by Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov
A
review and excerpts from an amazing book that eloquently speaks about the soul
of Russia that is so misunderstood in the world today.
I discovered this book while surfacing
the internet at the beginning of December and I ordered it from Amazon. I finished reading it last night and I was
simply blown away by the profound spirituality that it offers to a suffering
world. The book was first published in
Russian in 2011. It was translated into
English in 2012. More than a million
copies and several million electronic versions of this book were published in
less than a year after its release.
Every Day Saints is the English translation of the work that has soared
to the top of the bestseller lists in Russia since its publication in late
2011. Winner of several national awards
including “Book of the Year,” its readership spans philosophical
boundaries. Surpassing all competition
many times over, it was voted the most popular book in Russia for 2012.
Open the book and you will discover a wondrous,
enigmatic, remarkably beautiful yet absolutely real world. Peer into the
mysterious Russian soul, where happiness reigns no matter what life may
bring. Page upon page of thanks, praise,
and testimonies to the life-changing effect of these bright, good hearted, and
poignant tales have flooded the Russian media.
As a retired Greek Orthodox priest in
America, I would recommend especially that every priest or young man who plans
to become a priest in the Orthodox Christian Church should read this book. Every lay person in the Orthodox Church in
America should read this book to grasp the triumphant spirituality that
pervades our Holy Orthodox Church. It
reveals to us how the Russian Orthodox Church survived seventy years of brutal
atheistic communist brutality. This is
especially important for Orthodox Christians in America who, facing rampant
materialistic liberalism, need a firm spiritual foundation to defend themselves
from this scourge of contemporary life.
This scourge is just as destructive as communist atheism.
Compiled
by:
+Fr.
Costas J. Simones, Waterford, CT, USA, December 30
EXCERPTS FROM THE BOOK
The translator of this book writes
the following in the introduction of the book.
“It may surprise some of us who grew up during the Cold War, but Russia,
feared for so many years as the land of godless Communists, is in fact one of
the most intensely spiritual and devout nations in the world. The profound faith of its people, Orthodox
Christianity, rooted in a mystical understanding of life as a covenant and of worship as a
sacrament, has always been the secret underpinning of the mysterious Russian
soul, whose elusive immanence makes Russian literature, art, and music so
special. In the twentieth century, under
brutal totalitarianism of the Soviet system, Russia endured some of the very
darkest days in human history. Yet where
there is darkness, as this book shows, light shines forth ever brighter to meet
it. Ultimately, though it may take a
while, love and light and compassion conquer hatred and darkness and
indifference.
