A Few Quotes by Fr. Alexander Elchaninov

Our continual mistake is that we do not concentrate upon the present day, the actual hour, of our life; we live in the past or in the future; we are continually expecting the coming of some special moment when our life will unfold itself in its full significance. And we do not notice that life is flowing like water through our fingers, sifting like precious grain from a loosely fastened bag.Constantly, each day, each hour God is sending us people, circumstances, tasks, which should mark the beginning of our renewal; yet we pay them no attention, and thus continually we resist God’s will for us. Indeed, how can God help us? Only by sending us in our daily life certain people, and certain coincidences of circumstance. If we accepted every hour of our life as the hour of God’s will for us, as the decisive, most important, unique hour of our life – what sources of joy, love, strength, as yet hidden from us, would spring from the depths of our soul!Let us then be serious in our attitude towards each person we meet in our life, towards every opportunity of performing a good deed; be sure that you will then fulfill God’s will for you in these very circumstances, on that very day, in that very hour.

What must we do in order not to be bored with people? We must understand that God accomplishes His will concerning us through the persons whom He sends us. There are no accidental meetings: either God sends us a person we need or we are sent to someone by God, without our being aware of it. We implore God’s help, and when He manifests it through some particular person we reject it out of carelessness, inattention, rudeness.

Tears are of such great value, because they shake our entire organism. In tears and sufferings our earthly flesh thaws and a spiritual body, angelic flesh, is born. The spiritual body is created through tears, fasting, vigils.

A conceited man is hopelessly blind and solitary; in the world and in human beings he sees nothing but himself.

To know something is to go out of oneself and to enter into communion with the thing that is known. Knowledge of truth is communion with Truth. To strive towards the knowledge of God is to touch His glory, life in God. To know God is to become like Him.

Coercion, even for a good end, invariably provokes resistance and irritation. The only way to convince a man is to furnish him with an example such as will inspire him with the desire to embark on the same course: then, and then alone, will conversion be complete and fruitful, since only then will it be a free and independent act.

The chief mistake of our young people is their conviction that everything can be understood, that Christianity is a philosophical system which can be logically proved and expressed, and that in their present state (moral, religious, intellectual) they are capable of grasping every truth of the faith. They often stubbornly refuse to see that Christianity is a life. Instead of loving the truth and bowing down before it; they discuss, enter into polemics.

Many youthful doubts stem from pride:

1. ‘I must do something decisive, so as to make an end to all compromise and give God everything.’
2. ‘I must not receive frequent communion – I am unworthy.’
3. The proud feeling of one’s extraordinary sinfulness.
4. ‘I should not get married, I would be taking too much upon myself in creating new beings.’