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It emphasizes that acquiring the Holy Spirit is central, with prayer presented as always available when other opportunities for fasting, almsgiving, or good deeds fail. It contrasts human limitation and sin with God’s constant, unretracted mercy and encourages a faithful, discerning response that rejects harm to others. It also situates the monks historically and traces how later writers and communities rediscovered and shared their spiritual heritage.",{"@graph":69,"@context":123},[70,84,106],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":45,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/religion-spirituality/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/two-monks-thomas-of-gethsemani-and-seraphim-of-sarov/146787/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/two-monks-thomas-of-gethsemani-and-seraphim-of-sarov/146787.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Asher","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-22","2026-08-26",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":105},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",11,{"@type":107,"mainEntity":108},"FAQPage",[109,115,119],{"name":110,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":112},"What does the text identify as the true aim of Christian life?","Question",{"text":113,"@type":114},"It presents the acquisition of the Holy Spirit as the true aim, treating fasting, vigils, prayer, almsgiving, and other good deeds as means toward that end.","Answer",{"name":116,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":117},"Why is prayer emphasized as always possible in the passage?",{"text":118,"@type":114},"Prayer is described as available to everyone regardless of wealth, rank, health, or moral condition, unlike circumstances that may prevent other good deeds.",{"name":120,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":121},"How does the text relate human sinfulness to God’s mercy?",{"text":122,"@type":114},"It acknowledges that no one does everything right and that people are sinners who do not always listen to God, while stressing God’s mercy as constant, absolute, and without repentance.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":125,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":127,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":129,"site_id":62},146787,1787750407,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":132},{"doc_id":129,"user_id":133,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":44,"category_name":45,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":105,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":39,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":130,"read_time":46},687197207639,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd","17  \nTwo Monks:  \nThomas of Gethsemani and Seraphim of Sarov  \nBy Michael Plekon  \nThe true aim of our Christian life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit. As for fasts, and vigils, and prayer, and almsgiving, and every good deed done because of Christ, they are only means of acquiring the Holy Spirit. . . . This Holy Spirit, the All-Powerful, is given to us . . . . he takes up his abode in us and prepares in our souls and bodies a dwelling place for the Father. . . . Of course, every good deed done because of Christ gives us the grace of the Holy Spirit, but prayer gives it tous most of all, for it is always at hand, so to speak, as an instrument for acquiring the grace of the Spirit. For instance, you would like to go to church, but there is no church or the service is over; you would like to give alms to a beggar, but there isn’t one, or you have nothing to give . . . you would like to do some other good deed in Christ’s name, but either you have not the strength or the opportunity is lacking. This certainly does not apply to prayer. Prayer is always possible for everyone, rich and poor, noble and humble, strong and weak, healthy and sick, righteous and sinful.1  \nIt is amazing to me that Christianity is the most wonderful thing that has ever come to us and yet it seems to have touched the lives of most people very little. Isn’t that the way it is all through the Bible? It seems to me that that is part of the message. Maybe that’s the meaning of “Many are called, but few are chosen.” It isn’t that people are consciously bad. Maybe they respond on one level but just do not follow through. Scripture teaches us basic things, God’s thoughts about human beings.  \nWe have to remember that no one does everything right. We are all sinners. God speaks and we do not listen. On the other hand, the mercy of God is constant. It cannot be overcome. God’s promises are absolute. Being Christian doesn’t mean“being on the right side.” A Christian does not always know where justice lies, does not always see clearly. But the Christian is aware that, while in the human being there is falsity and infidelity, in the mercy of God there is always absolute fidelity. So we reject no one, but still try to dissociate ourselves from anything that is going to hurt other people. Every Christian has to stand up for the truth that God’s mercy is without repentance. God never takes back mercy.2  \nMichael Plekon is a professor in the Sociology/Anthropology Department and in the program in Religion and Culture at Baruch College of the City University of New York. He is a priest in the Orthodox Church in America, attached to St. Gregory Church, Wappingers Falls, NY.  \nMichael Plekon  \n18  \nTwo “words” – two quotations from two monks. The first is among the best known sayings ofthe Russian monk-priest, mystic and healer, Seraphim of Sarov (1754-1833). These lines are full of humanity and compassion in discerning the Holy Spirit’s dwelling in us at the core of our Christian lives and they capture something of the singular, compassionate personality of Seraphim, even if there are questions about how much we authentically know of him and his life.3 The second quotation contains, in my opinion, powerful lines from the American Trappist monk and writer, Thomas Merton (1915-1968), also full of humanity, expressing the limitless mercy of God Merton himself experienced, mercy he believed was given to every child of that same loving God. They recall the divine promise of mercy at the conclusion of the “Fire Watch” passage at the end of The Sign of Jonas,4 as well as the vision of God present in an urban crowd Merton would experience some years later in his well-known “epiphany” on a corner, Fourth and Walnut, in Louisville.5  \nSeraphim never left Russia, lived and worked and died within the monastery of Sarov, in the Russian Orthodox Church. The Chronicles of the Seraphimo-Diveyevo Monastery, along with biographical sketches derived from them, sketch the figure of a mon","cbCaicV6Rz8dI2EY","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaicV6Rz8dI2EY","pdf",313556,"English","# Two “Words” - two quotations from two monks\n## Prayer as the constant means of grace\n## God’s mercy and the call to fidelity","[{\"question\":\"What does the text identify as the true aim of Christian life?\",\"answer\":\"It presents the acquisition of the Holy Spirit as the true aim, treating fasting, vigils, prayer, almsgiving, and other good deeds as means toward that end.\"},{\"question\":\"Why is prayer emphasized as always possible in the passage?\",\"answer\":\"Prayer is described as available to everyone regardless of wealth, rank, health, or moral condition, unlike circumstances that may prevent other good deeds.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the text relate human sinfulness to God’s mercy?\",\"answer\":\"It acknowledges that no one does everything right and that people are sinners who do not always listen to God, while stressing God’s mercy as constant, absolute, and without repentance.\"}]","Two Monks - Thomas of Gethsemani and Seraphim of Sarov | PDF"]