686. Молодым послушницам неполезно сближаться с молодым священником. Сестру, хвалящуюся своими дурными поступками, следует удалить из обители

Your Reverence, most honorable in the Lord Mother Abbess Leonida! In your last letter dated January 15, you ask me, a sinner, what to answer to the dean if he asks why you forbade some sisters to take a blessing from the new priest. - Since this prohibition was secret, and moreover, you forbade only some young people to take his blessing, and not every day, you can give an evasive answer. To say this: “Nuns generally approach a new priest for a blessing. And if on another day some sister does not come to him, either due to forgetfulness, or for some other reason, then he should not be offended by this. After all, not everyone always comes to the old priest for a blessing.” And someday, alone, we could talk frankly with the Metropolitan. Namely: “It is not useful for young novices to get close to a young priest. The enemy is strong and is always ready to entertain evil thoughts and make passionate movements.” And ask the metropolitan to tell the young priest so that he does not pretend that the sisters do not approach him for a blessing. A sister who tells others about her bad deeds and boasts about them should have been removed long ago. I also received your first letter dated December 21 and thank you for congratulating me, a sinner, on the past holidays and for your well wishes. Here you wrote about some 30-year-old novice, whom you wanted to reprimand, that you knew all her machinations. – You can wait to talk about this, but instead pray with zeal: “Save, Lord, and have mercy on sister (name), and for her sake, for the sake of St. prayers, have mercy on me too, a sinner.” You also wrote there about the unworldliness of the priests, about the envy of the sisters and about the slander against you to the dean. – In general, in response to all this I will tell you: try not to take all these things to heart, remembering that all people are not without shortcomings. According to the word of the psalmist, everything turned away and was lost; Do not do good, do not do anything good. Therefore, sensible people look indifferently at human shortcomings. Our late Optina rector Fr. Archimandrite Moses used to say in such cases: “Yes, this is all human.” And the late Metropolitan of Moscow Philaret to one rector, who complained to him about his brothers: “This one is not good for one, the other for another,” answered: “Well, get yourself some Angels.” So, do not be embarrassed, Mother, by human shortcomings, and if something happens, endure in humility, saying to yourself: “Because of my sins, this is still not enough for me.” And pray: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners.” But do not condemn either the dean or the sisters, for everyone is human. Peace and God's blessing to you and the sisters of your monastery! You might be interested in: