О. Иоанн среди детей

It’s touching to look at Fr. John when he is with the children. Here he is kinder and brighter than ever... “I feel like a child among children.” – A child’s soul is drawn to childish purity, and children are drawn to him... “Take me to the children,” says Fr. John to Mr. Porshin, who was seeing him off, in Rostov. “And he says this everywhere, in every city.” To children, that means to orphanages, schools, gymnasiums... And the children are always waiting for him. Here is an interesting letter from Chernigov, from the Chernigov Children's Shelter 9. Father John visited us in mid-September 1897. The kids were worried in the morning – “with a spirit of grief” – as our father wrote afterwards. They all heard about Father John and loved him from afar. I especially remember one little girl pestering me. Darling, tell me, is the saint coming, the saint?.. And he arrived. The children all beamed with joy and looked at Fr. John with all his eyes. And he responded with all his soul to the child’s love. He spoke to them. I regret that I didn't write it down. He talked about the need to love this house - in which they found shelter, people who love them, so that they keep a childish, pure, grateful, sensitive heart. Then Fr. John blessed all the children. It was good to look at his face full of greetings. When blessing the children, he sometimes impulsively stroked them on the head, pressed them to him, and said something thoughtful and affectionate. The children's eyes were shining with both joy and tears. “Just in front of me at the prayer service,” says Shcheglov, “an official from an unknown department kissed a high school student. After kissing, he introduced his teenager to him with the most fervent request to bless him before the start of the school year. Father John affectionately stroked his head: “It’s true that I just entered the gymnasium - asked Fr. John. “We just had time to sew a uniform,” suggested the father, clearly touched by this sign of attention. - Good at math? – Amazingly fast, that is, how fast, you simply won’t believe it! – Are you really weak in languages? – Quite weak, especially in languages. Father John gave the newly-minted high school student a brief instruction and blessed him three times. The high school student also smiled blissfully all the time, and when the priest began to bless him, he began to cry joyful childish tears. There were also tears in the official’s eyes.” It is difficult to measure how much such holy moments provide for the entire unborn child; impressions do not disappear. In his (unpublished) diary, Fr. John tells with terrible pain how, in a “minute” of temptation, he removed the boy from the back of the sleigh with his hand. He fell and hurt himself... Of course, only Fr.’s moral sensitivity. Joanna created the last detail (the bruise), “but Fr. John was tormented for a long time by the memories of this matter,” “My soul was sick,” he writes, he remembers for a long time and for a long time does not forgive himself for his harshness. “You are my children, for I gave birth and am giving birth to you with the gospel of Christ Jesus; my spiritual blood - my instructions flow in your veins; I have given you to drink and drink, as if from a mother’s breasts, with the milk of words. You are my children, because I always have you in my heart and pray for you. You are my children, because I am, indeed, like a priest, a father, and you call me father. Children! This word is very, very disliked by the devil, the culprit of dislike, malice and hypocrisy, but I, who help God, do not obey him for a minute, and I will not call you otherwise than children, for you are, indeed, children by faith, by the Church of God and by the instructions and paternal guidance received from me. And the conclusion in the spirit - in private sincerity he adds - to say sincerely to other people's children: children, it is possible only with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth and love. Yes to this and amen. Father with his godson at a country dacha Talk to children as sincerely as Fr. John, it is only possible with love. We cannot reprint speeches by Fr. John to children, but here are a few passages: - Children! When some parents wanted to bring their children to the Lord, the apostles prevented them. Seeing this, the Lord forbade them, saying: “Leave the children coming to me!” Here, dear ones, is a pleasant, living, comforting word, not mine, but from the Gospel. Remember it all and put it deep, deep in your heart. Remember how you loved children, and now the Lord Jesus Christ Himself loves them; how He strictly forbade His disciples, so that they would not be prevented from coming to Him at all times, since God rests in their simple hearts; how he hugged them, laid His most pure hands on them and blessed them. Remember, I say, these dear words of the Gospel, be inspired and comforted by them; carry them in your hearts and do not be frivolous, inattentive and unbecoming, so as not to offend the Savior who dearly loves you. Study diligently the law of God and all useful teaching. Do not omit going to the church of God on Sundays and other holidays, and let no one and nothing prevent you from doing this. In church, especially, God accepts our prayers. Pray with heartfelt attention at home and in the classroom. Prayer is a conversation between children and the Heavenly Father. Respect and love your bosses and mentors, who, after your parents, are your first well-wishers and benefactors, guiding you to all that is good and useful. Respect yourself and do not lead yourself to actions that humiliate and dishonor you. Remember that the Lord Jesus Christ is now always with you, invisibly, He Himself teaches you invisibly, internally, if only you are attentive. Treasure all science, love all science, because all science was revealed by the Lord God, the Source of reason and wisdom. Study willingly and diligently. When it is difficult or boring for you, boldly turn with faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, who loves you, and He will immediately help you. He especially loves to listen to children's fervent prayers, like the best Father. Love and take care of each other. - Dear children. Grow and mature in the grace of God and, like newborn babies, verbal and unflattering milk, love God’s word, God’s law. Along with external sciences, try to excel in the internal heart science of love, faith, prayer, meekness, and compassion. You learn languages, French, German, but most of all you learn the language of love. “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I am a ringing brass and a clanging cymbal.” Generally affectionate towards children, oh. John treats sick children even more lovingly. O. John in the hospital of the Levashevsky boarding house in Kyiv. Among the patients Fr. John was shown a girl who suffered from severe typhus, and who had recently had a large abscess opened behind her ear. Barely o. John looked at the sick woman, his whole figure suddenly lit up with the fire of feeling. He quickly approached the patient, fell to the bed and, on his knees, pressed his face to the sufferer’s face, showering her with the most sincere caresses and kisses. Here the entire richly gifted soul of Fr. John. Like the most loving mother, he caressed and consoled the sick woman: “Dear child, you are not in pain, you are my sufferer,” he said. There was complete silence, and the whole scene made the deepest impression. It was possible to remember the words spoken, but there is no means to convey the tone, shades of voice and all the overflows of the incomparable melody of feelings that poured out from the soul of the loving shepherd. We have witnessed the most profound manifestations of which the human soul is capable. “Everything was expressed here: the fervor of a selfless holy feeling, and boundless love, and soul-grabbing pity, and grief at the bedside of a sick person, and finally, incomparable sympathy, with all the shades and modulations of a powerful feeling.” Just as affectionate, oh. John always goes to sick children: he prays for them more fervently and more diligently. “In Ergomyshev’s apartment,” writes the Rostov correspondent, before Fr. John, many seriously ill people also gathered. There was a sick child lying there. “He’s coming, he’s coming!” voices rang out. The appearance of Fr. John caused general joy; the sick child, who was immediately put into bed, rose a little and fixed his inquisitive childish gaze on the entering shepherd. – What is the patient’s name? – asked Fr. John is with his mother; she named the child's name. “Let us pray to the Lord God,” the shepherd turned to the child and kissed him with fatherly love. The child fell to the shepherd’s hand and made the sign of the cross. “Pray to the Lord God and he will reward you according to your faith,” the shepherd said again and began to pray himself with ardent faith, with passionate and strong conviction. Sobs were heard again in the room. Father John caressed the children, took them into his arms, kissed them, the children, as if adults, understood who was near them and looked into his kind, gentle eyes.” The affectionate smile does not leave Fr.’s face. John when he is with the children. Only sometimes this smile gives way to sad grief. “Late in the evening we stopped in the small village of Gora,” writes Nartsizova, in a peasant hut, Fr. John rested for a few minutes and drank tea. Then one peasant woman brought to Father John her son, about 7 or 8 years old, completely insane, so that he did not know how to put the sweet cracker given to him in his mouth, and with tears on her knees she begged him to pray and help her son. Father John, holding the child in his lap, hugged him with both hands, and apparently prayed fervently with all his heart, pressing his head to his head, then suddenly released the child, and only said: mothers, you are mothers! It was necessary to see with what deep compassion and tender love for the unfortunate boy these words were spoken; the mother began to beg even more, but again he only repeated the words, shaking his head: mothers, mothers! If anywhere else you can see Fr. John the same compassionate and mournful tenderness, perhaps in hospitals among the beds of the “suffering and physically embittered.” In 1901 Fr. John visited the lepers in the colony of the Society for the Fight against Leprosy (25 versts from the station of Moloskovitsa on the Baltic railway). It was necessary to see this expression of intensely sorrowful pity with which he talked with the lepers and consoled them. And with what touching love he talked with Fr. Theodore P., who was immediately undergoing treatment. It was not for nothing that the lepers cried when, after a passionate word “about spiritual leprosy,” he called for prayer. The colony wept: for the first time, perhaps, the sick found real, endless pity for their suffering, and they cried both from joy and from awakened self-pity. “If Fr. John was not full of faith in God’s mercy, he would have bled to death: his sensitivity to other people’s pain is so strong!” - one deeply revered Fr. told us. John is a man, and it's true. September 2, 95 pp. Brochure by Priest A. Efimov. Chernigov orphanage. Chernigov 1902.