Sorrowjoy

The words of Protopriest Sergei Baranov cannot be confused with any others.

There is no "oily" quality and abstract theory in them—only the truth of lived life. The rector of the Tabyn Icon of the Mother of God Temple in Orenburg, an icon painter, a missionary, and the father of six children, he speaks of God through his own difficult and authentic path. His sermons are not lectures or theological schemes but the living experience of a person who stood on the edge of sorrow and saw Christ enter into the darkness. This book gathers words about the most challenging points of spiritual life: fear and repentance, the pain that cleanses, and the silence in which God begins to speak.

This book is for those who seek meaning in real life: in loss, struggle, doubt, in every "Lord, help me." About how sorrow becomes wisdom and how through the narrow gate of pain a person is born into new life. About the encounter with God, which happens only in the truth of the heart.