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May God Give You Wisdom! The Letters of Fr. John Krestiankin. Letters to Clergymen,To Those Desiring the Priestly Rank, and to Priests’ Wives. Part 4

Archimandrite John (Krestiankin)

The fable of fanatics

Dear M.! Matushka!

I am even afraid to call you by this name. Matushkas are coming up with new “batiushkas,” and batiushkas are looking for adventure.

And the children? The children are not wanted by anyone, not by matushka, even less by batiushka — they are raised by the streets and television, or their parents’ example. That is how it is, Matushka.

While life — cross-bearing — is just the fable of fanatics, whose numbers are ever shrinking in Russia. Isn’t this so, dear Matushka?

May the Lord make you wise. You have borne much already — do not run away from your life’s cross. Only through it will you be saved.

Chrism

Dear Fr. V.!

I received your letter. It is wrong to treat holy chrism as you do.

You need to wipe the brush with the sponge which you use to wash the anointed areas of the baptized, and cleanse the sponge in the water used to baptize, then pour out this water into a clean place. (Meaning, an area which is not used or trod upon by people or animals. Most churches and monasteries have a special well built with a covering and cross to indicate its ecclesiastical designation [trans.]) Neither should you forever anoint yourself with it — a person is only anointed with chrism once, at his baptism, and that is all; well, and during coronation for the throne.

But you seem to be our only exception — a wrongful one.

May God give you wisdom!

Prayer

Dear in the Lord Fr. S.!

I am fulfilling your request for yourself and your sister. You need to increase your prayers for your sister and her daughters, but limit your help only to this. For now, prayer is the most effective thing she needs. For, until she comes to reason, the truth will just slip through her fingers.

Archimandrite John (Krestiankin)

6/12/2007

May God Give You Wisdom! The Letters of Fr. John Krestiankin. Letters to Monks and Nuns. Part 5

May God Give You Wisdom! The Letters of Fr. John Krestiankin. Letters to Monks and Nuns. Part 5
Archimandrite John (Krestiankin)

May God Give You Wisdom! The Letters of Fr. John Krestiankin. Letters to Monks and Nuns. Part 5

May God Give You Wisdom! The Letters of Fr. John Krestiankin. Letters to Monks and Nuns. Part 5
Archimandrite John (Krestiankin)
Fr. Hierodeacon is alive and well, and continues to carry his obedience on the holy hill. (This is a hill in the Pskov-Cave Monastery, located over the Holy Caves, where the reposed fathers are buried [trans.]). What do you have to be afraid of in the monastery? Be obedient to Matushka Abbess and save yourself.

The Letters of Fr. John Krestiankin

The Letters of Fr. John Krestiankin

The Letters of Fr. John Krestiankin

The Letters of Fr. John Krestiankin
A year has passed since the repose of Russia’s righteous elder, Archimandrite John Krestiankin of the Pskov-Caves Monastery. But his memory has far from faded; to the contrary, it is spreading far beyond the Russian borders, his writings being translated into other languages. Pravoslavie.ru (English edition) is therefore pleased to present each week day excerpts from the forthcoming book May God Give You Wisdom! The Letters of Fr. John Krestiankin (published by Sretensky Monastery and St. Xenia Skete). May our readers find in them answers to perplexities, sober instruction, and deep Christian wisdom, coming from a true elder and confessor of the Faith.

May God Give You Wisdom! The Letters of Fr. John Krestiankin. Letters to Laypeople. Part 17

May God Give You Wisdom! The Letters of Fr. John Krestiankin. Letters to Laypeople. Part 17
Archimandrite John (Krestiankin)

May God Give You Wisdom! The Letters of Fr. John Krestiankin. Letters to Laypeople. Part 17

May God Give You Wisdom! The Letters of Fr. John Krestiankin. Letters to Laypeople. Part 17
Archimandrite John (Krestiankin)
How orphaned you have become, and not only you, but we, too. Godly people are departing for another world—those who have witnessed by their lives that they are indeed Godly people. Such people are becoming rarer and rarer, and the world is becoming empty.

See also

On the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman

On the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman
Archimandrite John (Krestiankin)

On the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman

On the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman
Archimandrite John (Krestiankin)
This single meeting between Christ and the Samaritan woman turns into a meeting with the living God for both the sinful woman and for the entire world, inasmuch as here, at the well of temporal water, the hitherto unknown source of Eternal Life was first secured. Here Christ for the first time reveals Himself to be the new, inexhaustible well of living water, flowing into Life Eternal.

May God Give You Wisdom! The Letters of Fr. John Krestiankin. Letters to Clergymen,To Those Desiring the Priestly Rank, and to Priests’ Wives. Part 5

May God Give You Wisdom! The Letters of Fr. John Krestiankin. Letters to Clergymen,To Those Desiring the Priestly Rank, and to Priests’ Wives. Part 5
Archimandrite John (Krestiankin)

May God Give You Wisdom! The Letters of Fr. John Krestiankin. Letters to Clergymen,To Those Desiring the Priestly Rank, and to Priests’ Wives. Part 5

May God Give You Wisdom! The Letters of Fr. John Krestiankin. Letters to Clergymen,To Those Desiring the Priestly Rank, and to Priests’ Wives. Part 5
We are obligated to pray for baptized people, for they received the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit at baptism. We cannot pass judgment on these people before God’s judgment, and only the Lord sees the inner man. How did they live, what made them tick, whose prayers upheld them in this life?

May God Give You Wisdom! The Letters of Fr. John Krestiankin. Letters to Clergymen,To Those Desiring the Priestly Rank, and to Priests’ Wives. Part 2

May God Give You Wisdom! The Letters of Fr. John Krestiankin. Letters to Clergymen,To Those Desiring the Priestly Rank, and to Priests’ Wives. Part 2
Archimandrite John (Krestiankin)

May God Give You Wisdom! The Letters of Fr. John Krestiankin. Letters to Clergymen,To Those Desiring the Priestly Rank, and to Priests’ Wives. Part 2

May God Give You Wisdom! The Letters of Fr. John Krestiankin. Letters to Clergymen,To Those Desiring the Priestly Rank, and to Priests’ Wives. Part 2
Archimandrite John (Krestiankin)
God’s strength is made perfect in weakness; I have seen this in actuality all my life, and we are only strong in God’s strength. As Holy Hierarch Benjamim of Petrograd said on the threshold of death, we need to abandon learnedness and mind, and arm ourselves with faith. We need faith!