Ascetics living in the world. The priest's story

This story began with the fact that a certain person called and asked to help her seriously ill mother. At the appointed time, a respectable foreign car drove up behind me, in which a tastefully dressed beautiful woman was driving.

Although she was clearly older than me, for some reason I perceived her on an equal footing, listening to her casual monologue (it would probably be more correct to use a vulgar, but here a more appropriate word is chirping). Apparently, some kind of psychological youth affected, since the lady was cheerful and, despite the illness of her mother, she casually asked me about something, not betraying a deep person in herself, and even more so a religious one. In all her appearance, one felt healthy, and in general, normal hedonism of solid carelessness.

Why am I describing this psychological portrait in such detail? To make it clear how puzzled I was when, in between times, Vera - so let's call my heroine - expressed a desire to get along with her mother herself. "If it doesn't bother you, of course ..." she said politely. "Not at all difficult," I replied, embarrassed. He was embarrassed, not understanding whether she knew what this Sacrament was and what significance it had. Maybe for her unction is just the replacement of the "white magic" of the healer Baba Dunya from the newspaper ad for something new, exotic?

Already searching for the words to politely clarify the seriousness of her intentions, I was speechless when we entered her house. It turned out that the woman is the mother of a disabled child with the most complicated form of cerebral palsy. A boy of fifteen years old with an angelic face was sitting in a special chair, surrounded by relatives, and it was painful to look at him: he was so crippled by the disease, bending all the limbs of his small frail body in an arc. Vera said that it would be nice someday to give her son the Holy Communion and help, but just not now: he is afraid of strangers and may be worried ...

Our acquaintance was not limited to the performance of the treba, and then more than once I came to this amazing family, gradually learning some of the details of their life. Vera turned out to be a deeply religious person who lives by the sacraments of the Church. When fifteen years ago she gave birth to her second child, he turned out to be so hopelessly ill that only her husband, an intelligence officer, a hefty hero with the face of a Hollywood actor, did not beg to abandon him.

They regretted and persuaded everyone, arguing that there, on state support, the child will be better, and the husband, they say, otherwise he will certainly leave the family, having fluffed up a year for decency. Well, but about a career, not even your own, but a spouse, you can, given a number of circumstances, forget forever. But there was no doubt in the mother's heart, and she devoted herself irrevocably to her seriously ill child.

Then, as in a fairy tale, a special wheelchair “accidentally” appeared, the cost of which can be compared to the cost of a car. The love between the spouses only grew stronger over time (moreover, you cannot call your husband a church-going person). The career of the young officer went on increasing, and recently it became possible to call them quite wealthy people. And not so long ago, another unexpected joy appeared: Dima (this is the name of the sick boy) almost learned to hold a spoon ...

I experienced the acquaintance with this family and their situation with particular trepidation. This is because it coincided with a test in our personal family life: my wife and I were expecting a third child, and we were given to understand that there is a high probability of having a baby with Down syndrome. Then a healthy boy was born, who now managed to pick out half of the buttons on the laptop keyboard for me, but this story about how you can carry your heavy cross not only without grumbling at God, but also without a single gloomy wrinkle on your face, I remember forever.

I haven't seen Vera for a long time - her husband was transferred, and now they live in a different place. Vera's mother, having received the Unction and received the Holy Communion, soon passed away.
And I, having learned a little more on the example of her life, the beauty of the flowers of the Holy Spirit and my imperfection, now I am afraid to fantasize about how they look and behave - modern ascetics living in the world.

Priest Dimitry Fetisov