There was an unusual case in my priestly practice. One day my relative, who lives in a remote village, asked to come to help build some semblance of crossing the river – the old bridge “hardworking” residents dismantled and handed over for scrap.
I’m here. But it was not immediately possible to start work: my aunt decided to first show me her prayer house in a neighboring village, a dilapidated temple in the neighborhood, and at the same time asked me to stop by the store. All this we went around, examined, did. It seemed that it was possible to start repairing … but it was not there!
We were constantly detained: a widow came to the prayer house, asked a memorial service for her husband; in the store, talkative aunts detained my relative for another 15 minutes; on the way to the temple, the headmaster stopped and began to reprimand my relative for her ward-schooler, a careless student … I was nervous — there was less and less time.
We finally got in the car, ready to go to the river. And at this very moment, it is unknown where a strange young man, probably 29 years old, wearing glasses, all red, kind of breathless, appeared and knocked out the window. He said,
— Aren’t you from church?
I said,
— Church.
— A priest?
— Yeah.
— You know, I’m going to hang myself. I want to confess to you before that.
He had severe family troubles, male pride and pride were wounded to the extreme. And one sin, as you know, attracts another — and so on up to the thought of suicide.
I had a tribulation, a gospel, and a cross with me. I went out, got it all, put on the epitrachil, read the prescribed prayers, sitting in the ruined bell tower with a “rock painting”, in the middle of which a bonfire was glowing – barbecue was obviously recently fried on it. I listened to this young man’s long confession. Time flew by imperceptibly, but, as it turned out, we talked for a very long time, and the man thought about killing himself.
By the grace of God, he is still alive, living, revisiting his life, understanding his mistakes. Life was saved!
And here’s what I think now. Glory to the merciful Lord, who brought the priest 400 km from his house, detained him, where necessary and as long as necessary, in order to enable a desperate man to knock on the window of his car and subsequently get on the right path. This guy took the opportunity. Praise be to him!
Archpriest Igor Fomin
The Holy Land Charitable Foundation
Soul investment!
Orthodox stories from life
