“If a person persistently wants something, even to his own detriment, the Lord, long and patiently, through people and life circumstances, leads him away from an unnecessary and pernicious goal. But when we steadfastly persist, the Lord steps aside and allows what our blind and feeble freedom chooses to happen.”

One ascetic once said that every Orthodox Christian can tell his own Gospel, his own Good News about his encounter with God. Of course, no one compares such testimonies with the books of the apostles, who saw with their own eyes the Son of God living on earth. And yet, although we are weak and sinful, we are His disciples, and there is nothing more beautiful in the world than contemplating the amazing actions of the Savior’s Providence in our world. All this and more is in the book Unholy Saints and Other Stories (Archimandrite Tikhon)