Father Seraphim never even mentioned the physical and spiritual help he was providing to other [Gulag] prisoners around him. He mostly talked about the importance of prayer for the soul of a man and for those around him. He spoke also about labor, but he never mentioned that he was helping others understand and make sense of their crooked ways. But I saw all this with my own eyes. I saw Father Seraphim - and perhaps you will think that I am overstating, but I think the image is right - as a restorer of souls who had been covered with dirt. Yes, he was a true restorer. Carefully, just like those who restore icons by removing layers of dried oil and dirt with a scalpel, taking care not to harm the original, Father Seraphim would carefully, gently approach a man and remove layers of sin from his soul, revealing first a small window of purity and then making this window bigger and bigger, and then finally clean up his whole soul. How careful you must be, how spiritually attentive to the injured soul not to harm it in trying to direct the man to the path of light. You must not hurt his pride, you must now show him how sinful he is - you could end up pushing him away so that he might think, "I am such a sinner that I cannot be saved!"
+Father Arseny (Streltzof), speaking of Hieromonk Seraphim, in Father Arseny A Cloud of Witnesses, chapter 12
No comments:
Post a Comment