotes

“Everything on our earth—both the simple and the complicated questions, both the little human problems and the challenges of finding the great path to God, all the secrets of the past, the present, and the future ages—all can be resolved only by such mysterious, ineffably beautiful and omnipotent humility. And even if we cannot understand its truth and meaning, and even if it seems for now that we are not ready for this mysterious and all-powerful humility, nonetheless, that humility by itself will reveal itself to us through those incredible persons who are capable of possessing it.”
― Tikhon Shevkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“Love,” said the Great Abbot, “is the very highest form of prayer. If prayer is the queen of the virtues, then Christian love is God, for God is love. If you just look at the world only through the prism of love, all your problems will disappear, and within yourself you will see the Kingdom of Heaven, within the human being you will find the Icon, and within the earthly beauty you will see the shade of Paradise. You may object to me that it is impossible to love your enemies. But remember what Jesus Christ told us: ‘Whatever you have done unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me . . .’ Inscribe these words in golden letters upon the tablets of your heart, and inscribe them and hang them together with an icon, and read them to yourself every day.”
― Tihhon Ševkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“Тогда вздымается Геннисаретское озеро, и из пучины на берег начинают вылезать давно утонувшие, полные ярости свиньи и кидаются на несчастного, который сам сделал выбор между ними и Богом. Когда нечистый дух выйдет из человека, то ходит по безводным местам, ища покоя и не находит; тогда говорит: возвращусь в дом мой, откуда я вышел. И придя, находит его незанятым, выметенным и убранным; тогда идет и берет с собою семь других духов, злейших себя, и, войдя, живут там; и бывает для человека того последнее хуже первого.
(архимандрит Тихон)”
― Tikhon Shevkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“Yet where there is darkness, as this book shows, light shines forth ever brighter to meet it.”
― Tikhon Shevkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“May I for grace, patience, and love forever strive, And wisdom’s innocence within my heart revive.”
― Tikhon Shevkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“As for the history of Father John’s years of imprisonment, what always struck me most about his story was the way in which he described the time he spent in those truly awful camps, so full of cruelty and suffering and callousness. Believe it or not, Father John would say that these were the happiest days of his entire life. “Because God was always close by!” With joy Father John would exclaim this, although without doubt he realized that there was no way we could possibly understand him. “For some reason I can’t remember anymore a single bad thing,” he would say about his time in the camps. “I can only remember now how I used to pray in there: the heavens opened and the Angels were singing in the heavens! I don’t know how to pray like that anymore . . .” *”
― Tikhon Shevkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“The very happiest times of my life were the years when I was suspended and disgraced. Never before or since in my life was the Lord as close to me as back then.”
― Tikhon Shevkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“This new world Father Raphael had joined was full of joy and light, and governed by its own particular laws. In this world the help of the Lord would always come when it was truly needed. In this world wealth was ridiculous, and glamour and ostentatiousness absurd, while modesty and humility were beautiful and becoming. Here great and just souls truly judged themselves to be lesser and worse than any other man. Here the most respected were those who had fled from all worldly glory. And here the most powerful were those who with all their hearts had recognized the powerlessness of their own unaided humanity. Here the true power was hidden with frail elders, and it was understood that sometimes it was better to be old and ill than to be young and healthy. Here the youthful would leave behind the usual pleasures of their friends and mates in the normal world, and do so with no regrets, as long as they would not have to leave this special world without which they could no longer live. Here the death of each became a lesson to all, and the end of earthly life was just the beginning.”
― Tikhon Shevkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“The Foolish Townsfolk From The Prologue IN A LAZY, sleepy Byzantine town that had seen better days, the townsfolk had become so shameless in their self-indulgent brazenness that they did whatever they wanted, breaking all moral laws and canons, without the least thought for the reproaches of their good old bishop, no matter how he begged them to reform their ways. The townsfolk merely laughed at the elder and waved him off as they would a pesky fly. Finally the old bishop died. A young new bishop was appointed, who began to live with such sybaritic excess that even the townsfolk who thought they had already seen everything shuddered to observe him. Suddenly they missed their good old meek, elderly bishop. Unable to stand any longer the constant extortion, corruption, humiliation, beatings, and most incredible and riotous disorder of the new bishop, the citizens of the town cried out as if in unison: “Why, oh Lord, have You sent us such a monster?” They had no idea how to pray properly, but after a long period of prolonged and piteous yelping, the Lord appeared to one of the town fathers and replied: “I tried to find someone worse for you, but couldn’t.”
― Tikhon Shevkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“... odlično smo ga razumeli jer smo i sami bežali od sveta koji nam je postao besmislen da bismo tražili Boga Koji nam se iznenada otkrio.”
― Tikhon Shevkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“Sve na ovoj našoj zemlji - jednostavno i složeno, mali ljudski problemi i pronalaženje velikog puta ka Bogu, tajne sadašnjeg i budućeg veka - sve se rešava samo zagonetnim, neshvatljivo divnim i moćnim smirenjem.
Čak i ako ne shvatamo njegov smisao i ako nismo sposobni za to tajanstveno i svemoćno smirenje, ono će nam se samo smireno otkriti kroz one čudesne ljude koji su ga stekli.”
― Tikhon Shevkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“But who is going to decide what each person’s capabilities or needs are? Probably it’ll be some commission as usual. But what kind of commission? Probably a ‘troika’ (that is, a group of three judges carrying out the Party’s will). So they will summon me and say, ‘All right, Nathaniel, what are your capabilities? You can chop twenty cubic meters of wood per day. And what are your needs? A bowl of gruel. There.’ That is their main principle.”
― Tihhon Ševkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“And always, as far as I know, those who did not take the advice of Father John would bitterly regret their stubbornness in the end. And, as a rule, the next time they would come to see the priest with the fullest intention of following exactly whatever advice he would give. And Father John, with indefatigable sympathy and brimming love, would always take these people back into his great heart, sparing neither his time nor his strength, as he constantly tried to correct their mistakes.”
― Tihhon Ševkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“In his zeal, Father Nathaniel scarcely ate or slept. He was far more than a mere ascetic: for example, no one ever saw him have even so much as a cup of tea. He would simply drink cold water. And indeed at meals he would barely eat a fifth portion of whatever it was that was served to him.”
― Tihhon Ševkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“By the way, Father Nathaniel truly was, no kidding, a man of legendary miserliness. Not only did he literally quiver over every least kopeck (penny) belonging to the monastery, but with a fury he would turn out any electric lights which he felt had no purpose to be lit, and would perpetually save water, gas, tea, biscuits, and indeed just about anything that could be scrimped and saved.”
― Tihhon Ševkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“He appeared for meals with the rest of the brotherhood only on feast days. Even then he would sit at the table with his head drooping beneath his cowl and would hardly touch any food.”
― Tihhon Ševkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“While I was on watch, I had a chance to read many interesting books, and began to really love solitude with all my heart.”
― Tihhon Ševkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“Georgiy, do you pray at night?” “No, Father Abbot, at night I sleep, and that’s all!” Father Gabriel looked at me disappointedly. “Too bad. You should pray at night as well.” About ten years later I was told the same thing by Metropolitan Pitirim: “Remember the commandment of St. Joseph of Volokolamsk: the day is for work, and the night is for prayer.”
― Tihhon Ševkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“They say that nighttime prayer is the particular strength of a monk.”
― Tihhon Ševkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“But I was very hungry. Finally I decided to imagine a feast for myself that would absolutely not arouse my appetite. As I thought about it I decided it would be blessed bread, dipped in holy water. This was my own ascetic convention. The dish turned out to be certainly quite pious, but terribly untasty: it was wet, slippery, and bland. But even that was what I wanted.”
― Tihhon Ševkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“And indeed things began to happen. By the second or third day I began to feel that I hardly wanted to sleep. To be more exact, four hours of sleep seemed enough for me.”
― Tihhon Ševkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“Furthermore, my usually very sociable habits had somehow disappeared. More and more all I wanted was just to be left alone.”
― Tihhon Ševkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“He’d found out about God only half a year ago—and had not found out much, but he had found out the main thing. And it was clear that he truly had found it out. Because, from that moment on, he began to be tormented with the utter pointlessness of his life, and felt unable to do anything about it until he came to the monastery.”
― Tihhon Ševkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“The bishop grew thoughtful and at length answered, “The very happiest times of my life were the years when I was suspended and disgraced. Never before or since in my life was the Lord as close to me as back then. It might surprise you to hear this, but, believe me, it is the truth. Of course, when I was allowed to return to my priestly duties and was sent to Blagoveshchensk, I was very happy and pleased. But my prayers, and most important of all, my sense of the closeness of Christ, that closeness that I felt when I was in my gardens, was unique and cannot be compared to anything else . . . That was the happiest time of my life.”
― Tihhon Ševkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“Oh! He is a very good man indeed . . . but he’s terrible!” After which they told stories from which I drew the irrevocable conclusion that there is no cure for personality.”
― Tihhon Ševkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“Now the only place where I felt normal was in church. Neither my friends, nor my pastimes, nor the work I had once so strived for—none of it touched my heart any longer. Even my books, even my beloved Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy, somehow no longer held my attention.”
― Tihhon Ševkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“all those days I had gotten used to the idea of only partaking of food after having first prayed to God. And so this vision of some guy just stuffing his face thoughtlessly and ungratefully in the middle of the street suddenly now struck me as quite unthinkable.”
― Tihhon Ševkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“I left the church and immediately felt something amazing. Even the least hints of the depression and gloom that had surrounded me were gone.”
― Tihhon Ševkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“But I read the Scriptures every day, and more and more, reading it became a daily need. Especially because the Scriptures seemed to be the only medicine to save me from the gloom and despair that from time to time came back to me, ravaging my spirit.”
― Tihhon Ševkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories

“plan.”
― Tikhon Shevkunov, Everyday Saints and Other Stories