Letters of Abbot Nikon

Please accept my congratulations on your Angel’s Day and Birthday. I was not feeling well lately and could not force myself to take a pen.

You are already 25, a grown- up man. In youth, all people make a big mistake by postponing to an indefinite future what should be done today with a complete dedication of oneself.

As a result, time is running out, man is growing older; conditions might also turn for the worse, man’s health often fails him too, and man does not do what he ought to do, to what God called him and what was clear to his mind and heart. It is left for man only to deplore his fruitless past life and to repent.

In this situation, man begins to wish it were possible to have a new start in life, believing he would not have made many of his mistakes. This is nothing but wishful thinking. Just as every single small seed of an apple-tree, contains all the potentials and characteristic of the apple-tree and not those of an asp, so also every individual is unchangeable in his essence. However, man can and must change his external, empiric “old” standing for a “new” one according to the Gospel.

Therefore it is important to establish one general rule: to act and behave in correspondence with the Gospel at any age, during any engagement and under any circumstances. Then there will be no errors and no belated regrets. Along with man’s fulfilment of Gospel commandments, man’s personality and his God’s image, his noumenal value will grow. He will more deeply perceive himself as the image of God; he will see himself in a counter-position to the external world and become higher in standing. In this way, man will establish a real, quite identifiable and tangible relation with God that would be so strong and durable as to withstand all storms and winds of the this world.

The conclusion from this verbosity is this: starting from today, pay attention to what you do, do not, as far as possible, break even a minor precept of the Gospel, either by tongue, sight, hearing or feeling. One, faithful in small things, will have power over many things. Do not judge anyone. Beware vanity as the most poisonous snake that is able to kill all your spiritual gains.

This is my testament for you on your 25th birthday and for the rest of your life. How it (life) will come out – God’s will be it, but always in thought and in deed and in heart stay with God. Then everything will turn out good for you. You can see how fast changing – actually by the day – everything is in this world. The most firm-standing agent of this world – science – easily rejects today its own assertions of yesterday. Art has become corrupt at the service of human passions. People are not reliable. Only in God, there is reason, peace, joy and an unshakable rock to withstand all the ups and downs of life.

I would like it very much that you accept my words not only into your ears but into your whole life. This would ensure your salvation, your independence from people and circumstances and your peace amidst the storms of daily life. I am speaking from the bottom of my heart, urgently advising you to heed to my words. Please think about it and act. This is what our Lord Jesus Christ Himself commanded us to do! I only remind you of this. If we believe in the existence of God and His Son, we must also believe that what He said is an immutable law, the fulfilment of which ensures world’s wellbeing and salvation. Amen.

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