Vladyka, in their publications, some priests reproach parishioners for being lazy and not striving to visit holy places, venerate relics, or venerate miraculous icons. If you are not at all drawn to go on a pilgrimage somewhere, does this mean that something is wrong in a person’s spiritual life?
In answer to this question, I immediately have an analogy with visiting relatives. Still, the saints are our relatives, people close to us, however, not according to the flesh, but according to a common large family - the Church of Christ.
Well, everyone has a different relationship with relatives. For someone, it is vital to meet regularly, communicate, correspond, call up, that is, maintain constant contact. Others do not need all this; it is enough to know that there are relatives somewhere, maybe to congratulate each other on holidays, without feeling the need for frequent meetings. And not because they don’t love their loved ones, it’s just that everyone is fine, unless, of course, relatives require special care or help. In my opinion, this is completely normal, since each person has his own measure of the need to communicate with relatives.
Similarly, a Christian has his own measure of addressing the saints. Some people feel that this is extremely important and necessary for them; they rejoice that, having traveled literally an hour by public transport, they can pray at such shrines, to which earlier, in times when there were no high-speed vehicles, our ancestors traveled for six months on foot from different parts of the country. As, for example, to the Reverend Caves Fathers in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.
It is enough for other people simply to know about the saints, to resort to them in prayers, to ask for their prayerful intercession as the need is felt for this. Everything depends on the needs of the person and the Church is not regulated in any way.
At the same time, we must remember that in the spiritual life there are indeed things without which it is impossible to be saved. These are the Sacraments of the Church, and first of all - the Sacrament of Communion. Christ in the Gospel said: “He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I am in him” (John 6:56). The Lord clearly warns: those who do not partake of His Flesh and Blood will not have life in themselves (John 6:53). That is, if you want to be with Christ, you are obliged to take communion, you are obliged to proceed to the Sacrament.
It happens that parishioners say: “Although I read the prayers for Communion, but today I’m not in the mood, maybe I’ll take communion better next time?” In such cases, I usually answer that this is not the time or place to express my feelings and emotions. After all, we know that the enemy of our salvation is doing its job: in every way it seeks to turn us away from the holy. Therefore, the thought that today we are not in that mood, that we are not ready, there is not enough contrition, reverence, is brought to us by the enemy. If we succumb once, he will continue to inspire similar things so that we do not approach the Chalice.
I have said many times: we take communion not because we are worthy, but precisely because we are UNworthy and need God's help so that the Lord will change us, make us better. The most terrible day in our life will be the one when we consider that we are properly prepared and ready to receive the Holy Mysteries of Christ. That we partake worthily. This will mean that we no longer feel the need for the Lord to change us. That they have lost the feeling about which Christ spoke in the Gospel: blessed are the poor in spirit.
Beggars - who is this? Those in need. "Blessed are those who need the Holy Spirit, the support and grace of the Holy Spirit." And we, it turns out, no longer need this support, we are already doing well ... This, indeed, will be scary.
Therefore, our task is to commune as often as possible with the most important shrine in the world, in the entire universe: the Sacrament of Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ. And everything else - the prayerful support of the saints, a reverent attitude towards them, the veneration of shrines - depends on the dispensation of each individual person.
If people feel that they need to go to holy places, if they strive to be there as much as possible, the Lord will send His grace-filled help through the holy places. If a person does not have such a need, the Lord loves and accepts him as such.
Calling priests to visit holy places is like friends recommending a good movie to each other. "Go and have a look!" - the person himself received positive emotions and advises others.
So we, knowing how the saints act in our lives, what help they provide both to us and our parishioners, at every opportunity we call people to visit the saints as often as possible and ask for their prayers.
For example, our Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. Greatest shrine! The prayer of the Monks of the Caves heals people suffering from a variety of ailments - both bodily and spiritual. And to combat almost any sin, among the Caves reverends there are, so to speak, "profile" saints - those who managed to overcome this or that passion and now, according to the word of Scripture, "he himself was tempted, he can be tempted to help" (Heb. 2 , eighteen).
So, for deliverance from fornication, you need to pray to the Monk Moses Ugrin; if they overcome acquisitiveness and attachment to things - to the Monk Aref; if non-peace and enmity with neighbors - to the Monk Titus Hieromonk, and so on.
Reading the Kiev-Pechersk Patericon and other hagiographic literature, we see that the enemy is not inventive: at all times he sets the same traps, and the number of tricks he has, like in sambo or karate, is limited. And that by which we are tempted has also overcome the saints. But they came out victorious, and now we read how they won the victory, and, being edified by their example, with God's help we will also be able to win.
Of course, their prayerful support is needed and important for this. Therefore, we call: dear ones, take advantage of the fact that we have such a shrine! Seek help from the saints, they will definitely help.
We should pray, but the weather is bad and there are a lot of people
It happens that as soon as you are going to the shrine, either fatigue, or doubts, or some kind of stubborn unwillingness, or excessive employment does not allow you to bow to the holy place. Why is this happening?
We should not forget that everything in our spiritual life always encounters opposition from those who do not like our spiritual work. As you know, the best "sleeping pill" is prayer. If we can read fiction as much as we like, almost until dawn, then spiritual literature is given with great difficulty. You have to force yourself in every possible way; often it’s hard to start reading, and when you start reading, some important things immediately come to mind, or you suddenly feel like sleeping, or tasks arise that need to be urgently solved.
It’s the same with visiting shrines: it’s clear who doesn’t like it. Even if we understand with our heads that it’s time to go and pray at the shrine, our heart says something completely different: oh, I’m tired; I have important things to do; either the weather is bad, or there are a lot of people there today ... That is, there are a variety of excuses.
In this case, you need to “turn on” your head and recognize where these thoughts come from. Be objective about yourself and your condition. To understand that there are real reasons, but there are those that are the fruit of our self-pity, relaxation, and therefore a reason for spiritual struggle. After all, if we encounter opposition, if the enemy does not want us to do some good deeds or, as in this case, go to the shrine, then we must, on the contrary, force ourselves, force us to do what we really need, but out of laziness not I want to.
What does the opposite extreme mean - excessive zeal, when a person travels to temples and monasteries all the time, collects trips, as well as "spiritual" souvenirs brought from different places?
This is more typical of neophytes. Probably, all of us, on the path of our churching, went through a period when there were dozens of icons dear to our hearts in the home iconostasis, calendars with temples and monasteries were on the walls, and we wanted to spend all our free time only on trips to shrines. I don't think there is anything wrong with that. Just as in the period of falling in love a person behaves emotionally, often committing even extravagant acts for the sake of the object of his love, so in the period of falling in love with the Church, everything connected with the Church arouses special zeal in the believer.
However, if the stage of the non-stop pilgrimage is delayed, this is a reason to be wary. As a rule, this is what people do who do not read patristic literature, do not have a confessor, but build their spiritual life according to their own understanding - as they want and as they see it. Sometimes this can turn into a real spiritual problem. But in Christianity, unlike Soviet psychiatry, there is no compulsory treatment, so we can only pray that the Lord Himself will lead such people to the knowledge of the Truth.
The Lord wanted to comfort - and comforted
How does a shrine "work"? It happens that a person came for healing and did not receive it. And the other, on the contrary, did not think about anything, but came and was healed. Is there a relationship between the feeling with which to come to the shrine, and what will be the result? And what to do if you believed, but did not receive what you asked for?
The Holy Scriptures say that "the Spirit breathes wherever it wills" (John 3:8). The action of the Holy Spirit, including through the sacred, cannot be explained, programmed or predicted. The Lord, unlike us, sees the situation as a whole in the entire universe at every moment and knows better what we need. For someone, healing from an illness will radically change their life, a person will begin to live in Christ, according to the Gospel. And someone, on the contrary, only illness can keep from terrible sins, the abyss of passions and death.
Therefore, to think that it is worth taking a series of some actions, and you will get such and such a result, is extremely reckless. Our main result, for which we go to the temple, is eternal life with the Lord. This is the end result we are aiming for. Everything else is intermediate stages, scanty and microscopic in comparison with Eternity.
And just getting rid of the disease often occurs when we do not ask for it. I remember one case. When only the relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov were transferred to Diveevo, in the fall of 1991 I went on a pilgrimage to the priest in his monastery. It was November, it was already cold, but I bathed in all the springs and prayed at the relics of the monk. I did not set myself any special task then. There was simply a great desire to visit this amazing saint, to pray at the relics of a man who pleased God with his life, he really was a fiery Seraphim, comparable to angels in burning and love for the Lord. I didn’t ask him for anything specific, I just prayed: “Reverend Father Seraphim, pray to God for us!”
And the most interesting thing is that before the trip I had a wart on my arm, the fight against which with various medications did not work. After returning, literally in a day or two, I look: in its place - absolutely smooth healthy skin! At what point and how it happened, I did not record, but everything went completely without a trace, not even a scar remained. With such a small consolation, the Lord wanted to comfort and consoled. I still fondly remember this incident.
Indeed, “The Spirit breathes wherever it wants…” For some reason, He was pleased to perform this miracle for me. Moreover, the healing did not happen because I suffered, but simply to strengthen my faith, so that my attitude towards God's saint Seraphim would be even more reverent.
The purpose of the pilgrimage is to see the example of living saints
What is closer to you personally: to visit as many holy places as possible or to stay at home and pray in your monastery?
When I went to church, the gospel words stuck in my memory that God must be worshiped in every place “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23). I remember that I had enough laurels, enough Kiev churches. Unless I wanted to go to Jerusalem - just to understand how, what and where happened in the earthly life of the Lord Jesus Christ. And having visited the Holy Land, I began to navigate the topography of the gospel events.
When, for example, Christ went with his disciples to Jerusalem, He said: “Behold, let us go up to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified” (Matthew 20:18-19). “Ascending” in this case has two meanings: firstly, spiritual ascent - the path to Golgotha. And secondly, the path from Galilee to Jerusalem really goes up all the time. That is, the apostles with Christ literally went up the mountain.
But I did not feel the desire to pray near the Jerusalem shrines (everyone who has been there knows how much the situation around them does not conducive to reverence). For an Orthodox person, the Holy Sepulcher is the altar in the temple, the altar is Bethlehem, and the Eucharist is absolutely the same everywhere. Spiritually, in any temple a person receives the same grace as in Jerusalem.
But if the Holy Land is more of a "museum", a reminder of the events that took place there two thousand years ago, then the Holy Mount Athos is life. People there live by the Gospel, preserve the way of life that hundreds and thousands of Athos saints brought to the Kingdom of Heaven. I want to communicate with them, to see them - first of all, in order to understand my own spiritual worthlessness.
After all, often, if we do not have fellowship with those who are much higher than us in spiritual life, then we fall into some spiritual complacency. We begin to think about ourselves: everything seems to be fine, I am no worse than others, everything is fine with me. There is stagnation in the spiritual life, and this always implies subsequent degradation.
But when you communicate with saints who live the way monks should, you understand that your way of life is very, very far from the ideals of monasticism, that you need to work more on yourself, control yourself more, acquire the virtues that you lack. This lack of virtues becomes obvious, palpable. Seeing the example of living saints is exactly the purpose of the pilgrimage for me.
Interviewed by Yulia Kominko
Amazing places where real miracles happen are scattered on the map of the Moscow region. Miraculous icons, healing springs, relics of saints - pilgrims and tourists from all over the world rush to touch them. Some ask for a long-awaited child, others for a cure for a deadly disease, and someone needs to save a family from disintegration. People begin to believe in a miracle when all other methods have already been tried. And it happens! The correspondent of Podmoskovye Segodnya found out the whole truth about the holy places of our region.
For children - to David's Hermitage
One of the most mysterious places - the Voznesenskaya Davidov Hermitage - is located not far from Chekhov, in the village of Novyi Byt. The monastery was founded on the banks of the Lopasna River by the Monk David of Serpukhov, a miracle worker. The monk led a righteous life, served God, and after his death began to appear to people and heal them. They say that the saint helps people even today. Thousands of pilgrims go to one of the most revered shrines of the monastery - the relics of David.
At the relics they pray for the appearance of children. Recently, a woman came up to an Orthodox exhibition to thank her, saying that through the prayers of the monk she was able to get pregnant, - says Elena Galina, the guide of David's Hermitage.
Another story: the relatives of the woman in labor called the priest of the desert and said that the birth was difficult, it would be a caesarean. The father began to read a prayer service to the Monk David, and after a while he was informed that the woman had given birth herself.
People also come to the desert to pray at the relics of St. Moses Ugrin. The saint is asked for deliverance from betrayal.
We had a parishioner, her husband wanted to get a divorce, he liked another. She came to the relics, read prayers, prayed at home. Soon the husband stopped remembering his rival, the marriage survived, - the guide shares wonderful stories.
Not far from the monastery, in the village of Talezh, there is a desert courtyard, where a healing spring water springs. A temple and two baths, one for men and one for women, were built here.
Recently, a woman brought her husband, an alcoholic, to the bathhouse. He says that he plunged, and after - not a drop, what a miracle! Elena rejoices.
"Inexhaustible Cup" treats alcoholics
In Serpukhov, on the banks of the Nara, stands the Vysotsky Monastery. It was founded with the blessing of Sergius of Radonezh. In the Intercession Church of the monastery there is the world-famous icon of the Mother of God "The Inexhaustible Chalice". The history of the icon is as follows: a retired soldier, a peasant in the Tula province, drank terribly, his legs even became paralyzed. Once a peasant had a dream in which an old man appeared and told the sufferer to go to Serpukhov, to the temple, find an icon there and pray to her. He did so, and has since stopped drinking.
Today, the icon helps millions of people suffering from alcoholism, drug addiction, and smoking. She is all hung with precious rings, chains, people bring them in gratitude.
My husband died from alcoholism. I came here myself, I prayed a lot. He brought home a small icon of the Chalice, and together we read akathists in front of it. He has not been drinking for 7 years, we are happy, - says Natalya Klemenko.
There is a special book in the monastery in which testimonies of thousands of healings are recorded, here is one of them: “To be honest, I did not believe that I would pray at the Inexhaustible Chalice and be able to quit smoking. But that's what happened. It's just a miracle, because I smoked for ten years, and now for two years I have not touched a cigarette. Igor Litvinyak, Domodedovo.
There is evidence that the icon helps to heal illnesses and solve housing problems.
For seven years we could not exchange a three-room apartment, we lived in each room with a family, very crowded. Out of desperation, I went to the Vysotsky Monastery and prayed at the icon. And when I was driving back home, to Balashikha, a realtor called me and said that he had finally found an exchange that suited everyone, - says Svetlana Permyakova. – Then I believed in the power of our shrines.
Where icons cry
In the Ramensky district, in the village of Udelnaya, stands the Trinity Church. It contains many shrines, among them the icons of the Mother of God "Kazan", "Pochaevskaya", the icons of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and the Great Martyr Panteleimon, the icon of St. Seraphim of Sarov with a piece of the mantle.
Our parishioners lived near the church. Circumstances forced them to move, they did not like the new place of residence at all. They began to come to the temple, pray at the icons, and miraculously again bought housing not far from their former place, - says Archpriest, rector of the temple Vadim Suvorov.
According to Father Vadim, the icon of Seraphim of Sarov, for example, is asked for children. And many infertile couples, according to the verdict of doctors, give birth to a child, and not one. Parishioner Andrey Chervyakov shared an amazing story about the icon of the saint.
Once I was in the village of Petrovskoye, Shchelkovsky District, in the Church of the Savior. There was an icon of this saint. Suddenly I saw some smudges on it, - says Andrey. - At first I did not believe that this was myrrh, I took out a camera, I then had a “soap dish”, and through the lens I already clearly saw drops. Where could they come from on the dry tree of the old icon?
It happens that people directly demand a miracle from icons and, of course, do not receive it. There is no need to demand, you just need to live and believe that God will help in a difficult situation, - Father Vadim believes.
"Vsetsaritsa" - defender of cancer patients
The wooden Ascension Church was built in Zvenigorod in the 16th century. Then a stone one was built next to it, but at the beginning of the war it was completely dismantled, only a hill remained. In 2003, the construction of a new temple began. Soon it was erected, since then its doors have been open to parishioners, and miracles constantly happen within the walls of the church.
Once, at the end of the service, I talked with an assistant that it would be good for us to purchase the icon of the All-Tsaritsa for the temple. But I had no idea how to do it, - says the rector of the temple, priest Vasily Losev.
Shortly after this conversation, which no one heard, parishioners approached the priest during Great Lent and said that they were going to one of the monasteries on Mount Athos and wanted to bring a copy of the Tsaritsa icon. So they did. Now the icon, painted by Athos monks, lives in the temple.
This icon is prayed, in particular, for healing from oncological diseases, - the priest explains.
The doctor gave me a disappointing diagnosis - stomach cancer. At first I despaired, then I began to pray every day to the icon of the Mother of God “The Tsaritsa”. Of course, she also took medicine. Now the disease has receded, - says the parishioner of the temple Irina Volkova. – I believe that not only medicines helped me, but also prayers.
The priest also said that, in his opinion, every icon is miraculous, since it depicts the image of the one to whom we pray. The main thing is to turn to the shrine with faith.
You can also pray to the usual calendar icon. I even saw how such icons stream myrrh, says Father Vasily.
And he adds that without faith, no healing is possible.
And now it has become fashionable - he came, put a candle and that's it. Or they say to God: make sure that I recover, and I will put 40 candles for this. It's magic, not faith. Healing will come by faith, by an honest life, - explains the rector.
Matron helps in troubles
Trinity Cathedral in Podolsk was built in honor of the victory of the Russian people in the Patriotic War of 1812. The cathedral is the heart of the city; it is the only church in the Moscow region built in the style of classicism. There are many shrines in the temple, among them the icon of the New Martyrs of Podolsk, the "Inexhaustible Chalice", two reliquaries with relics of 140 saints. One of the main shrines is the Jerusalem icon of the Mother of God. There is more than one wonderful story associated with it. In 1866, when there was a terrible plague in Podolsk, this icon was brought from Bronnitsy and they began to walk around the city with it. The epidemic began miraculously to fade away. In gratitude to the Mother of God, the residents of Podolsk ordered an icon painter to paint such an icon for their church.
Our parishioners turn to the Mother of God both in joy and in sorrow. I don't know of obvious cases of miracles, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Many simply do not talk about them, fearing to lose, - says priest Vladimir Timchenko.
They pray in the temple and the Blessed Matrona, particles of her relics are kept here. The saint helps in any troubles in life, through her prayers, many received healing, a long-awaited pregnancy, and a solution to everyday problems.
One day my nine-month-old grandson, learning to walk, fell. There was a concussion, a severe bruise. I brought his hat, leaned it against the relics of the Matrona, the grandson quickly recovered, - says parishioner Tatyana Avdeeva.
A large number of cases of mysterious healing of people from various ailments, which modern medicine could not cope with, are associated with holy places, which include monasteries, churches, sources with blessed water.
Plus, most people were healed of various diseases with the help of prayers and various conspiracies.
The healing powers of the places where churches and monasteries are located can be explained by the special energy that is generated by mother nature and has a good effect on the human body. Before the adoption of Christianity in Kievan Rus, pagan shamans placed temples in such places of power. After being in these places, a person goes back filled with new strength and with improved health. The priests said that in such places there is a connection of all the energies of nature.
Quite a lot of cases of healing are connected with the Sarov spring. Such facts were confirmed by representatives of the official authorities, as well as by ordinary witnesses from the people. For example, there is a case of healing a girl at the age of 19 named matryona. Her limbs were brought together, her hands were clenched. After bathing in the holy spring of Seraphim of Sarov, she got up, her limbs straightened, and the woman was able to walk freely and boldly. Plus, after bathing in the spring, the peasant woman Yefimiya Ivanovna Smolnikova was perfectly cured of paralysis, and after bathing she felt completely healthy. Having bathed in a spring, a teacher of a public school from Nizhny Novgorod managed to recover from malaria.
Apart from the source, the grave of Seraphim of Sarov has healing qualities. Matrona, a peasant woman from the Tula province, who came to worship in the city of Sarov, did not control her hand, but as soon as she kissed the saint’s grave, the hand was completely restored.
However, people do not always get cured of all ailments at once. A novice of the Serafimo-Diveevo monastery, Natalia Mikhailovna, suffered from exhausting bleeding for a long time. Ignoring all the efforts, the doctors were unable to help her, and then she went on foot to the Seraphim-Ponetaev Monastery, where she asked for a cure for a serious illness that had tormented her for 7 years before the icon of the Mother of God. The disease passed, but her misfortunes did not end there. She got sick again. Doctors found a terrible tumor in her stomach, which did not allow her to move freely. It was hard enough for her to walk, bend over, doing any work turned into natural flour for her, she regularly felt a strong heat in the middle of her own body and was thirsty. The disease continued to torment the novice for five years. In the end, overcoming severe pain, she again went to the monastery. At the same time, a nun, mother Fevronia, went with her.
They came to the monastery, where they confessed, and then began to pray, asking God for healing from their illness. After they went to the hotel. That same night, Natalya dreamed that someone came into their room and said: “You came to the wretched seraph to be healed; bathe three times in my spring, and you will be all right.” She woke up her own neighbor and told her about the vision, then she looked at the door and noticed that it was closed. The novice realized that Pope Seraphim himself had come to her during her sleep.
The fair sex got dressed, went to matins and then thought to visit the healing spring. On the way, Natalia again began to bleed heavily, however, having bathed, she felt free from her own disease, and realized that the tumor that had tormented her throughout this time had subsided. Natalya bathed two more times and, waking up in the morning, felt reborn.
In addition to the cases listed above, it also happened that during sleep, the seraphim came to sick people and told them what needed to be done in order to be healed. One woman, Praskovya Ivanovna Kiseleva, suffered from a leg disease for 2 years. She kept going to visit the father of the seraph in order to receive a cure, but she regularly had various obstacles on the way to this: there was either no cash or opportunity. Somehow she came to the village to the old herbalist and stayed with her to spend the night. At night, she had a dream, as if a certain old man were entering the house, would come to the place where Praskovya was sleeping, and quietly say to her: “Why aren’t you going to Father Seraphim?” The woman answered him that she had absolutely no cash for such a long trip. Then the elder told her that it was necessary to sell the embroidered canvas, which she brought with her, and to come to the holy spring with the proceeds. Waking up, the woman told the herbalist about her dream, and they thought to follow the elder's advice. Grandmother herself realized the canvas, equipped the horse and at the same time with the girl went to the holy spring.
On the way, they thought that Praskovya would need help to get out of the cart when they arrived. But when the travelers arrived in the Sarov, a miracle happened - the woman was able to get out of the cart without outside help and go to bow to the holy seraphim. After that, Praskovya went to the holy spring and bathed in it - she was completely healed of the diseases that tormented her. She no longer had difficulty with her legs. And when, after the healing, she returned home, she again noticed a dream in which an old man came to her house; now she clearly saw that it was a Seraphim of Sarov, he approached her, smiled and crossed her.
In addition to holy water, myrrh-streaming icons have healing qualities. An example would be the situation of sister of mercy Natalia. Somehow, a young Frenchman got into a clinic on the outskirts of Paris with a leg crippled in a car accident. After the disaster, his leg regularly festered, delivering unbearable pain to the sick person and exuding a strong bad smell. The doctor who worked in this clinic, in order to save the sick man from suffering, performed several difficult operations on him. The doctor transplanted muscles and arteries to him a couple of times, but after any procedure, the patient developed terrible growths of meat that had to be cut off. All this made it impossible to proceed with the main and most complex operation, which involved transplanting the tibia and artery from a diseased bone to a healthy one.
All this went on for 2 years, and when the disease reached a critical point, the doctors said that it was necessary to amputate the leg. From a strong shock, the poor young man almost committed suicide. Now sister of mercy Natalya decided to talk with him. She told him about God, about the holy miraculous myrrh-streaming icon of the Mother of God, which helps to heal from very different diseases. This icon is located in the Lesna monastery, which is a hundred kilometers from Paris. Natalya offered to take him there in her own car, and the young man agreed.
As soon as they arrived at the monastery, Natalia told Mother Superior Athanasia about the difficulties of her companion. She, for her part, conveyed her words to two nuns, and they began to pray for the healing of the guy. The archpriest of the monastery served a prayer service and anointed the wounds on the legs of the sick man with healing myrrh. In the evening they went back to the clinic.
After a trip to the monastery, a strange gray liquid began to constantly flow from the guy’s wounds. Three days later, when the doctor was dressing the wounds, he saw that they were completely cleared, and the desired operation became tentative. Thanks to this, the operation was successful, even the doctor was surprised at the extent to which everything ended successfully. Soon the young man got to his feet, and his horror remained in the past.
Another story about the healing effect of the world was told by Priest Nikolai. Somehow, his one and a half year old son Alexei fell ill with some kind of obscure stomach disease, which manifested itself in diarrhea and vomiting after eating. The disease did not go away for 2 years and progressed. The doctor who treats Alexei gave him too strong medicine, which is water-based drops. Apart from these drops, the stomach did not want to take anything else. As a result of the disease, the baby lost a lot of weight and reached the verge of dehydration. In the end, this boy was taken to the clinic. The expert wanted to give the boy artificial nutrition, as he was very thin and pale. But at the request of the parents, he agreed to leave the boy to them for six hours in the last hope that he would still be able to eat medicines in the traditional way.
Mom and dad of the sick boy began to pray to God for healing. They tried twice to give him medicine, but nothing came of it. Then mother Alexei decided to drop a healing myrrh into a vessel with a medicinal solution. And, to the surprise of everyone, for the first time the boy calmly drank the medicine and fell asleep without vomiting. After that, the child no longer vomited, during the night the baby calmly took medicine, and in the morning, during the divine liturgy in the monastery, Alexei even asked for food. The next day, during the physical examination, the doctor was quite impressed by the magical recovery of the child. And on the next Sunday, the mother and father of the child went to the miraculous Iberian icon in order to give thanks to the Lord. The boy clung to the myrrh-streaming icon and hugged her so tightly that his parents did not immediately manage to take him away from her. After this incident, the boy called the icon of the Iberian Mother of God “his own”.
Shrines of temples, churches, ancient monasteries. miraculous healings
places of power. Anomalous Territories
Denisov Dmitry Alekseevich, born in 1952. Address: Moscow region, Shchelkovo-3 (Chkalovsky settlement). 3 years ago there was an operation, they opened the skull - an aneurysm burst. Didn't speak for 3 years.
On August 9, 2015, I bought candles in this monastery, prayed and left. Went to a friend and started talking.
That's actually all the news. As they say, neither subtract nor add. Is there any need to write more about this? The best thing in such cases would be to just keep silent, but still, I think, it is necessary to make a few strokes to this sketch from a person's life.
Behind these dry facts from a person's life, in fact, lies the great beneficence of God.
First, a little about the disease.
A cerebral aneurysm (otherwise known as an intracranial aneurysm) is a small formation on a cerebral blood vessel that rapidly grows in size and fills with blood. The bulging portion of the aneurysm can put pressure on the nerve or surrounding brain tissue, but the aneurysm is especially dangerous when it ruptures, allowing blood into the surrounding brain tissue (called a hemorrhage).
A ruptured aneurysm leads to bleeding in the brain, causing serious complications, including: hemorrhagic stroke, damage to the nervous system, or death.
The mere fact that a person survived in this situation is already a real miracle. After a most complicated operation, the servant of God Dimitri got up and began to walk, but the gift of speech never returned. As practice shows, after any serious injury or operation, the probability of restoring the functions of motor or speech function drops rapidly over time. This means that if the dynamics of recovery is not observed at the very first time, then it becomes more and more difficult to put it into practice.
Here we see that 3 years have already passed - this is a long time. Dmitry Alekseevich himself said that he no longer hoped to speak. But the Lord judged differently.
Dmitry Alekseevich visited our monastery several times, and August 9 was not his first visit to the monastery. Note that the miracle happened exactly on August 9 - in the memory of the great martyr and healer Panteleimon. On that day, after the Divine Liturgy, the abbot of the monastery mentioned that only in his priestly practice he witnessed many cases of miracles and healings that occurred from the martyrs. Panteleimon. Now you and I are witnessing the miraculous help flowing through the prayers of the holy healer.
Note the circumstances of the miraculous healing. The man just went to the temple, prayed and lit candles. “Went to a friend and started talking.”
What does all this mean, and what benefit can we gain from this case?
Of course, such a miracle is a big “advance” to a person who will still need to work out. The gift of speech is one of the main differences between us and dumb animals, and in this case, we now have to work hard to properly use the opportunity to speak received the second time.
But the gifts that flow from the generous hand of God are different. In addition to the above, the Lord also often visits a person through illness and sorrow. Here you need to understand that illness and healing are blessings that have one source - the Creator of the universe. And their goal is the same - a call to a person to change his life.
There were many people at the service that day, the church was full. But one R.B. was healed. Dimitri. Why? Because the Lord decided so through his saint - the Great Martyr Panteleimon! This does not mean that all the rest, sick and suffering, were unworthy. This means that the Lord is near, He knows EVERYTHING and gives each of us the best and most useful things possible.
“Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever”(Heb. 13:8). Just as in the days of the gospel preaching and the earthly life of the Savior, great miracles were performed, just as in the lives of the saints we learn about healings performed through their prayers, so today all this is real and alive. Like the very first Christians, you and I are members of the holy Church of Christ, which even the gates of hell will not overcome (cf. Matt. 16:18)!
Holy Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon, pray to God for us!
There are legends about Elder Irenar in Moldova. That, they say, the blind begin to see, the deaf begin to hear, and epileptics forever forget about their seizures. Whether this is true or not, we could not verify during a trip to the monastery of the Holy Trinity in Saharna (Rezinsky district): there were no people there with serious illnesses, at least outwardly, the parishioners did not show any diseases. And the people's rumor did not name the names of the recovered. But here's what they saw with their own eyes: they go to Irenar by buses, with all our ...
There are legends about Elder Irenar in Moldova. That, they say, the blind begin to see, the deaf begin to hear, and epileptics forever forget about their seizures. Whether this is true or not, we could not verify during a trip to the monastery of the Holy Trinity in Saharna (Rezinsky district): there were no people there with serious illnesses, at least outwardly, the parishioners did not show any diseases. And the people's rumor did not name the names of the recovered. But here's what they saw with their own eyes: they go to Irenar by bus, from all over our republic. And the fact that it becomes easier on the soul and heart, and the body somehow gets younger, that's for sure.
Holy places
On a broken road, without swearing (after all, we are going to the monastery), we get to the Saharna. It is better to go through Rezina - although the path is a little longer, but there is a little more asphalt. “The path to God is difficult,” remarks someone in the car philosophically. So that's why our roads are not being repaired, because there are monasteries in every direction!
There is a parking lot in front of the Saharnian monastery. Buses, minivans, cars. The unbearable smell of the public toilet. And the unusual beauty of the rocks, where they are covered with forest, where they are bare, original buildings of the monastery, fortunately not subjected to a global reconstruction, when all the “beauty” goes into the plane of expensive building materials. And even the Saharna River, more like a stream, all in bags and plastic bottles thrown by the afflicted, and that one is somehow especially beautiful.
We pass by a tank with the inscription "Holy water", which is constantly replenished with a hose and a pump - people take it out in decalitres. We pass the kitchen, where the women preparing dinner for the clergy shout at anyone who dares to set foot on their territory. And finally, we reach the church. Columns are hung on the trees, pillars and walls of the buildings of the monastery, from where the deep, strong voice of Father Irenar is heard. The service is broadcast to the entire monastery, because sometimes the church cannot accommodate all believers. So this time - the apple had nowhere to fall.
"Reception" at the relics of St. Macarius
The service ended, and Elder Irenar began to receive people near the relics of St. Macarius, the first local monk, canonized as a saint. And he is not an old man at all - this old man Irenar, - our "landing party" was surprised. As it turned out, the elder in the monasteries is called the "senior of the monastery."
There was a queue at the relics. Each in two sentences talked about their problems, whether they were illnesses or business failures. Father Irenar blessed (“healed”), everyone bowed over the relics, prayed and kissed the elder’s hand.
After this, one man from our village was cured of epilepsy, - says a woman who flatly refuses to give her name and be photographed. She herself, - she revealed the secret, - is also sick with something.
These relics have great power, - Irenar explained, when we admitted that we had come not to be treated, but to collect information, - yes, they are able to heal. But this requires strong faith. Stay, now there will be a prayer service for the removal of damage and divination.
Getting rid of diseases, drunkenness and smoking
We listened to the elder's advice and stayed for the prayer service. The clergyman covered the heads of the parishioners with two cloths - black and white, and began to lead a prayer service. People listened calmly to Father Irenar's voice, no one twisted, no howled, as happens during the exorcism of demons. My colleague confessed after the prayer: “What a relief!” Maybe this is how you can get rid of some kind of ailment. After all, it is believed that diseases can be induced by damage, and on Fridays in Saharna they are just struggling with this. On Wednesday they get rid of diseases, on Saturday - from drinking and smoking. Beginning - after the service, around 10.00. Everything is on schedule!
Go to the doctor, - father George, the rector of the rural church in the Riscani region, briefly answered when I asked if the word of God helps with ailments. - Here you can get rid of spiritual problems.
And yet, people's rumor does not in vain praise the abilities of Irenar and the Saharnyansky monastery. Most likely, believing in their own recovery, people heal faster.
