(For pictures like the above one, from 1903 and of the transfer of his relics see HERE) A
Wonderful Revelation to the World St. Seraphim of Sarov's Conversation With Nicholas
Motovilov |
"It is not given to you alone to understand this,"
said Father Seraphim at the end of the revelation, "but through you it is
for the whole world!"
Like a flash of lightning this wonderful conversation
illumined the whole world which was already immersed in spiritual lethargy and
death, less than a century before the struggle against Christianity in
Here God's Saint appears before us as in no way inferior to
the great prophets through whom the Holy Spirit Himself spoke.
We record everything word for word without any
interpretations of our own.
It was Thursday. The day was gloomy. The snow lay eight
inches deep on the ground; and dry, crisp snowflakes were falling thickly from
the sky when Father Seraphim began his conversation with me in a field
adjoining his near hermitage, opposite the River Sarovka, at the foot of the
hill which slopes down to the river bank. He sat me on the stump of a tree
which he had just felled, and he himself squatted opposite me.
"The Lord has revealed to me," said the great Elder, "that in your childhood you had a great desire to know the aim of our Christian life, and that you continually asked many great spiritual persons about it."
I must say here that from the age of twelve this thought had constantly
troubled me. I had, in fact, approached many clergy about it; but their answers
had not satisfied me. This was not known to the Elder.
"But no one," continued Father Seraphim, "has given you a
precise answer. They have said to you: 'Go to Church, pray to God, do the
commandments of God, do good—that is the aim of the Christian life.' Some were
even indignant with you for being occupied with profane curiosity and said to
you: 'Do not seek things that are beyond you.' But they did not speak as they
should. And now poor Seraphim will explain to you in what this aim really
consists.
"Prayer, fasting, vigil and all other Christian
activities, however good they may be in themselves, do not constitute the aim
of our Christian life, although they serve as the indispensable means of
reaching this end. The true aim of our Christian life consists in the
acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God. As for fasts, and vigils, and prayer,
and almsgiving, and every good deed done for Christ's sake, they are only means
of acquiring the Holy Spirit of God. But mark, my son, only the good deed done
for Christ's sake brings us the fruits of the Holy Spirit. All that is not done
for Christ's sake, even though it be good, brings neither reward in the future
life nor the grace of God in this. That is why our Lord Jesus Christ said: He
who gathers not with Me scatters (Luke 11:23). Not that a good deed can be
called anything but gathering, since even though it is not done for Christ's
sake, yet it is good. Scripture says: In every nation he who fears God and
works righteousness is acceptable to Him (Acts 10:35).
"As we see from the sacred narrative, the man who works righteousness is
so pleasing to God that the Angel of the Lord appeared at the hour of prayer to
Cornelius, the God-fearing and righteous centurion, and said: 'Send to Joppa to
Simon the Tanner; there shalt thou find Peter and he will tell thee the words
of eternal life, whereby thou shalt be saved and all thy house.'# Thus the Lord
uses all His divine means to give such a man in return for his good works the
opportunity not to lose his reward in the future life. But to this end we must
begin here with a right faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who
came into the world to save sinners and Who, through our acquiring for
ourselves the grace of the Holy Spirit, brings into our hearts the Kingdom of
God and opens the way for us to win the blessings of the future life. But the
acceptability to God of good deeds not done for Christ's sake is limited to
this: the Creator gives the means to make them living (cp Heb. 6:1). It rests
with man to make them living or not. That is why the Lord said to the Jews: If
you had been blind, you would have no sin. But now you say, We see, and your
sin remains on you (Jn. 9:41). If a man like Cornelius enjoys the favour of God
for his deeds, though not done for Christ's sake, and then believes in His Son,
such deeds will be imputed to him as done for Christ's sake merely for faith in
Him. But in the opposite event a man has no right to complain that his good has
been no use. It never is, except when it is done for Christ's sake, since good
done for Him not only merits a crown of righteousness in the world to come, but
also in this present life fills us with the grace of the Holy Spirit. Moreover,
as it is said: God gives not the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son,
and has given all things into His hand. (Jn. 3:34-35).
"That's it, your Godliness.# In acquiring this Spirit of God
consists the true aim of our Christian life, while prayer, vigil, fasting,
almsgiving and other good works# done for Christ's sake are merely means for
acquiring the Spirit of God."
"What do you mean by acquiring?" I asked Father
Seraphim. "Somehow I don't understand that."
"Acquiring is the same as obtaining," he replied.
"You understand, of course, what acquiring money means? Acquiring the
Spirit of God is exactly the same. You know well enough what it means in a
worldly sense, your Godliness, to acquire. The aim in life of ordinary worldly
people is to acquire or make money, and for the nobility it is in addition to
receive honours, distinctions and other rewards for their services to the
government. The acquisition of God's Spirit is also capital, but grace-giving
and eternal, and it is obtained in very similar ways, almost the same ways as
monetary, social and temporal capital.
"God the Word, the God-Man, our Lord Jesus Christ,
compares our life with a market, and the work of our life on earth He calls
trading, and says to us all: Trade till I come (Lk. 19:13), redeeming the time,
because the days are evil (Eph. 5:16). That is to say, make the most of your
time for getting heavenly blessings through earthly goods. Earthly goods are
good works done for Christ's sake and conferring on us the grace of the
All-Holy Spirit.
"In the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, when the foolish ones
lacked oil, it was said: 'Go and buy in the market.' But when they had bought,
the door of the bride-chamber was already shut and they could not get in. Some
say that the lack of oil in the lamps of the foolish virgins means a lack of
good deeds in their lifetime. Such an interpretation is not quite correct. Why
should they be lacking in good deeds if they are cal led virgins, even though
foolish ones? Virginity is the supreme virtue, an angelic state, and it could
take the place of all other good works.
"I think that what they were lacking was the grace of the All-Holy Spirit
of God. These virgins practiced the virtues, but in their spiritual ignorance
they supposed that the Christian life consisted merely in doing good works. By
doing a good deed they thought they were doing the work of God, but they little
cared whether they acquired thereby the grace of God's Spirit. Such ways of life
based merely on doing good without carefully testing whether they bring the
grace of the Spirit of God, are mentioned in the Patristic books: 'There is
another way which is deemed good at the beginning, but it ends at the bottom of
hell.'
"Antony the Great in his letters to Monks says of such
virgins: 'Many Monks and virgins have no idea of the different kinds of will
which act in man, and they do not know that we are influenced by three wills:
the first is God's all-perfect and all-saving will: the second is our own human
will which, if not destructive, yet neither is it saving; and the third is the
devil's will—wholly destructive.' And this third will of the enemy teaches man
either not to do any good deeds, or to do them out of vanity, or to do them
merely for virtue's sake and not for Christ's sake. The second, our own will,
teaches us to do everything to flatter our passions, or else it teaches us like
the enemy to do good for the sake of good and not care for the grace which is
acquired by it. But the first, God's all-saving will, consists in doing good
solely to acquire the Holy Spirit, as an eternal, inexhaustible treasure which
cannot be rightly valued. The acquisition of the Holy Spirit is, so to say, the
oil which the foolish virgins lacked. They were called foolish just because
they had forgotten the necessary fruit of virtue, the grace of the Holy Spirit,
without which no one is or can be saved, for: 'Every soul is quickened by the
Holy Spirit and exalted by purity and mystically illumined by the Trinal
Unity.' [Antiphon of the Byzantine Rite, Tone 4., eds. note]
"This is the oil in the lamps of the wise virgins which
could burn long and brightly, and these virgins with their burning lamps were
able to meet the Bridegroom, Who came at midnight, and could enter the
bridechamber of joy with Him. But the foolish ones, though they went to market
to buy some oil when they saw their lamps going out, were unable to return in
time, for the door was already shut. The market is our life; the door of the
bridechamber which was shut and which barred the way to the Bridegroom is human
death; the wise and foolish virgins are Christian souls; the oil is not good
deeds but the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God which is obtained through
them and which changes souls from one state to another—that is, from corruption
to incorruption, from spiritual death to spiritual life, from darkness to
light, from the stable of our being (where the passions are tied up like dumb
animals and wild beasts) into a Temple of the Divinity, into the shining
bridechamber of eternal joy in Christ Jesus our Lord, the Creator and Redeemer
and eternal Bridegroom of our souls.
"How great is God's compassion to our misery, that is
to say, our inattention to His care for us, when God says: Behold, I stand at
the door and knock (Rev. 3:20), meaning by 'door' the course of our life which
has not yet been closed by death! Oh, how I wish, your Godliness, that in this
life you may always be in the Spirit of God! 'In whatsoever I find you, in that
will I judge you,'# says the Lord.
"Woe to us if He finds us overcharged with the cares and sorrows of this
life! For who will be able to bear His anger, who will withstand the wrath of
His countenance? That is why it has been said: Watch and pray, lest you enter
into temptation (Mk. 14:38), that is lest you be deprived of the Spirit of God,
for watching and prayer bring us His grace.
"Of course, every good deed done for Christ's sake
gives us the grace of the Holy Spirit, but prayer gives us it most of all, for
it is always at hand, so to speak, as an instrument for acquiring the grace of
the Spirit. For instance, you would like to go to Church, but there is no
Church or the Service is over; you would like to give alms to a beggar, but
there isn't one, or you have nothing to give; you would like to preserve your
virginity,# but you have not the strength to do so because of your temperament,
or because of the violence of the wiles of the enemy which on account of your
human weakness you cannot withstand; you would like to do some other good deed
for Christ's sake, but either you have not the strength or the opportunity is
lacking. This certainly does not apply to prayer. Prayer is always possible for
everyone, rich and poor, noble and humble, strong and weak, healthy and sick,
righteous and sinful.
"You may judge how great the power of prayer is even in
a sinful person, when it is offered whole-heartedly, by the following example
from Holy Tradition. When at the request of a desperate mother who had been
deprived by death of her only son, a harlot whom she chanced to meet, still
unclean, from her last sin, and who was touched by the mother's deep sorrow,
cried to the Lord: 'Not for the sake of a wretched sinner like me, but for the
sake of the tears of a mother sorrowing for her son and firmly trusting in Thy
loving kindness and Thy almighty power, Christ God, raise up her son, O Lord!'
And the Lord raised him up.
"You see, your Godliness! Great is the power of prayer,
and it brings most of all the Spirit of God, and is most easily practiced by
everyone. We shall be blessed if the Lord God finds us watchful and filled with
the gifts of His Holy Spirit. Then we may boldly hope to be caught up...in the
clouds to meet the Lord in the air (I Thes. 4:17) Who is coming with great
power and glory (Mk. 13:26) to judge the living and the dead (I Pet. 4:5) and
to reward every man according to his works (Mat. 16:27).
"Your Godliness deigns to think it a great happiness to
talk to poor Seraphim, believing that even he is not bereft of the grace of the
Lord. What then shall we say of the Lord Himself, the never-failing source of
every kind of blessing, both heavenly and earthly? Truly in prayer we are
granted to converse with Him, our all-gracious and life-giving God and Saviour
Himself. But even here we must pray only until God the Holy Spirit descends on
us in measures of His heavenly grace known to Him. And when He deigns to visit
us, we must stop praying. Why should we then pray to Him, 'Come and abide in us
and cleanse us from all impurity and save our souls, O Good One,' when He has
already come to us to save us who trust in Him and truly call on His Holy Name,
that humbly and with love we may receive Him, the Comforter, in the mansions of
our souls hungering and thirsting for His coming.
"I will explain this to your Godliness by an example. Imagine that you
have invited me to pay you a visit and at your invitation I come to have a talk
with you. But you continue to invite me, saying: 'Come in, please. Do come in!'
Then I should be obliged to think: 'What is the matter with him? Is he out of
his mind?' So it is with regard to our Lord God the Holy Spirit. That is why it
is said: Be still and realize that I am God; I shall be exalted among the
heathen, I shall be exalted in the earth (Ps. 45:10). That is, I shall appear
and shall continue to appear to everyone who believes in Me and calls upon Me,
and I shall converse with him as I once conversed with Adam in
"Many explain that this stillness refers only to
worldly matters; in other words, that during prayerful converse with God you
must 'be still'# with regard to worldly affairs. But I will tell you in the
name of God that not only is it necessary to be dead to them at prayer, but
when by t he omnipotent power of faith and prayer our Lord God the Holy Spirit
condescends to visit us, and comes to us in the plenitude of His unutterable
goodness, we must be dead to prayer too.
"The soul speaks and converses during prayer, but at
the descent of the Holy Spirit we must remain in complete silence, in order to
hear clearly and intelligibly all the words of eternal life which He will then
deign to communicate. Complete soberness of both soul and spirit, and chaste
purity of body is required at the same time. The same demands were made at
"Yes, Father, but what about other good deeds done for
Christ's sake in order to acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit? You have only
been speaking of prayer!"
"Acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit also by
practicing all the other virtues for Christ's sake. Trade spiritually with
them; trade with those which give you the greatest profit. Accumulate capital
from the superabundance of God's grace, deposit it in God's eternal bank which
will bring you immaterial interest, not four or six percent, but one hundred
percent for one spiritual ruble, and even infinitely more than that. For
example, if prayer and watching give you more of God's grace, watch and pray;
if fasting gives you much of the Spirit of God, fast; if almsgiving gives you
more, give alms. Weigh every virtue done for Christ's sake in this manner.
"Now I will tell you about myself, poor Seraphim. I
come of a merchant family in
"How I wish, your Godliness, that you yourself may acquire this
inexhaustible source of divine grace, and may always ask yourself: Am I in the
Spirit of God or not? And if you are in the Spirit, blessed be God!—there is
nothing to grieve about. You are ready to appear before the awful judgement of
Christ immediately. For 'In whatsoever I find you, in that I will judge you.'
But if we are not in the Spirit, we must discover why and for what reason our
Lord God the Holy Spirit has willed to abandon us; and we must seek Him again,
and must go on searching until our Lord God the Holy Spirit has been found and
is with us again through His goodness. And we must attack the enemies that
drive us away from Him until even their dust is no more, as has been said by
the Prophet David: I shall pursue my enemies and overtake them; and I shall not
turn back till they are destroyed. I shall harass them, and they will not be
able to stand; they will fall under my feet. (Ps. 17:37-38).
"That's it, my son. That is how you must spiritually
trade in virtue. Distribute the Holy Spirit's gifts of grace to those in need
of them, just as a lighted candle burning with earthly fire shines itself and
lights other candles for the illumining of all in other places, without diminishing
its own light. And if it is so with regard to earthly fire, what shall we say
about the fire of the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God? For earthly riches
decrease with distribution, but the more the heavenly riches of God's grace are
distributed, the more they increase in him who distributes them. Thus the Lord
Himself was pleased to say to the Samaritan woman: Whoever drinks of this water
will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will
never thirst; but the water that I shall give him will be in him a well of
water springing up into eternal life (Jn. 4:13-14).
"Father," said I, "you speak all the time of
the acquisition of the grace of the Holy Spirit as the aim of the Christian
life. But how and where can I see it? Good deeds are visible, but can the Holy
Spirit be seen? How am I to know whether He is with me or not?"
"At the present time," the Elder replied,
"owing to our almost universal coldness to our holy faith in our Lord
Jesus Christ, and our inattention to the working of His Divine Providence in
us, and to the communion of man with God, we have gone so far that, one may
say, we have almost abandoned the true Christian life. The testimonies of Holy
Scripture now seem strange to us, when, for instance, by the lips of Moses the
Holy Spirit says: And Adam saw the Lord walking in paradise (cp. Gen. 3:10), or
when we read the words of the Apostle Paul: 'We went to Achaia, and the Spirit
of God went not with us; we returned to Macedonia, and the Spirit of God came
with us'. More than once in other passages of Holy Scripture the appearance of
God to men is mentioned.
"That is why some people say: 'These passages are
incomprehensible. Is it really possible for people to see God so openly?' But
there is nothing incomprehensible here. This failure to understand has come
about because we have departed from the simplicity of the original Christian
knowledge. Under the pretext of education, we have reached such a darkness of
ignorance that what the ancients understood so clearly seems to us almost
inconceivable. Even in ordinary conversation, the idea of God's appearance
among men did not seem strange to them. Thus, when his friends rebuked him for
blaspheming God, Job answered them: How can that be when I feel the Spirit of
God in my nostrils? (cp. Job 27:3). That is, 'How can I blaspheme God when the
Holy Spirit abides with me? If I had blasphemed God, the Holy Spirit would have
withdrawn from me; but lo, I feel His breath in my nostrils.'
"In exactly the same way it is said of Abraham and
Jacob that they saw the Lord and conversed with Him, and that Jacob even
wrestled with Him. Moses and all the people with him saw God when he was
granted to receive from God the tables of the law on
"We have become so inattentive to the work of our salvation that we
misinterpret many other words in Holy Scripture as well, all because we do not
seek the grace of God and in the pride of our minds do not allow it to dwell in
our souls. That is why we are without true enlightenment from the Lord, which
He sends into the hearts of men who hunger and thirst wholeheartedly for God's
righteousness.
"Many explain that when it says in the Bible: 'God
breathed the breath of life into the face of Adam the first-created, who was
created by Him from the dust of the ground,' it must mean that until then there
was neither human soul nor spirit in Adam, but only the flesh created from the
dust of the ground. This interpretation is wrong, for the Lord God created Adam
from the dust of the ground with the constitution which our dear little Father,
the holy Apostle Paul describes: May your spirit and soul and body be preserved
blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (I Thess. 5:23). And all these
three parts of our nature were created from the dust of the ground, and Adam
was not created dead, but an active living being like all the other animate
creatures of God living on earth. The point is that if the Lord God had not
breathed afterwards into his face this breath of life (that is, the grace of
our Lord God the Holy Spirit Who proceeds from the Father and rests in the Son
and is sent into the world for the Son's sake), Adam would have remained
without having within him the Holy Spirit Who raises him to Godlike dignity.
However perfect he had been created and superior to all the other creatures of
God, as the crown of creation on earth, he would have been just like all the
other creatures which, though they have a body, soul and spirit each according
to its kind, yet have not the Holy Spirit within them. But when the Lord God
breathed into Adam's face the breath of life, then, according to Moses' word,
Adam became a living soul (Gen. 2:7), that is, completely and in every way like
God, and, like Him, for ever immortal. Adam was immune to the action of the
elements to such a degree that water could not drown him, fire could not burn
him, the earth could not swallow him in its abysses, and the air could not harm
him by any kind of action whatever. Everything was subject to him as the
beloved of God, as the king and lord of creation, and everything looked up to
him, as the perfect crown of God's creatures. Adam was made so wise by this
breath of life which was breathed into his face from the creative lips of God,
the Creator and Ruler of all, that there never has been a man on earth wiser or
more intelligent than he, and it is hardly likely that there ever will be. When
the Lord commanded him to give names to all the creatures, he gave every
creature a name which completely expressed all the qualities, powers and
properties given to it by God at its creation.
"Owing to this very gift of the supernatural grace of
God which was infused into him by the breath of life, Adam could see and understand
the Lord walking in paradise, and comprehend His words, and the conversation of
the holy Angels, and the language of all beasts, birds and reptiles and all
that is now hidden from us fallen and sinful creatures, but was so clear to
Adam before his fall. To Eve also the Lord God gave the same wisdom, strength
and unlimited power, and all the other good and holy qualities. And He created
her not from the dust of the ground but from Adam's rib in the
"In order that they might always easily maintain within
themselves the immortal, divine# and perfect properties of this breath of life,
God planted in the midst of the garden the tree of life and endowed its fruits
with all the essence and fullness of His divine breath. If they had not sinned,
Adam and Eve themselves as well as all their posterity could have always eaten
of the fruit of the tree of life and so would have eternally maintained the
quickening power of divine grace.
"They could have also maintained to all eternity the
full powers of their body, soul and spirit in a state of immortality and
everlasting youth, and they could have continued in this immortal and blessed
state of theirs for ever. At the present time, however, it is difficult for us
even to imagine such grace.
"But when through the tasting of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil—which was premature and contrary to the commandment
of God—they learnt the difference between good and evil and were subjected to
all the afflictions which followed the transgression of the commandment of God,
then they lost this priceless gift of the grace of the Spirit of God, so that,
until the actual coming into the world of the God-Man Jesus Christ, the Spirit
of God was not yet in the world because Jesus was not yet glorified (Jn. 7:39).
"However, that does not mean that the Spirit of God was
not in the world at all, but His presence was not so apparent# as in Adam or in
us Orthodox Christians. It manifested only externally; yet the signs of His
presence in the world were known to mankind. Thus, for instance, many
mysteries in connection with the future salvation of the human race were
revealed to Adam as well as to Eve after the fall. And for Cain, in spite of
his impiety and his transgression, it was easy to understand the voice which
held gracious and divine though convicting converse with him. Noah conversed
with God. Abraham saw God and His day and was glad (cp. Jn. 8:56). The grace of
the Holy Spirit acting externally was also reflected in all the Old Testament
prophets and Saints of
"So you see, your Godliness, both in the holy Hebrew
people, a people beloved by God, and in the pagans who did not know God, there
was preserved a knowledge of God—that is, my son, a clear and rational
comprehension of how our Lord God the Holy Spirit acts in man, and by means of
what inner and outer feelings one can be sure that this is really the action of
our Lord God the Holy Spirit, and not a delusion of the enemy. That is how it
was from Adam's fall until the coming in the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ
into the world.
"Without this perceptible realization of the actions of the Holy Spirit
which had always been preserved in human nature, men could not possibly have
known for certain whether the fruit of the seed of the woman who had been
promised to Adam and Eve had come into the world to bruise the serpent's head
(Gen. 3:15).
"At last the Holy Spirit foretold to St. Simeon, who
was then in his 65th year, the mystery of the virginal conception and birth of
Christ from the most pure Ever-Virgin Mary. Afterwards, having lived by the
grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God for three hundred years, in the 365th year
of his life he said openly in the Temple of the Lord that he knew for certain#
through the gift of the Holy Spirit that this was that very Christ, the Saviour
of the world, Whose supernatural conception and birth from the Holy Spirit had
been foretold to him by an Angel three hundred years previously.
"And there was also Saint Anna, a prophetess, the
daughter of Phanuel, who from her widowhood had served the Lord God in the
"But when our Lord Jesus Christ condescended to
accomplish the whole work of salvation, after His Resurrection, He breathed on
the Apostles, restored the breath of life lost by Adam, and gave them the same
grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God as Adam had enjoyed. But that was not all.
He also told them that it was expedient for them that He should go to the
Father, for if He did not go, the Spirit of God would not come into the world.
But if He, the Christ, went to the Father, He would send Him into the world,
and He, the Comforter, would guide them and all who followed their teaching
into all truth and would remind them of all that He had said to them when He
was still in the world. What was then promised was grace upon grace (Jn. 1:16).
"Then on the day of Pentecost He solemnly sent down to
them in a tempestuous wind the Holy Spirit in the form of tongues of fire which
alighted on each of them and entered within them and filled them with the fiery
strength of divine grace which breathes bedewingly and acts gladdeningly in
souls which partake of its power and operations (Cp. Acts 2:1-4). And this same
fire-infusing grace of the Holy Spirit which is given to us all, the faithful
of Christ, in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, is sealed by the Sacrament of
Chrismation on the chief parts of our body as appointed by
"And if we were never to sin after our Baptism, we
should remain for ever Saints of God, holy, blameless and free from all
impurity of body and spirit. But the trouble is that we increase in stature,
but do not increase in grace and in the knowledge of God as our Lord Jesus
Christ increased; but on the contrary, we gradually become more and more
depraved and lose the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God and become sinful in
various degrees, and most sinful people. But if a man is stirred by the wisdom
of God which seeks our salvation and embraces everything, and he is resolved
for its sake to devote the early hours to God and to watch in order to find his
eternal salvation,# then, in obedience to its voice, he must hasten to offer
true repentance for all his sins and must practice the virtues which are
opposite to the sins committed. Then through the virtues practiced for Christ's
sake he will acquire the Holy Spirit Who acts within us and establishes in us
the
"Such people were once seen by the holy Seer John the
Divine clothed in white robes (that is, in robes of justification) and palms in
their hands (as a sign of victory), and they were singing to God a wonderful
song: Alleluia. And no one could imitate the beauty of their song. Of them an
Angel of God said: These are they who have come out of great tribulation and
have washed their robes, and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb
(Rev. 7:9-14). They were washed with their sufferings and made white in the
Communion of the immaculate and life-giving Mysteries of the Body and Blood of
the most pure and spotless Lamb—Christ—Who was slain before all ages by His own
will for the salvation of the world and Who is continually being slain and
divided until now but is never exhausted. Through the Holy Mysteries we are
granted our eternal and unfailing salvation as a viaticum to eternal life, as
an acceptable answer at His awful judgement and as a precious substitute beyond
our comprehension for that fruit of the tree of life of which the enemy of
mankind Lucifer who fell from heaven would have liked to deprive our human
race. Though the enemy and devil seduced Eve, and Adam fell with her, yet the
Lord not only granted them a Redeemer in the fruit of the seed of the woman Who
trampled down death by death, but also granted us all in the woman, the
Ever-Virgin Mary Mother of God, who crushes the head of the serpent in herself
and in all the human race, a constant mediatress with her Son and our God, and
an invincible and insistent intercessor even for the most desperate sinners.
That is why the Mother of God is called the 'Plague of Demons,' for it is not
possible for a devil to destroy a man so long as the man himself has recourse
to the help of the Mother of God.
"And I must further explain, your Godliness, the
difference between the operations of the Holy Spirit who dwells mystically in
the hearts of those who believe in our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ and
the operations of the darkness of sin which, at the suggestion and instigation
of the devil, acts predatorily in us. The Spirit of God reminds us of the words
of our Lord Jesus Christ and always acts triumphantly with Him, gladdening our
hearts and guiding our steps into the way of peace, while the false diabolic
spirit reasons in the opposite way to Christ, and its actions in us are
rebellious, stubborn, and full of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes
and the pride of life.
"And whoever lives and believes in Me shall not die for ever (Jn. 11:26).
He who has the grace of the Holy Spirit in reward for right faith in Christ,
even if on account of human frailty his soul were to die from some sin or
other, yet he will not die for ever, but he will be raised by the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ Who takes away the sin of the world (Jn. 1:29) and freely
gives grace upon grace. Of this grace, which was manifested to the whole world
and to our human race by the God-Man, it is said in the Gospel: In Him was
life, and the life was the light of men (Jn. 1:4); and further: And the light
shines in the darkness; and the darkness did not overpower it (Jn. 1:5). This
means that the grace of the Holy Spirit which is granted at Baptism in the name
of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in spite of men's falls into
sin, in spite of the darkness surrounding our soul, nevertheless shines in the
heart with the divine light (which has existed from time immemorial) of the
inestimable merits of Christ. In the event of a sinner's impenitence this light
of Christ cries to the Father: 'Abba, Father! Be not angry with this
impenitence to the end (of his life)'. And then, at the sinner's conversion to
the way of repentance, it effaces completely all trace of past sin and clothes
the former sinner once more in a robe of incorruption woven from the grace of
the Holy Spirit, concerning the acquisition of which, as the aim of the
Christian life, I have been speaking so long to your Godliness.
"I will tell you something else, so that you may
understand still more clearly what is meant by the grace of God, how to
recognize it and how its action is manifested particularly in those who are
enlightened by it. The grace of the Holy Spirit is the light which enlightens
man. The whole of Sacred Scripture speaks about this. Thus our holy Father
David said: Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path (Ps.
118:105), and: Unless Thy law had been my meditation I should have died in my
humiliation (Ps. 118:92). In other words, the grace of the Holy Spirit which is
expressed in the Law by the words of the Lord's commandments is my lamp and
light. And if this grace of the Holy Spirit (which I try to acquire so
carefully and zealously that I meditate on Thy righteous judgements seven times
a day) did not enlighten me amidst the darkness of the cares which are
inseparable from the high calling of my royal rank, whence should I get a spark
of light to illumine my way on the path of life which is darkened by the
ill-will of my enemies?
"And in fact the Lord has frequently demonstrated
before many witnesses how the grace of the Holy Spirit acts on people whom He
has sanctified and illumined by His great inspiration.# Remember Moses
after his talk with God on Mount Sinai. He so shone with an extraordinary light
that people were unable to look at him. He was even forced to wear a veil when
he appeared in public. Remember the Transfiguration of the Lord on
"But how," I asked Father Seraphim, "can I
know that I am in the grace of the Holy Spirit?"
"It is very simple, your Godliness," he replied.
"That is why the Lord says: 'All things are simple to those who find
knowledge' (Prov. 8:9, Septuagint). The trouble is that we do not seek this
divine knowledge which does not puff up, for it is not of this world. This
knowledge which is full of love for God and for our neighbour builds up every
man for his salvation. Of this knowledge the Lord said that God wills all men
to be saved, and to come to the knowledge# of the truth (I Tim. 2:4). And of
the lack of this knowledge He said to His Apostles: Are you also yet without
understanding (Mat. 15:16)? Concerning this understanding,# it is said in the
Gospel of the Apostles: Then opened He their understanding# (Lk. 24:45), and
the Apostles always perceived whether the Spirit of God was dwelling in them or
not; and being filled with understanding, they saw the presence of the Holy
Spirit with them and declared positively that their work was holy and entirely
pleasing to the Lord God. That explains why in their Epistles they wrote: It
seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us (Acts 15:28). Only on these grounds
did they offer their Epistles as immutable truth for the benefit of all the
faithful. Thus the holy Apostles were consciously aware of the presence in themselves
of the Spirit of God. And so you see, your Godliness, how simple it is!"
"Nevertheless," I replied, "I do not
understand how I can be certain that I am in the Spirit of God. How can I
discern for myself His true manifestation in me?"
Father Seraphim replied: "I have already told you, your Godliness, that it
is very simple and I have related in detail how people come to be in the Spirit
of God and how we can recognize His presence in us. So what do you want, my
son?"
"I want to understand it well," I said.
Then Father Seraphim took me very firmly by the shoulders and said: "We
are both in the Spirit of God now, my son. Why don't you look at me?"
I replied: "I cannot look, Father, because your eyes
are flashing like lightning. Your face has become brighter than the sun, and my
eyes ache with pain."
Father Seraphim said: "Don't be alarmed, your
Godliness! Now you yourself have become as bright as I am. You are now in the
fullness of the Spirit of God yourself; otherwise you would not be able to see
me as I am."
Then, bending his head towards me, he whispered softly in my ear: "Thank
the Lord God for His unutterable mercy to us! You saw that I did not even cross
myself; and only in my heart I prayed mentally to the Lord God and said within myself:
'Lord, grant him to see clearly with his bodily eyes that descent of Thy Spirit
which Thou grantest to Thy servants when Thou art pleased to appear in the
light of Thy magnificent glory.' And you see, my son, the Lord instantly
fulfilled the humble prayer of poor Seraphim. How then shall we not thank Him
for this unspeakable gift to us both? Even to the greatest hermits, my son, the
Lord God does not always show His mercy in this way. This grace of God, like a
loving mother, has been pleased to comfort your contrite heart at the
intercession of the Mother of God herself. But why, my son, do you not look me
in the eyes? Just look, and don't be afraid! The Lord is with us!"
After these words I glanced at his face and there came over
me an even greater reverent awe. Imagine in the center of the sun, in the
dazzling light of its midday rays, the face of a man talking to you. You see
the movement of his lips and the changing expression of his eyes, you hear his
voice, you feel someone holding your shoulders; yet you do not see his hands,
you do not even see yourself or his figure, but only a blinding light spreading
far around for several yards and illumining with its glaring sheen both the
snow-blanket which covered the forest glade and the snow-flakes which
besprinkled me and the great Elder. You can imagine the state I was in!
"How do you feel now?" Father Seraphim asked me.
"Extraordinarily well," I said.
"But in what way? How exactly do you feel well?"
I answered: "I feel such calmness and peace in my soul
that no words can express it."
"This, your Godliness," said Father Seraphim,
"is that peace of which the Lord said to His disciples: My peace I give
unto you; not as the world gives, give I unto you (Jn. 14:21). If you were of the
world, the world would love its own; but because I have chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hates you (Jn. 15:19). But be of good cheer; I have
overcome the world (Jn. 16:33). And to those people whom this world hates but
who are chosen by the Lord, the Lord gives that peace which you now feel within
you, the peace which, in the words of the Apostle, passes all understanding
(Phil. 4:7). The Apostle describes it in this way, because it is impossible to
express in words the spiritual well-being which it produces in those into whose
hearts the Lord God has infused it. Christ the Saviour calls it a peace which
comes from His own generosity and is not of this world, for no temporary
earthly prosperity can give it to the human heart; it is granted from on high
by the Lord God Himself, and that is why it is called the peace of God. What
else do you feel?" Father Seraphim asked me.
"An extraordinary sweetness," I replied.
And he continued: "This is that sweetness of which it
is said in Holy Scripture: They will be inebriated with the fatness of Thy
house; and Thou shalt make them drink of the torrent of Thy delight# (Ps.
35:8). And now this sweetness is flooding our hearts and coursing through
our veins with unutterable delight. From this sweetness our hearts melt as it
were, and both of us are filled with such happiness as tongue cannot tell. What
else do you feel?"
"An extraordinary joy in all my heart."
And Father Seraphim continued: "When the Spirit of God
comes down to man and overshadows him with the fullness of His inspiration,#
then the human soul overflows with unspeakable joy, for the Spirit of God fills
with joy whatever He touches. This is that joy of which the Lord speaks in His
Gospel: A woman when she is in travail has sorrow, because her hour is come;
but when she is delivered of the child, she remembers no more the anguish, for
joy that a man is born into the world. In the world you will be sorrowful;# but
when I see you again, your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one will take
from you (Jn. 16:21-22). Yet however comforting may be this joy which you now
feel in your heart, it is nothing in comparison with that of which the Lord
Himself by the mouth of His Apostle said that that joy eye has not seen, nor
ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for
them that love Him (I Cor. 2:9). Foretastes of that joy are given to us now,
and if they fill our souls with such sweetness, well-being and happiness, what
shall we say of that joy which has been prepared in heaven for those who weep
here on earth? And you, my son, have wept enough in your life on earth; yet see
with what joy the Lord consoles you even in this life! Now it is up to us, my
son, to add labours to labours in order to go from strength to strength (Ps.
83:7), and to come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ
(Eph. 4:13), so that the words of the Lord may be fulfilled in us: But they
that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall grow wings like
eagles; and they shall run and not be weary (Is. 40:31); they will go from
strength to strength, and the God of gods will appear to them in the Sion (Ps.
83:8) of realization and heavenly visions. Only then will our present joy
(which now visits us little and briefly) appear in all its fullness, and no one
will take it from us, for we shall be filled to overflowing with inexplicable
heavenly delights. What else do you feel, your Godliness?"
I answered: "An extraordinary warmth."
"How can you feel warmth, my son? Look, we are sitting
in the forest. It is winter out-of-doors, and snow is underfoot. There is more
than an inch of snow on us, and the snowflakes are still falling. What warmth
can there be?"
I answered: "Such as there is in a bath-house when the
water is poured on the stone and the steam rises in clouds."
"And the smell?" he asked me. "Is it the same
as in the bath-house?"
"No," I replied. "There is nothing on earth
like this fragrance. When in my dear mother's lifetime I was fond of dancing
and used to go to balls and parties, my mother would sprinkle me with scent
which she bought at the best shops in
And Father Seraphim, smiling pleasantly, said: "I know
it myself just as well as you do, my son, but I am asking you on purpose to see
whether you feel it in the same way. It is absolutely true, your Godliness! The
sweetest earthly fragrance cannot be compared with the fragrance which we now
feel, for we are now enveloped in the fragrance of the Holy Spirit of God. What
on earth can be like it? Mark, your Godliness, you have told me that around us
it is warm as in a bath-house; but look, neither on you nor on me does the snow
melt, nor does it underfoot; therefore, this warmth is not in the air but in
us. It is that very warmth about which the Holy Spirit in the words of prayer
makes us cry to the Lord: 'Warm me with the warmth of Thy Holy Spirit!' By it
the hermits of both sexes were kept warm and did not fear the winter frost,
being clad, as in fur coats, in the grace-given clothing woven by the Holy
Spirit. And so it must be in actual fact, for the grace of God must dwell
within us, in our heart, because the Lord said: The Kingdom of God is within
you (Lk. 17:21). By the
"I don't know, Father," I said, "whether the
Lord will grant me to remember this mercy of God always as vividly and clearly
as I feel it now."
"I think," Father Seraphim answered me, "that
the Lord will help you to retain it in your memory forever, or His goodness
would never have instantly bowed in this way to my humble prayer and so quickly
anticipated the request of poor Seraphim; all the more so, because it is not
given to you alone to understand it, but through you it is for the whole world,
in order that you yourself may be confirmed in God's work and may be useful to
others. The fact that I am a Monk and you are a layman is utterly beside the
point. What God requires is true faith in Himself and His Only-begotten Son. In
return for that the grace of the Holy Spirit is granted abundantly from on
high. The Lord seeks a heart filled to overflowing with love for God and our
neighbour; this is the throne on which He loves to sit and on which He appears
in the fullness of His heavenly glory. 'Son, give Me thy heart,' He says, 'and
all the rest I Myself will add to thee (Prov. 23:26; Matt. 6:33),' for in the
human heart the
"Of the mercy of the Lord God there is no shadow of
doubt. You have seen for yourself, your Godliness, how the words of the Lord
spoken through the Prophet have been accomplished in us: I am not a God far
off, but a God near at hand (cp. Jer. 23:23), and thy salvation is at thy mouth
(cp. Deut. 30:12-14;
"Thus, my son, whatever you ask of the Lord God you
will receive, if only it is for the glory of God or for the good of your
neighbour, because what we do for the good of our neighbour He refers to His
own glory. And therefore He says: "All that you have done unto one of the
least of these, you have done unto Me" (cp. Matt. 25:40). And so, have no
doubt that the Lord God will fulfill your petitions, if only they concern the
glory of God or the benefit and edification of your fellow men. But, even if
something is necessary for your own need or use or advantage, just as quickly
and graciously will the Lord be pleased to send you even that, provided that
extreme need and necessity require it. For the Lord loves those who love Him.
The Lord is good to all men; He gives abundantly to those who call upon His
Name, and His bounty is in all His works. He will do the will of them that fear
Him and He will hear their prayer, and fulfill all their plans. The Lord will
fulfill all thy petitions (cp. Ps. 144:19; 19:4,5). Only beware, your
Godliness, of asking the Lord for something for which there is no urgent need.
The Lord will not refuse you even this in return for your Orthodox faith in
Christ the Saviour, for the Lord will not give up the staff of the righteous to
the lot of sinners (cp. Ps. 124:3), and He will speedily accomplish the will of
His servant David; but He will call him to account for having troubled Him
without special need, and for having asked Him for something without which he
could have managed very easily.
"And so, your Godliness, I have now told you and given
you a practical demonstration of all that the Lord and the Mother of God have
been pleased to tell you and show you through me, poor Seraphim. Now go in
peace. The Lord and the Mother of God be with you always, now and ever, and to
the ages of ages. Amen. Now go in peace."
And during the whole of this time, from the moment when
Father Seraphim's face became radiant, this illumination continued; and all
that he told me from the beginning of the narrative till now, he said while
remaining in one and the same position. The ineffable glow of the light which
emanated from him I myself saw with my own eyes. And I am ready to vouch for it
with an oath.