Metropolitan Anthoniy (Pakanich) advises how to achieve immortality.

In the hustle and bustle of our life, we forget about the main things, about for what we were conceived and created. About immortality. 

To love

We are greedy for love. We are sorry to give it to others, but at the same time we constantly demand it from others. We are looking for it everywhere, but not where it is. Love, like in a crystal vessel, is stored in our own heart.

And until we open this vessel and throw out the contents outside, then we will not meet with love in our life. You need to look for it not in someone, but in ourself.

How many brave souls at different times went in search of love, how many roads they have passed, years spent, battles won, but only a few realized at the end of the path that love, the very love, in search of which they spent so much energy, as the greatest jewel, stored inside each them. And only by opening their tightly sealed heart, they can find what they are looking for.

Love responds to love.

Love doesn’t know refusal and defeat, there is no shallow in it, it is like a full-flowing river always full, ready to give drink and calm.

Lack of love makes our life a desert, in which there is neither vegetation, nor saving moisture, there are only mirages around. We mistake them for reality, but this is a complete illusion. Scorched earth everywhere.

Love is looking for various ways and reasons to break out, but with our perseverance and pride we restrain it in every possible way, hammer it in with nails, do not let it pour out and speak in a full voice. We do not let it prove herself.

We are greedy for love. Our greed is born of self-will and selfishness. If a person is sure that all the benefits in his/her life exist only thanks to him/her and his/her efforts, that the whole world revolves exclusively around him/her and his/her interests, if he/she takes for granted the light of today, the spring caressing sun, warm wind, beauty around and is not going to thank anyone for this, if he/she him/herself wants to do without anyone’s help, then his/her heart is inevitably bound by greed and avarice, and evil tightly squeezes in its grip love.

And its voice is barely audible.

But love is waiting. It’s long-suffering. Love forgives everything. It’s merciful.

Love is always happy. It’s not envious or proud. Love believes. It covers everything. Love never stops waiting and hoping. It will never die.

But the most important property of love is to make those we love immortal. There is no death in love. All whom we truly loved in the past and love now are combined with eternity by the power of Divine love. Their souls are immortalized by our love. As long as love burns in our hearts, they are alive.

Love is the only path to immortality for the living and the departed.

Love destroys any temporal and spatial barriers, there is no time limit for it, there is no past and future, there is only unconditional infinity, there are no space limitations, it passes through the universe, uniting the worlds in boundlessness, immensity, boundlessness… Love will never stop being love. Will never betrays. Will never complete its march. It’s inexhaustible, like God is inexhaustible.

Human was born for love, but by his/her sinful nature he/she is afraid of it, suffocates with fears, muffles it voice with selfishness and arrogance. Love only timidly reminds of itself.

A person is constantly in search of strength for life, looking for it anywhere, but doesn’t draw strength from the main source given to us by the Lord at birth, the inexhaustible source of Divine love that is in our soul.

And until a person discovers this spring in him/herself, doesn’t begin to draw living water from it, he/she will not live fully, but can only vegetate doom.

The Lord has given us healing gifts for the transformation of our souls – Holy Communion, heartfelt prayer, abstinence for Christ’s sake. Thanks to them, we can cleanse our souls from the dirt that hides the eternal source of life under a thick layer. And love will prevail.

Life is transformed in an instant.

After all, conquering love is reflected in everything it comes into contact with. It’s afraid of neither evil, nor dirt, nor darkness. It’s reflected in everything.

Moreover, love manifests itself in our weaknesses. After all, only when we feel our failure, we remember the Creator, the Source of love, hope and faith, turn to Him for help, entrust our life and soul.

Love is constantly giving thanks. This is its alter ego. It incessantly praises the Creator; it lives by this.

Recorded by Natalia Goroshkova