The Good Part. Talks with the Monastics

The Good part

The greater part of talks incorporated in the present edition was given by Fr. Abraham at St. Ignatius skete of our convent, some of them — at the men’s monastery of the Savior. They are all based on the Gospel and make a present-day man cognizant of the teaching of the Holy Fathers about inner prayer which is understood not only as continual offering of prayers to God, but also as keeping the purity of mind and forcing oneself mainly to inward fulfillment of God’s commandments. Through the father’s talks one can reveal the heart of spiritual being which lies in continuous struggling against the wrongs and in seeking to find reconciliation and unity with the Lord Our God. Following every talk, Fr. Abraham replies to multiple questions from his spiritual children. His talks are remarkable in their vividness and simplicity of language and in the simple, figurative and accessible style of speaking.

Fr. Abraham answering questions

Originally, out of many titles proposed by the sisters, Fr. Abraham gave his blessing to the following: “Talks with the monastics about inner life”. But after the sisters suggested using for a cover an Athos miniature: “The Savior at Lazarus’s house” where the Lord is presented with sisters Martha and genuflectory Mary, the father decided to change the title. Now the book is titled “The good part. Talks with the monastics”.

Talk at St. Ignatius skete

The difficulty of preparing the book consisted in the fact that there had been no writing records of the father’s talks kept. All of his talks were uttered for sisters and brethren of the monasteries in the course of several years, and these were simultaneously recorded on tape. In the process of deciphering, these records preserved not only special loveliness of spoken language, but its weak points as well. The editors were to accomplish a delicate and arduous task: to maintain the father’s style and at the same time to make these talks closer to more austere written language, for in spoken language many problems are solved due to intonation, gesture, special understanding between people who are well-acquainted with each other.

Despite the second part of the title “… talks with the monastics”, we believe that this book will be interesting not only for them, but also for all pious lay people, since inner perfecting and conforming to the Gospel are of great importance for all those who want to make a true Christian.