The Grace of God

 

- Recently I talked with an Athonite father. He says: “I wonder why this happens: when I show obedience, I do not feel how grace comes, but when I show disobedience, then I feel that grace departs. Why can't I feel when she comes?

I answered him, based on my experience: “The Grace of Christ is so delicate, it visits a person so gently, meekly that he does not even notice how it comes. But demonic things come brightly, magnificently. And grace itself is so tenderly meek that, only losing it, a person notices that something has happened to him. But he does not feel the very moment of the arrival of grace. God is very delicate, He comes very meekly, without fanfare. But then we feel the loss of grace. And this can be used. Grace came quietly, softly, correctly, delicately - you became quieter, more humble, more prayerful. Lost because of pride, because of disobedience - your whole world is crumbling, prayer is broken. It always happens to me when I come from Athos. You live on the Holy Mountain, you naturally enter into this atmosphere, grace comes imperceptibly.

Archpriest Sergiy Baranov