Partakers Christian Podcasts

Teachings of Seraphim  Part 13. Feats Blessed Seraphim told those followers who strove to take excessive feats upon themselves that not complaining and humbly bearing insults are our "verigi" and our hair shirt. (The word verigi in Russian means iron chains and various weights. A hair shirt is clothing made of thick, very coarse wool; some ascetics wore these things to burden their body.) It is not necessary to undertake feats beyond one’s strength. Instead, one must try to keep our friend — our body — right and capable of performing virtues. One must follow the middle route, turning neither to the right hand nor the left (Proverbs 4:27), giving the spirit the spiritual, and the body the physical things necessary for maintaining temporal life. One should also not refuse that which society legally demands, according to the words of the Gospel: "Render therefore to Caesar those things which are Caesar’s; and to God, the things that are God’s" (Matthew 22:21). One should condescend to one’s soul in its infirmi