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Fr. Alexander — about Healing

Zosia spent the whole week, from morning to evening, in the hospital. And then, she again went to the monastery to visit fr. Alexander. There, she found out that he was now in a forest skete.

This had happened before. Five miles from the monastery in the forest on a high bank of the river, a small log house had been raised. The house had been there ever since the days of the elder Zosima. There, with the blessing of the archimandrite of the monastery, monks could remain in seclusion without other people or the brotherhood.

Fr. Alexander previously recounted to Zosia the words of the elder Zosima about this:

“It is useful to have meditations with God in solitude, it is useful to remain in silence for a long time. For every person, and not just monks, it is useful to learn to feel God. One must certainly devote time in life for this!

“Even in a monastery, there is the vanity of obligatory deeds, a certain routine, and cares that a monk must have as an obedience*.

“Although monastic life was invented so that a soul could be one-to-one with God, much distracts from this. Here, the monastic brethren observe you, and the archimandrite evaluates your works; and, all this, as in the world — ties the attention of the soul to the external.

“The space of a monastery is small! All are in front of each other!

“But in solitude, there is an opportunity to strive to plunge deeper and deeper into the Depths, as a soul, and further cognize the Kingdom of God, Which is within us.”

* * *

Zosia was delighted about her upcoming walk in the forest. She thought joyfully: “Here, for me, such solitude will happen with God!”

The work this week in the hospital had been very tiring for her. She had already been given many opportunities to practice seeing with clairvoyance and often made the correct diagnosis only by looking at the patient. The doctors and nurses in the hospital were not very surprised at this: after all, Zosia was a student of the elder Zosima and fr. Alexander! And they helped Zosia in everything as they could, and they shared their experiences with her.

But, despite the successes, Zosia felt as if she had been squeezed to the last drop; even the joy began to leave her, although everything worked out well… That’s what she was going to talk with fr. Alexander about, asking: what did I do wrong?

The path to the skete was well-trodden, and so, one could not get lost! One could admire the beauty of the coming summer and enjoy the silence of the forest. Many birds still sang in the spring, and there were many chicks that had just flown from their nests, with funny fluffs on their heads… They were not afraid, and jumped along the path and along the branches of trees and bushes that were very close by.

Zosia felt so good and so relaxed in this forest world! On the way, she met several early mushrooms. She gathered them, recalling how, when she was a child, she sometimes brought mushrooms or berries to the monastery for the elder, she also recalled how Zosima joyfully smiled at her simple gifts…

It now seemed to her that the elder Zosima had come, and that He was travelling with her, embracing her with love, affection, peace, and the silence of God! All the natural beauty around began to be perceived differently! Every bird, every blade of grass, every tree, and she herself and the elder Zosima — everything began to be perceived as particles of the universe. It felt as if the borders between this world and that World disappeared!

And she, as a spiritual heart, became larger and larger, embracing with her love more and more beings. At first, she embraced only what was visible to her gaze, then — all her beloved ones were encompassed within her spiritual heart. She, with the love of her as a soul, could now easily reach Victor, Olga, Sergey, and Denis…

And the elder Zosima showed how it is possible to expand and grow ever further the love of the soul, embracing many countries and peoples, until the whole Earth is contained within that love. So that the whole planet becomes in that love — like a house, which was created by God here for all people and all creatures. For in it as a family, the whole of humanity and all good creatures learn to live!

* * *

Fr. Alexander was very happy to see Zosia:

“Everything is so calm and peaceful here! People come to me here, too, for help and advice; however, fewer people come here. After all, it is a long journey on foot; and so, people do not come for trifles!”

When Zosia asked about the fatigue that had recently appeared in her, fr. Alexander answered:

“Don’t spend all your time in the hospital! God has given you this time for learning! And this learning concerns more than just learning to clairvoyantly see the energies of inflammation and pain in bodies, or learning to understand the causes of diseases and diagnose them without errors. You still need to understand much in order to live with God in difficult times. And there will be such times…”

He was silent for a moment, as if pondering whether to speak or stay silent. Then he said:

“Dark times are approaching; the scourge of war is almost upon us… There will be a lot of blood spilled… Such times draw near for our country and for the whole world…”

“Can this be prevented?”

“Yes, but only partially… And who can do this? One person, even a ruler, cannot do this! After all, the fate of countries and peoples depends not only on rulers, but also on the righteousness and purity of life of the peoples of those countries. Everything is connected together… Peoples deserve their rulers, and rulers deserve the respect or hatred of the peoples…

“Everything is before God!

“And sometimes misery and misfortune come… It is not that God ‘is sending punishment’, but those people themselves create the reasons for this!

“Usually at first, small earthly troubles come, as if warning: ‘Wake up, people!’, ‘Cleanse yourselves!’, ‘Turn to God!’, ‘Remember about love for every person and for every one of God’s creatures!’.

“But people do not immediately see or hear such warnings… Many think that their troubles will not touch them, that they will pass by.

“In modern times, this will not happen: everything will not pass by painlessly.

“The people should blame themselves, but they do not do this!

“They invented the cars — and immediately attached armor and machine guns to them! The airplanes lifted people into the air like heavenly birds — and people think up ways on how to place bombs on them…

“What more can be said? All that could have contributed to progress and happiness for all, was perverted and directed to evil. And those people manage to esteem themselves as being rational!

“Now those, who are rich, believe that their possessions and titles, houses and lands — will always be theirs… And those, who are poor, believe nowhere could be any worse…

“But things can be much worse than now! And this is approaching for all people! This future will affect all; many shocks await this world!

“And we must remember that, after all, misfortune and suffering are the warning signs for souls!

“Death is a great purifier for the world…

“Death also is a very wise counselor, if one evaluates everything, which happens in life, from the point of view of the inevitability of the death of one’s body and if one evaluates one’s life through the Eyes of God!

“Death can be sudden — and then there will be no time to understand or change something. Or death can be a slow fading in a feeble old age — and then one will no longer have the ability to think clearly… Therefore, often, by seeing the death of other people, a person begins to think about the meaning of his or her own life.

“And then, confronted with the reality of one’s future death, one can then be one’s own terrible judge! If, of course, this one has the strength, intelligence, and time to look back over one’s entire life…

“God decides when it is time for a soul to leave its body.

“One should not cling to life in a body! But that doesn’t mean that one shouldn’t value it, or cherish it!

“Remember, dear Zosia: when fighting for the lives of sick people, you must fight wisely! This means taking into account the needs of both them and God!

“But soon you will realize that whether there is a ‘victory’ or ‘defeat’ in this struggle — is not important, because God measures it according to another criterion: according to love that has grown in the soul.

“You cannot ‘save’ everyone… There is a time limit for everyone… Death is just the end of life in the body…

“Become a real doctor! Win all the battles for life that you can win!”

“And what to do when it is impossible?”

“You will lose them — and accept it with humility and gratitude. Or — ‘pay the ransom’.”

“What does that mean?”

“This is an opportunity to take on oneself the problems and pain of another person… Your health, your strength, and maybe even your fate, will be the ‘ransom’… And you should not do this often…

“Be sure to remember, Zosia, that this may not always be for the good… After all, that event was sent to that person by God: for admonition. So, the reason must be seen and changed in that very person. Otherwise, all efforts and sacrifices will be in vain… Such healing is not for God’s benefit!

“You came to me today saying that you had begun to lose strength and that the joy in the soul had disappeared… You read how the elder Zosima told me that he once nearly died because he began to take on other people’s illnesses!”

“But I didn’t heal anyone, I only learned to see!”

“Yes, but the painful energies to which you direct the attention of the soul remain in your body. They can cause a disease. It’s as if gray dust settles or some kind of turbidity becomes attached to your bodily energies. You can learn to get rid of this. I’ll show you how — later.

“But now you have to accept responsibility not only for yourself; that is, for your decisions and actions. Now you can already receive the Power of God and are learning to manage It… So look for ways to maintain an inextricable connection with God: so as not to stumble!

“If you even think of a person without feeling love, feeling hostility or condemnation, then gray thoughts will come to you — and your mind will whisper undignified thoughts…

“Or sometimes it can happen that one’s personal desires begin to prevail because one likes a certain person. Here, the mind will try to prove that it is necessary to help that person without fail; and, in such cases, you will not immediately notice that your help is harming that soul.

“Do not allow yourself to think without God’s Love! This is the secret of intelligent discrimination! And then you will be able to see the problem and understand how you should help a person. Or, you will see that now you should not help…

“You can move to the side of God, to God’s Peace, — and from there learn to look at everything with God: to see with God’s Eyes! It seems that you already read this and heard this, but now you need to always show it in life!

“Now it’s important for you to firmly understand it!

“There are various healers and shamans who can, through personal power, cure another person from illnesses. Or, vice versa, some even send diseases or do other actions of ill-will through the use of magic. You told me about spiritualism the other day. Yes, it sometimes happens that unclean spirits ‘serve’ such persons…

“And we should learn to live according to God’s Will, and not according to our own desires, which may even seem right to us!”

“But how not to make a mistake?”

“Probably, it is only the Saints who never make mistakes… But we should learn to live so! If you do nothing and are afraid, then you will not learn anything! But to do everything with God — this is something that we have been learning to do our entire life!

“Let’s now go to the river bank, to the expanse! I will show how you can wash yourself in the River of Light of the Holy Spirit! And — how in the Stream of the Holy Spirit, you can even wash away any unkind energies by washing the body with the Light of God. Both your body, and the body of another person can be cleansed in that Stream, if it is God’s Will!”

* * *

They left the skete. In that place, the river made a smooth turn around the hill on which the skete was built.

The golden sand of a steep slope shone in the sun. A gentle breeze seemed to caress the waters of the river.

Zosia had never before heard how fr. Alexander sings. And here — in the open, on the high gentle hill above the river — he sang a prayer to the Holy Spirit! His voice poured out evenly and strongly, as if it was not his body that was singing, but the space itself…

Zosia saw how the Stream of Divine Light poured with increasing strength and brightness…

Only the Great Stream of the Holy Spirit remained in the perception of the soul. The river of the Divine Light flowed powerfully and so wide that no borders could be found! And above and below their bodies, and in all directions from them — the fluid, flowing Clear Light stretched onwards!

This Light cleansed both bodies and souls…

Zosia felt that she merged into this Stream, became an integral Part of It, and could guide It…

Zosia was silent for a long time. Then she said that she already experienced something similar when God — through her — healed the girl Nadia… But, back then, she could only see what was happening, and could not participate actively…

Fr. Alexander was glad. Afterwards, he said:

“How glorious we spent the day!

“A prayer to the Holy Spirit is not necessary to sing out loud, you can do this internally.

“And this stream can flow in any direction.

“Always and everywhere, God is present! And the Power of God’s Love can be manifested everywhere!

“And you can try to call Jesus… It will be… special!… Jesus — helps!”