BY THE BLESSING of His Eminence Nikon, BISHOP OF Lipetsk and Yelets

The author of the proposed “Conversations” is a hermit monk who began his monastic path in one of the deserts of the Caucasus more than 30 years ago. His first spiritual leader on this path was the Glinsky elder Schema-Archimandrite Seraphim (Romantsov, +1976, Sukhumi), who looked after the desert brethren after the closure of the monastery and was therefore considered the “elder of the desert.” After the death of Fr. Seraphim, the author enjoyed the spiritual care of the pupil and successor of the Glinsky elders, Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly (Sidorenko, †1992, Tbilisi). These questions and answers are fragments of conversations with monastics and laity about pressing issues of spiritual life. They were asked to the author at different times, but for the sake of integrity of the topic, they were built in the form of one general conversation. The text of the “Conversations” was read, corrected and approved by the author for publication with the blessing of the elder and bishop for the sake of numerous requests from those who would like to have these answers as practical guidance to spiritual life. However, providing these answers to a wide range of readers, the author, first of all, addresses them to those people who, for some reason, do not have spiritual guidance and therefore are forced to use only the spiritual literature at hand: “The first thing is you need to remember when reading and listening to these answers - they are all given for the case when a person does not have a spiritual leader (and life goes on, and issues need to be resolved somehow). For a novice, everything is very simple: he presented everything in full to his spiritual father, and: “How do you bless me to do?” As he says, do so. And for those who, due to current life circumstances, have to engage in self-correction and self-education according to the patristic books, God will help them to derive some benefit from what is written here...”

© Zadonsk Nativity of the Theotokos Monastery. 2004