Maya Kucherskaya is a prose writer, literary critic, professor at the Higher School of Economics, columnist for the Vedomosti newspaper. Author of the novel “Aunt Motya” (longlisted for the “National Bestseller” award), a biography of Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich in the “ZhZL” series, a collection of parables and “parish stories” “Modern Patericon: Reading for the Despondent” (“Bunin Prize” ) and the novel “God of Rain” (Student Booker Prize). In one of her interviews, Kucherskaya said: “You need to write guided by love.” She writes about the life of the Russian Orthodox Church in the same way, but without breathiness and pomposity; speaks about Christian values without preaching or calling. Gentle humor and self-irony permeate the collection of stories, anecdotes and parables about priests, mothers, monks and laity, and the extremely frank story of the relationship between a newly converted girl and her spiritual father, the acquisition of faith and comprehension of oneself. “Instead of a sermon” - direct reflections on “eternal values”: happiness, gratitude, forgiveness...