When Saint Seraphim was a young Monk, he once again became extremely sick and was healed by the Mother of God when she appeared to him, together with the Holy Apostles Peter and John the Theologian. The Most Holy Mother of God, tenderly pointing to the Holy Monk, said to Saint John, “He is one of our kind.”
“A lofty and sound Soul does not despair over misfortunes, of whatever sort they may be. Our life is as it were a house of temptations and trials; but we will not renounce the Lord for as long as He allows the tempter to remain with us and for as long as we must wait to be revived through patience and secure passionless!”
“We should not be put off in the Spiritual life by any power of the enemy. On the contrary, we should depend on the Words of God: “Do not fear with their fear and do not be troubled, for God is with us. Sanctify the Lord your God and He shall be your fear” (Isaiah 8:12-13).”
“The body is a slave, the Soul a sovereign, and therefore it is due to Divine Mercy when the body is worn out by illness: for thereby the passions are weakened, and a man comes to himself; indeed, bodily illness itself is sometimes caused by the passions.”
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