Fr. Joachim Parr. Take up your cross. скачать в хорошем качестве

Fr. Joachim Parr. Take up your cross.

Excerpt from Meeting with Fr.Joachim (Parr) in St.Piter and Febronia Cultural Center in Moscow, 2013.    • Встреча с Cхиархимандритом Иоакимом (Парро...   On timeline: 00:50:36 I remember one time there was this man, he was Muslim, and he came to see me in our monastery in New York many years ago. We have a pair of iron gates on the old house at the bottom of the steps. And when we first moved there, we had… We lived in very heavily populated drug addiction area. When we would come home, and to go up these five steps to the door – you couldn’t get on the steps – there’d be people shooting a heroin, and all the… I mean, you just… So I had a pair of gates put at the bottom of the steps, so the least we can get in and out of the house. And I had some itinerary, traveling guys, who were going around doing labor. And I said: “Can you make iron gates?” They said: “Sure!” So I drew what I wanted, and where the gates come together I had a line, a pole with a cross at the top. They kinda got it, and they didn’t, and so they made this cross and stack it on the top. And so, often when you open the gates, the way where the cross is, it’s kinda smacks you right in head, and it really hurts, because it’s metal. Everybody gets it at the first couple of times. And this guy was Muslim. And he saw me walking around, cause I used to when I was well, I used to walk, never take a train. So he decided one day to follow me, because he wasn’t satisfied with Islam, and he wasn’t quite sure what I was, but he thought it was interesting instead. So he saw where I were in. And one day he decided, after he was looking into Orthodoxy, he wanted to talk about it. So he came, and he opened the gate, and he smashed himself in his forehead, and he had a cut on this forehead. And he comes to the door, rings the bell, I open the door, and he’s got a handkerchief to his head like this. I said: “Are you all right?” – “Yah, I’m fine!” I said: “Are you sure?” He said: “I hurt my head. But I am OK!” I said: “All right!” And he stands, and I asked: “Do you wanna come in?” – “I don’t have time, but I just wanna ask you a question. He says: “I read about Orthodoxy. What do I have to do to become Orthodox?” He’s standing holding his head, you know… And so, I said: “Well, the most important thing is you have to be willing to take up your cross”. He says: “It just got me!” I said: “It’s just the beginning!” So, I didn’t see him for quite a while after that. Someone needs to whack you in a head, and make you realize – without the struggle you are not getting it. We all want it to be easy. It just isn’t easy… I didn’t design it. This is the Lord’s plan, not mine. If I made the plan, it would be easy, but we’d all lose. We’d had breakfast at nine, relax after that, you know… But it’s not that way, it’s up at four, and so on. That’s the path.