Cypress
The cypress was small and one of the brothers did it with just one hand. Then the elder pointed to another cypress tree, bigger than the previous one, and said, “Pull up this one, too! The brother began to sway it in both directions and finally rooted it out.
Afterwards the elder showed his pupils an even bigger tree and told the brother to do the same thing. It took far more efforts and time for the pupil to pull up the tree. Then they came across an incredibly big cypress and the elder had the same request for his pupil. Though the brother was breaking his neck to pull it up, he failed to do it. On seeing that the elder told another brother to help him. Eventually they managed to pull up the tree together.
Then the elder said the following, “Here is how our passions work: we can easily eradicate them while they are small. However, if we neglect our fight with them, they get stronger. The bigger and stronger they get, the more effort is required to pull them up. Then there is a moment when it is impossible to root them up alone, and we remain helpless until we begin to seek help from the saint people who offer their assistance to humans upon God’s grace.
Read also
The monks who were 300 years ahead of progress
An inventory compiled by royal officials in the 16th century shows that these silent monks created Europe's first industrial network.
Bach’s Cathedral Not Made by Hands
Bach buried more than ten of his children, fought the city council over firewood, and went blind. Yet he managed to build a cathedral that no one can destroy.
Podil’s ark amid the plague catastrophe
In the mid-17th century, Kyiv found itself at the epicenter of an epidemic and war. Court records and chronicles reveal how residents sought refuge inside their locked homes.
The plot against the inventor of musical notation
The invention that rescued church music from oblivion cost its creator persecution and exile. The documents of the eleventh century allow us to reconstruct how it happened.
The right to eternal rest
Ancient Rome mercilessly erased the names of millions of ordinary people after death. Christians brought about an extraordinary revolution, restoring spiritual dignity to every human being.
The hidden heroism of Byzantium's underground Church
Textbook history reduces Iconoclasm to theological disputes in Constantinople. Yet the real drama unfolded far from the imperial capital – in forgotten villages where ordinary believers risked everything to preserve the faith.