Several students of the Khabarovsk Theological Seminary take the Ponomar obedience in turn in the church consecrated in honor of the icon of the Mother of God «Vsetsaritsa», which is located on the territory of the Khabarovsk Oncological Center. When I went there for the first time, the Lord blessed me to meet with a man who, having learned about his terrible diagnosis, not only did not lose heart, but even on the contrary, the disease helped him to embark on the path by which man achieves his main life goal — unity with God. This man is named Vladimir, he is thirty-five, he is a Khabarovsk citizen, a soldier, has a wife and a small daughter.
Vladimir, how did you find out about the disease?
— Since August 2006, after going on vacation, I began to undergo examinations, which I did periodically after suffering mononucleosis. When visiting the ultrasound office, a suspected oncological disease was found. Having passed tests in the cancer center and received a positive result confirming a pathological formation in the groin area, I went to surgery. After a successful operation, doctors recommended examining nearby organs (cancer usually progresses and spreads). Both lungs showed signs of metastases; further examination confirmed their presence and was able to give accurate dimensions: from 0.5 to 2.5 cm. Again, surgery was necessary, but due to the multiplicity of foci, doctors admitted that they do not do such operations anywhere in the world. The doctors decided to prescribe me a course of chemotherapy. Initially, I was examined in the local pathological department, where the question was raised about the appointment and the method of non-standard treatment. The doctors of the medical university, chemo and pathoanatomy did not have an unambiguous solution, and I was advised to contact Moscow specialists for a more accurate definition of treatment methods. At the institute. Lopukhin doctors repeated the study, confirmed the presence of a tumor and prescribed several courses of chemotherapy.
— When did your conversion to God begin?
— I started visiting the temple and participating in the sacraments while still in Khabarovsk. In Moscow, passing the first course of treatment, he prayed to the Most Holy Mother of God before her icon “Vsezaritsa”, which is in the Church of All Saints (v. m. Taganskaya). Confessing and preparing for St. I felt unwell during communion; in the morning the temperature rose to 39 degrees. Despite this, I was able to defend the service and partake of the Holy Mysteries.
Doctors warned me that the tumor is very difficult to treat, and perhaps there will be no positive result at all. Having already passed the second course of treatment in Khabarovsk, at the insistence of the doctor, I made an X-ray (the previous X-ray I did 6 weeks before). I was very surprised when the radiologist wrote on the card: «Nothing was found in the lungs.»
I want to say that doctors, both ours and Moscow, have golden hands, and they did everything possible and depending on them, but I believe that it was my appeal to the Most Holy Mother of God and God and God’s help that played a decisive role in this successful outcome.
— Are you still taking any medications?
— Currently, I am undergoing chemotherapy on the recommendation of doctors and pray to God for help in this, as strong antibiotics have a negative impact on the general well-being.
— When did you receive Holy Baptism?
— I was baptized at the age of 28. Pskov at Grandma’s request. But the temple did not visit constantly and did not take part in the sacraments. The illness prompted me to turn to God for help. Now I know how great God’s help is.
— Is everyone in your family baptized?
My wife is unbaptized, but I hope that she herself, with her mind and her heart, will come to God, and therefore I do not insist or impose faith on her. My brother, thank God, was recently baptized, and my example played a role here. I will definitely christen my daughter soon.
For a comment on this occasion, I turned to Priest Dimitri Vinokurov, the cleric of the Transfiguration Cathedral, who regularly performs divine services in the church in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “Vsezaritsa” in the oncology center.
— Today, our consciousness is completely different from that of our ancestors. And the most important means of healing both spiritual and bodily diseases – prayer – was pushed to the background. We priests are constantly witnessing instances where people who seem doomed are healed and others unexpectedly end up on their way. We are not fatalists, but we can still say that man can extend his days by turning to God. The Lord will always give the person who turns to Him time to work for Christ, time to live and repent. In such situations, the first means of prolonging life should be an appeal to God, and only then medical help. We often encounter cases when people come with such a terrible diagnosis and literally after serving a prayer service, after confession and especially Communion come and say that there was a medical error. We see this all the time, and in this new hospital church the case of Vladimir is not the first. We see that, coming to the temple, a person is literally transformed, and people, coming from the farthest corners where there is no Church, go to the temple, guided by an intuitive religious feeling, and change before their eyes. Yet baptism, confession, and communion do not always guarantee healing. But even in this case, one can see the positive result of a person’s conversion to God: the death of a person who did not turn to God is fundamentally different from the death of a person who confessed and communed, whose last words are addressed to God. A believer knows that the Lord will never abandon him.
Alexey Malov
The Holy Land Charitable Foundation
Soul investment!
Orthodox stories from life
