Original subtitles

With the blessing of Archimandrite Gregory (Zumis). Abbot of the Dohir Monastery. Mount Athos. Greece.

How wonderful it is to feel and realize,

that you're carrying your cross in life.

They're diseases,

of grief or embarrassment,

or this blessed neglect.

When no one appreciates you.

What a wonderful feeling that is!

It's Heaven!

How we should desire it,

how to strive to be neglected.

It's so wonderful to be neglected!

There is no surer way to the kingdom to the kingdom of heaven,

than to accept with joy

human neglect.

Where are you, Adam?

Archimandrite Gregory, hegumen of the Dochiar Monastery

If we hadn't made this superhuman effort,

Dohaar Monastery would be a pile of stones by now.

And the people who would sail by on a ship, would say:

"There was once a monastery here, called Dohir."

I love the monastery,

more than I love my parents' house.

The effort the fathers are making here,

beyond human measure.

For not a day, or two days, or even a month.

this tension continues,

but the whole year is spent in labor and trouble.

It is only through the grace of God that this is accomplished,

not human endeavor.

- Come on, come on, dial it up, dial it up some more!

Monk Neil, abbot of Dohaar Monastery

We don't count what time it is,

how long I've been working:

five hours, six, ten.

I never do.

Start in the middle of the night, work through the night, wake up at night.

We're here working for the Virgin Mary,

for the Archangels, for God himself.

None of this is ours.

That's the way I see it. You know?

Like we do in our own house. You know?

And even more so than in my own home.

I'm happy that God has called me to work here at the monastery.

I don't know how many more years God will let me serve,

because I'm already a wreck.

What's it like in the world?

You have a responsibility to your family:

or you're sick or you're not, you go and work.

And I never tell you if I'm sick,

like, I'm not going to work.

As in a family, so should monks. Do you understand?

There's no such thing here:

"Oh, a little headache, a little foot..."

At Geronda's, he sets that direction and he always leads by example.

Though his strength is already weak, he will not rest:

force himself, get up, go to work.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen!

- Why have you come, brother, bowing down to this holy altar and this brotherhood?

- Striving for a life of asceticism, honest Fr.

- Do you wish to take on the form of an angel and enter the council of monks?

- Yes, with God's help, honest Father!

- Truly You have chosen a good and good deed, if only you will do it.

Good deeds are hard to give and painful to do.

- Do you come to God with your own mind and of your own free will do you come to God of your own free will?

- Yes, with God's help, honest Father!

- Not because of some kind of embarrassment or coercion?

- No, honest father.

- Will you stay in the monastery, to your last breath?

- Yes, with God's help, honest Father!

- Will you keep yourself in virginity, in chastity and godliness?

- Yes, with God's help, honest Father!

- Will you remain obedient unto death to the Abbot and the whole brotherhood in Christ?

- Yes, with God's help, honest Father!

- Will you endure all poverty and tribulation for the kingdom of heaven?

- Yes, with God's help, honest Father!

- Look, child, what a vow you make to the Lord Christ.

Angels are invisibly forthcoming,

writing down thy confession, which they shall ask thee

at the Second Coming of our Lord our Lord Jesus Christ.

...Lord, accept your servant Mark, who has renounced his worldly desires

and offered myself to you, Lord, as a living sacrifice.

Here is Christ invisibly standing there.

Look, no one is forcing you you to be a monk.

Take the scissors and hand them to me.

Take the scissors and hand them to me.

Our brother, the monk Cyrene,

cuts the hair of his head in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!

Lord, have mercy!

The monk of Cyrene covers his head

the hope of salvation

in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen!

The monk Cyrene shoes himself in the sandals of evangelization

in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen!

Said the Lord, "If anyone wants to follow Me,

let him deny himself, and take up his cross

and comes after Me."

I wish you to become worthy of Cyrene.

in this life.

And in the life to come.

may Christ glorify you!

I was really looking forward to this day,

to have you tonsured as a monk.

Tell the world, "It's done!"

and start a new life.

You have the strength to do it.

Both spiritual and bodily.

And the devil is fighting me.

But it is Christ who triumphs!

Gives me the strength to bring people to him,

gives you the strength to become a monk

and embrace you, my true child.

The true one is because you're a monk

through my hands,

from my heart, from my womb.

Beware, Cyrene, of self-love.

Be discreet!

Monk Ephraim. Formerly a surgeon.

- So, what, you operated on yourself?

- The nail was damaged, had to be removed.

- You deleted it yourself?

- Yeah, I had to.

The surgeon will also have to experience pain.

Not just to inflict on others.

- Haralampios was born in Crete in 1938.

When he was two years old, his father was killed in Albania,

in the war between Greece and Italy.

That's around the same time that Haralampius

got the measles.

And according to his sister, who lives in Crete.

the disease has caused complications.

So severe that the boy was literally dying.

His mother held him in her arms

and he already looked like he was dead.

She took it to the village church

and left him alone for the night,

to bury in the morning.

And in the morning, when I got to church,

found him perfectly fine, sitting on a stretcher.

The baby was healthy! It was a miracle.

Because that's when you get better.

one man in a hundred.

But during his illness. his brain was severely damaged

from lack of blood supply.

It affected speech and caused physical spasms

while walking.

Monk Haralampius, monk of Dohaar Monastery

- What can you say about our Geronda, our elder?

- Okay, okay. He's totally fine...

- Does it happen that he scolds you?

- Well, he yells sometimes. He said something this morning.

Saying something...

Saying what?

А! What was taken away...

under the door.

chocolates. to the brothers.

and someone stole it.

It's not all that simple with Haralampy.

His cross is heavy.

And he himself is not an easy cross for me to bear.

But I'm patient,

and none of the old monks pointed to the door.

For this man, I have wept much and much grief.

Both mentally and bodily.

But you had to be patient

and be calm.

For the Abbot, every monk is a cross!

It's a great misfortune for an abbot is to repent

that he tonsured someone as a monk.

I have repented of many of the things

that I've done in my life.

Especially the one

that he became a priest.

When I remember that I'm a priest,

the ground is slipping out from under my feet.

I consider it a great misfortune,

that he agreed to become a priest.

And the second, even bigger mistake

that he agreed to become abbot.

Over these two decisions.

I cried a lot.

And I don't think so anymore,

that I will receive mercy before God.

Not a day went by,

to keep my eyes from filling with tears.

I can't save myself,

how will I save others?!

However, one must fight,

until your eyes dry

and until my heart stops.

If I had a flute

and I'd be playing it somewhere on a mountaintop somewhere,

I'd be more at peace,

than I do now when I sing at the lectern.

A few years ago, I asked one of the old monks:

"How do you look at us, today's young saintly people?"

He didn't say "you're good" or "you're bad."

No. He said:

"We try to step one, two, five steps.

As much as we can, to the best of our ability.

The other 95, 98 steps, all the way to 100 (when you consider the end is 100), God does them.

But that one step we can take, two, ten, if we can, we do.

Don't think twice about the rest.

Don't try to figure out why.

It's God, he knows!"

The light to the monks is the angels. And the light to the laity is the monks.

It doesn't matter--

on the Holy Mountain or in the world--

Monasticism, wherever it is, is a point of reference for all:

and for bishops and priests, and for the laity,

both married and single.

For everyone. Landmark.

For all who wish to hear.

The monk works with love and faith.

A laborer in the world works for pennies.

We're not looking for money.

If it pleases the Lord at His second coming,

He'll give us a glass of water,

and if he doesn't, he can send us to hell.

How much hard work we've put in here for the Archangels!

Won't one of the angels come out and tell God:

"Don't send them to hell!

These are the good guys! They're working!"

I believe that Archangel Michael will go first--

and he'll be in front of the Dohyarites to open the way.

- Where are you from?

- From Metropolitan Anthony.

- Ah, from Anthony the Metropolitan? Here's one for you, too!

- Who are you?

- Theodosius

- Are you a monk?

- Hieromonk.

- That's a lot of hieromonks!

Monk Sisoy, monk

- Everyone has a job to do in the monastery.

I, for one, am in the cat business.

They were already living here when I came to this place.

Really, there weren't that many of them.

A lot of kittens are born, and I have to go looking for them.

No one knows if they'll grow up or not, but I have to help them.

I'm helping them not to die.

So I have a lot of kittens.

Every cat has its own personality, and I know it.

But I don't give names. I don't have time, there's too many of them.

They don't just sleep and eat,

they have a job to do, too:

help us deal with rats and snakes.

Over and above every other virtue

I learned on the Holy Mountain holy patience.

I've been cursed,

and gossiping,

and said mean things.

And some people won't even say "good afternoon."

That's why I have these dogs.

They tell me every day

and good morning and good evening.

Oh, thank God!

Man must learn through all creation

to comfort your grief.

And the doggie and the kitty,

and the bird that sings,

and every roadside flower.

This world is in such a state now,

that everyone feels as free individuals,

and don't accept the words of the gospel,

that we are the servants of Christ.

Now even the monks carelessly doing their will.

Don't be disappointed when you see our mistakes.

We're human beings too.

And we, of course, are also at war with our passions.

If you hadn't seen our mistakes,

would say we're hypocrites.

However, we in our simplicity show our mistakes,

to humble yourself.

To cheer you up:

even with the mistakes that you make,

you can be resurrected,

to taste the sacrament of the Resurrection!

So says St. Simeon the New Theologian:

"Bury your passions,

to experience the Resurrection."

Do you want to be resurrected with Christ?

Bury your passions!

The Virgin Mary instructs the man,

when you don't immediately do something

what we're asking her to do.

Then we can

start to waver.

However, this procrastination

must be taken willingly,

that always our prayer to the Mother of God

was humble.

You don't want to allow thoughts

as if our prayer is also involved

in performing a miracle.

This is the work of the Virgin Mary herself.

Soon the Mother of God will hear us,

but sometimes to test our faith,

a little slow.

A little bit.

Just a little bit.

Uh, just recently. a woman went into labor.

Right after she gave birth, the doctors said,

that the baby is dead.

That woman was in awe

to the Mother of God,

and screamed loudly:

"O Soon-serving Mother of God, help me in this hour!"

And the baby cried.

The baby cried.

It's always the Virgin Mary

a pillar in our lives.

- But the wooden one...

Wooden ...

Take it!

- Is that a wooden egg?

- Come on! Christ is risen!

- Truly risen!

- You've become weak. You have no strength! That's it!

- Let's go the other way, Geronda!

- You want the other side? No! All right, just go!

- You can't do it a second time?

- No, you can't!

- Well, there's no dent!

- Maybe in Crete you can do it twice, but not here!

- Come on, come on, Geronda!

- Haralampius, maybe enough is enough?

- I have strength! Let's bump again!

- Christ is risen! The arguments are over!

- Amen! Amen!

Resurrection is the essence

of the Eastern Orthodox Church,

as the apostle Paul taught us.

If there is no resurrection, all is useless,

everything is a lie.

Only in the Resurrection

everything takes on dignity and makes sense.

All together we will celebrate the general resurrection.

And it will be expected, as the creed says:

"I look forward to the resurrection of the dead "and the life of the age to come. Amen!"

Honor and love for the Holy Mountain,

to this Ark of Orthodoxy,

never lose it!

That's not why God called Adam to Paradise,

that he didn't really know where he was hiding.

But he was waiting for the one

what Christ still expects of us to this day -

of our repentance.

Repentance is the only one,

which brings us back to Christ.

But everyone has to go back on their own,

without expecting someone else to bring him back.

It is up to us to ask for for absolution.

God lets them go only then,

when we ask in person.

Where are you, Adam?

Film by Alexander Zaporoshchenko

PRODUCER AND AUTHOR OF THE IDEA Protodeacon Alexander Pliska

COMPOSITOR Svyatoslav Lunev

SOUND DESIGN AND SOUND PROCESSING Alexander Pustarnakov Propeller Studio

COLOR CORRECTION MARINA TKACHENKO MEMENTAL DRIVE STUDIO

CAMERAMAN AND EDITOR Alexander Zaporoshchenko

VISA SUPPORT VLADIMIR TELIZHENKO (Pilgrimage Center of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church) Sergiy Glushchenko

TEXT TRANSLATION MONK MARTYR (KYHKYUNEN) PRIEST ROMAN KULCHINSKY VLADIMIR TELIZHENKO NUN NECTARIA (MAK LI)

SUBTITLE EDITORS Alina Kokorina Marina Sidorova Olga Fedorchenko

THE AUTHORS WOULD LIKE TO EXPRESS THEIR SINCERE GRATITUDE FOR THE HELP IN MAKING THE MOVIE