A sister in Christ forwarded this article to me when the situation with our seriously ill spiritual father began exploding and imploding our lives, to help me free my heart from every attachment, even to my spiritual father! Indeed, “The Lord tears us away from what the heart becomes attached, even the spiritual. The heart must be attached only to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Only this is worthy and meet—all else is a mixture of the lofty and the human, the passions, and tender feelings—not divine, but human, emotional. Therefore, the Lord changes situations in life…” 31 years of prayers–only five years of happiness!

“Happy is the man who has a place on the earth that he loves more than anything, a place where his heart lies. A place, a land, that as the ancient tales say, gives him strength. And for me, this place on the earth is the Pskov Caves Monastery. It’s the most beautiful, most beloved place, and can never be replaced in my heart. Although I grew up in Moscow, and have been to many places in Russia, to many other countries, there is no more beautiful, warmer, closer place than the Pskov Caves Monastery.

I thank God with all my heart that thirty-one years after I had to leave for Moscow on obedience, He heard my prayers. Thirty-one years went by, and I returned here. How could I ever have imagined that I, first a pilgrim and then a novice in the cow barn, would return to the Pskov Caves Monastery, which was wholly then and still is for me a sacred place, from every stone to every person, and though sinful and unworthy, become its abbot. But this happiness did not last long (smiles)—only five years. The Lord tears us away from what the heart becomes attached, even the spiritual. The heart must be attached only to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Only this is worthy and meet—all else is a mixture of the lofty and the human, the passions, and tender feelings—not divine, but human, emotional. Therefore, the Lord changes situations in life—sometimes inside the monastery, and sometimes outside of it.“

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACE ON EARTH… Metropolitan Tikhon’s farewell sermon to the brothers and parishioners of the Pskov-Caves Monastery