This book has one significant difference from all those published before. It consists of two parts. The first is conversations about spiritual life, about what is revealed to a person on his path to God, what causes joy and sorrow, sometimes makes him stop and peer with pain into his own heart. Here are words filled with amazing power about how to achieve bliss, accessible only to those who consciously condemn themselves to true “spiritual poverty.” Here is the teaching about prayer, which should become for a Christian the main task of his life, its core. The second part is the memories of Father Raphael about the remarkable ascetics of the bygone 20th century, with whom the Lord, by His mercy, brought him together in this life. Their images are surprisingly bright, somehow piercing, they literally attract the reader’s attention. But again: these people again have to mentally return to the author who writes about them with such love. And of course, much more than before, he himself is revealed in his memories of these ascetics: it becomes clear that as a person, as a monk and priest, and subsequently as a writer, he was formed precisely thanks to his communication with them. Source: Contents: From the publisherConversations about spiritual lifeThe mystery of salvationFind God and myselfDo I believe ?About prayerBlessed are the poor in spirit Acquisition of graceTwo types of knowledge of God “Thou shalt not kill”Spirit and soulAbout communion with God and forsakenness by GodReligious feelings of the intelligentsiaWhy there is less and less timeAbout repentanceIs there “partial grace”The tragedy of apocalyptic timeHigher service to humanityHow to talk about faithAbout the culture of communicationMore thinking and less talkingWhat is worse - a joke or scoldingWhat is the difference between compassion from sentimentalityAbout church poetryComing from the occult"It is not good to take bread from children..."About the power of silenceWhat is monasticismWhy is monasticism in declineThreat of modernizationGeorgian ThebaidBlades of grass breaking through the asphaltFrom memoriesFather George Schema-Archimandrite SeraphimSchimonk AbrahamArchimandrite PartheniusAbbess OlgaMonastery of St. OlgaUnexpected joy Meeting in SamtavroSeated AnastasiaPaterikWhen I think about the pastNotes