From a conversation with Elder Mikhail (Pitkevitch).
The elder said, ‘An elderly lady came to visit me once with her daughter. She told me that her son, a good and religious man by nature, an often churchgoer, nevertheless attends services without taking Holy Communion for years. This way her son used to attend the church caused his mother to worry. She asked me to lead her son on the right path. I agreed to make an attempt to do so. Soon this man visited me. I found him a pleasant and sincere person. I asked him about his education, work, way of his life, etc. He described everything in detail and was frank with me. ‘Why don’t you go to the Holy Communion?’ I asked my visitor, ‘you are already of middle age, you live in unsettling times, and suddenly death may well come to you.’ ‘You are absolutely right, Father’, my guest replied, ‘but I fear to confess because I am not used to do this.’ ‘My friend, you don’t have to make your confession now,’ I told him. ‘I just heard one of the fullest confessions of my life. Get on your knees, and I will pray above you for absolution.’ He did so, and I absolved his sins. Now he is a well-known religious man.
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