Speaking as a priest and spiritual father, what memories of the deceased have stayed with you?<\/strong><\/p>\nThe most striking thing in him was his simplicity and guilelessness. An amazing tenderness and mutual care always reigned in their family. This likewise manifests his Christian attitude to his neighbors and the way in which he built up his home as the “little Church.” This was truly amazing. Guilelessness, simplicity, sensitivity, carefulness, and attentiveness – all of these were characteristic of Aleksandr Isayevich.<\/p>\n
At the time that we met, he asked himself a question, the answer to which had previously been obvious to him: What ought he to do? He said: “I have done everything; I think I have fulfilled my vocation. I don’t know why I have been left behind. Everything I have thought necessary to say and write, I have said and written; all my works have been published. What more is there to do?” His children had grown up; he had given them a proper upbringing. The family was in good order. In this situation, it became necessary to remind him: “If the Lord has left you in this world, this is for a reason. You should pray about this, to understand why you have been given this time.” Then, after some time had passed, he said: “Yes, I have now understood that this time has been given to me for myself – not for external work, but for self-examination.”<\/p>\n
He touched on this in one of his interviews: Old age is given to us for self-examination; for us to evaluate, reflect upon, and look more strictly at every moment of our lives.<\/p>\n
All the while, these thoughts were not fruitless navel gazing; rather, they served as the basis for him to serve according to his strength until very recently. Despite his infirmity, he nonetheless never permitted himself any slackness or carelessness. He scheduled his time strictly until recently. Along with this strict work schedule, he tried to receive people – many, many people, from completely different spheres of life. He tried to leave no one who appealed to him, whether in personal conversation or in writing, without an answer.<\/p>\n
Many people called him, and continue to call him, a recluse. They allege that he secluded himself and was not involved with anything. This was not the case. Many people came to him; many people turned to him for help.<\/p>\n
That he was buried with Orthodox rites was not simply a matter of tradition. It witnesses to the fact that this man completed his earthly life in true service to Christ and to His Church.<\/p>\n
Interview conducted by Maria Moiseeva. <\/em><\/p>\nTranslator’s note:<\/strong><\/p>\n[1] As translated by Ignat Solzhenitsyn in The Solzhenitsyn Reader: New and Essential Writings 1947-2005<\/em>. Edward E. Ericson and Daniel J. Mahoney, ed. (Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2006), 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Source: Pravmir.com HT: Acton Blog Back when I was a college student I stumbled on Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s “Harvard Address” in the library. I read it and knew immediately that Orthodox Christianity contained the spiritual depth I was looking for as a Christian. I had no real idea what Orthodox Christianity was and started reading up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8434,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1784],"tags":[851],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12450"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12450"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12459,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12450\/revisions\/12459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}