On Illnesses and Trials
He who is patient in illness and gives thanks to the Lord receives a martyr’s crown.
You wonder why the Lord God sends you so many trials, hardships and illnesses?! Well, what would you do if you were rich in every good thing and your son left you, moved to a distant city and began a dissolute life there — squandering the inheritance he had received from you and giving himself up to ruin? Would you not command your faithful servants to hurry to that city and do everything so that your prodigal son might fare badly there, lose everything, be hungry and thirsty, and be troubled by illnesses too — so that he would be forced to come back to you?! Would you not act so?! Indeed you would, and when your prodigal son came back to you, you would press him to your heart with joy and receive him in peace! Why then do you wonder at the care of God the Creator for us, His prodigal, sinful children? He loves us beyond measure and desires only that we return to Him and abide in eternal joy with Him!
Not a single good work is accomplished without a trial, because satanic envy rises up against such works.
God does not allow us to be in constant affliction in this world, lest we despair. Nor does He allow us to abide constantly in prosperity and joy, lest we fall.
Has prosperity come to you? Give thanks to God. And this happy state of yours will be secure. And if misfortune befalls you, give thanks again to God the Creator and glorify Him for everything! For if you do this with a sincere heart, your misfortunes too will come to an end!
In every sorrow — in illness, in hardship, in perplexity and in unpleasantness — it is better to think less and talk little with yourself, and to pray more, even if only briefly calling on Christ God and His All-pure Mother. In this way despondency will pass, and the heart will be filled with hope in God and with joy.
Why has the Lord ordered things so that no one in this world is without sorrows and burdens? So that man should not forget that he has been banished from paradise; so that he should live on earth not as a native of this world in his own land, but as a traveller and guest in a foreign country. He must always seek to return to his true homeland.
There is nothing holier for the tongue than to give thanks to the Lord in trials. Truly, such a man differs in nothing from a martyr. Like them, he will be crowned by the Lord.
