The Diary of a Russian Priest

You cannot cure the soul of others or ‘help people’, without having changed yourself. You cannot put in order the spiritual economy of others, so long as there is chaos in your own soul. You cannot bring peace to others if you do not have it yourself.



Often, we help other people, not by a series of conscious acts, directed upon their soul, but rather by influencing them through our spiritual gifts, without ourselves seeing or knowing how we do so. Once Anthony the Great asked a visitor, who said nothing at all, ‘Why do you not ask me anything?’ and the other answered, ‘It is enough for me to look at you, holy father’.



The Diary of a Russian Priest