Father Zosima from Dostoevsky's "Brother's Karamazov":
“…What,
what will give me back my faith?
Though I believed only when I was a
little child, mechanically, without thinking about anything…
How, how
can it be proved? I’ve come now to throw myself at your feet and ask
you about it.
If I miss this chance, too, then surely no one will
answer me for the rest of my life.
How can it be proved, how can one be
convinced? Oh, miserable me!
I look around and see that for everyone
else, almost everyone, it’s all the same,
no one worries about it
anymore, and I’m the only one who can’t bear it.
It’s devastating,
devastating!”
“No doubt it is devastating.
One cannot prove anything here, but it is possible to be convinced.”
“How? By what?”
“By
the experience of active love.
Try to love your neighbors actively and
tirelessly.
The more you succeed in loving, the more you’ll be
convinced of the existence of God
and the immortality of your soul.
And
if you reach complete selflessness in the love of your neighbor,
the
undoubtedly you will believe, and no doubt will even be able to enter
your soul.
This has been tested.
It is certain.”
PHOTO:MUCH LOVE
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