Chapter 55

Patience and Affliction as the Path to the Kingdom

^55.2.1 I wish you every good thing from the Lord. That is why I write—to say only this. The first good for the sick is recovery. Grant it, Lord! Get well soon, so that you may live a while longer—not for the sake of sinning, as the common saying goes, but so that, comforted together by the common faith and love of all who love the Lord, you may be nourished by it and grow. Whether here or there—we must all grow, to the measure appointed for all, the fullness of the stature of Christ. What is prayer? I turn to you with the question that Abba Dorotheus asked Dositheos. Have you read that life to them?[1] It is similar to yours. Grant, Lord, that the end be the same.

^55.3.1 Grant you, Lord, peace of soul, patience, magnanimity, so that the consolation given to us in the Lord may never cease. Through affliction, look also to what can bring great joy.[2] Hold fast in faith that by patience the soul is acquired and that afflictions open the way into the Kingdom.[3] Remember the Lord as He was in the garden of Gethsemane. He suffered to bring relief to our deathbed sufferings. Let us take from Him the spirit of submission to God’s will: Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.

^55.4.1 May the will of God be upon you and for you!

^55.5.1 Written on March 18, 1869.