"The desire to express gratitude outweighs all"
Dear Fr. G.!
Thank you for the kind memories that pour out so abundantly in your large envelopes, arriving from faraway America.
I always welcome them, and Father G. always comes to my cell with them, filling it with memories of our meeting. Thank you!
I tried to write you letters of gratitude, but I never received a reply, so I'm not sure you receive them.
I am writing this letter with the same apprehension, but I cannot help but write, for the desire to express gratitude outweighs all practical considerations and concerns.
The fact that my name is mentioned somewhere and somehow does not bother me. I stand before my Lord, and He protects me. But they mention it in all sorts of ways and for various reasons and motives, and according to the Russian proverb, "you can't throw a scarf over every mouth," and therefore both good and bad things rush through my life like the wind, leaving no trace in it for either proud exaltation (boasting) or sadness.
But, after all, the recollection written in your journal probably wasn't your fault, so what offense can there be?
And Father N. did visit me several times, but I only remember him asking about the desire to go to Serbia; everything else faded into obscurity in my memory.
The same applies to Father K.... Father V. has already contacted me more than once, and I told him about our two brief meetings, which were literally fleeting, so I can't tell you anything significant about him.
And I think that in his memoirs, Father V. didn't fail to mention what I told him.
Letters of Archimandrite John Krestiankin
pkg-yasenevo.narod.ru