Brandon Strain

“It is not extraordinary for the incorporeal to battle with the incorporeal. But it is extraordinary for one clothed in the material, and struggling with this antagonistic and wily matter, to drive off incorporeal enemies.”
― John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent

“If the patient died, though, Arseny died with him. And when he sensed he was alive, he would shed tears and feel ashamed the patient was dead and he was alive. Arseny came to the understanding that blame for a death lay not in the power of the illness but in the weakness of his prayer. He began considering himself a direct culprit in those deaths that occurred and he went to Confession daily, lest the weight of blame become overwhelming for him. And he came to each next patient as if that person were his first, as if he had not examined hundreds of people before this one. So his astonishing power came to the ill as if untouched, for that was all that gave hope for recovery.”
― Eugene Vodolazkin, Laurus

“Arseny’s hands quickly remembered their forgotten work and now they treated the pestilent sores on their own. As he watched the deft motions of his own hands, Arseny began to fear their actions would become routine and frighten off the astonishing power that flowed through them into the patients but had no direct relation to the art of medicine. Arseny noticed ever more frequently when he was healing people that their recoveries came from that power, not from the ground sulfur and egg yolk. The sulfur and egg yolk did no harm but (or so it now seemed to Arseny) they did not substantially help. It was Arseny’s inner work that was important: his ability to concentrate on prayer while simultaneously dissolving himself within the patient. And if the patient recovered, it was Arseny’s recovery.”
― Eugene Vodolazkin, Laurus

“The elixir of immortality is in there and there is enough for everyone.”
― Eugene Vodolazkin, Laurus