Letters to his Family

Fr Sophrony’s childhood memories are closely bound up with his nursemaid. Her prayerful state was palpable to him as she held him in her arms. She took him not only for walks, but also to church services, where little Sergei would sit at her feet as she prayed. This deep and fervent prayer from a pure heart left traces in the child. His nanny became the first teacher of prayer to the future Archimandrite Sophrony. Being with her convinced him that prayer could be as natural to children as breathing when they live in an atmosphere imbued with prayer. This experience and what he called a ‘need’ for unceasing prayer left its mark on Fr Sophrony his life long.

— Excerpt from: Letters To His Family • Foreword (p. 13)

This is how my meeting Staretz Silouan occurred. I was very shy and I could not address him myself. But it happened that a certain monk came to me, an engineer by training. He had come to Mount Athos before me. Well, on the second day, or maybe the first, of Easter week in 1930, he approached me and asked:

‘Father Sophrony, how can a man be saved?’

Not understanding on the spur of the moment what to answer him, I said, ‘Stay on the verge of despair. And when you have no more strength, step back; and sit down and have a cup of tea.’ And I offered him a cup of tea, as he was my guest. From my cell he went to Staretz Silouan and said, ‘I was at Fr Sophrony’s just now and this is what he said.’ The next day, in the courtyard of the monastery, the Staretz was coming from one side, and I was coming from the other. Out of respect for him I moved aside, to make way for him, but he came straight towards me and said, ‘Did Fr Vladimir visit you yesterday?’

— Excerpt from: Letters To His Family • Talk to His Family (p. 35)

‘Once again, I am writing to you without any sequence. But that is the way it usually goes. Besides, letters are not literature for future generations. And actually in a certain sense it can even be better – more straightforward.’

‘I think I have already told you in another letter that if we live our state only as our own, our soul is impoverished… Our task, set before us by the Gospel, is to become universal persons, to bear in ourselves all the cosmos, to live in our life all the depth of the world’s history, and above all of man. For all humanity is “I” and all history is my life.’

— Excerpt from: Letters to his Family