(“Church Herald” No. 1, 2002. http://www.tserkov.info)
One must not understand the offerings made by the parishioners and the imparting of divine grace to them as a commercial act of buying and selling goods and services. It is demeaning and offensive to believers to consider a moleben (service of intercession) for an ill person, or a funeral service for their departed parent as a paid service, or to consider an icon of the Savior or the Mother of God or Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, or a book of the sacred scriptures as consumer goods.
(“Orthodox Gazette” No. 1 (36), 1996. http://orthodox.etel.ru)
By themselves, disappointment, failure in love and the day-to-day difficulties in life that have become particularly numerous these days are not reasons for entering a monastery. More than that, people who enter the monastery for these reasons, as a rule, do not last long. The real reason for entering a monastery — and this will sound a bit strange and difficult to understand for nonbelievers — is love of God. How else can we explain why we entered a monastery? For me, for example, the following explanation is sufficient: I entered a monastery in order to be happy.
(“Church Herald”, No. 17, 2002 http://www.tserkov.info)
I cannot say that we plunged into sorrow and mourning. There was a certain kind of festivity in our heart, a certain tranquility mixed with compunction, and peace and perhaps a quiet joy; the kind of joy that always emanated from him when we went to see him. Sometimes he would make jokes, in order to cheer up people who were despondent and discouraged, but there always came from him tranquility, an unusual peace and a very quiet, limpid joy. I know that my description of him is somewhat abstract, but how can I communicate it better? That feeling of tranquility became especially strong when we arrived on the isle of Zalit.