Archpriest Vasily Gelevan, a cleric of the Church of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos in Sokolniki, managed to change the negative attitude of a fan of the Doom computer game towards the Church and priests, and also helped him survive coronavirus.
As Father Vasily said, his first conversation with Mikhail took place even before the man fell ill with coronavirus, however, it also took place in the hospital, Miloserdue.ru wrote on its Instagram page.
“Our first conversation with Mikhail took place in the surgical department. An ordinary furuncle on his neck provoked blood poisoning. His heart was under threat: the doctors had to do a surgery,” the priest said.
Photo: miloserdieru/instagram.com (Fr. Vasily is written on the priest’s back)
According to the priest, Mikhail’s sister asked him to come to her brother, but the patient himself didn’t have such a desire and, in general, “had a rather negative attitude towards the Church and the priests.” However, he agreed to the meeting.
“When I came, I met his cold gaze. I noticed a tattoo on his arm – five Latin letters: IDDQD. It turned out to be the code of immortality in the computer game Doom. If you enter it, the character cannot be killed. I told him, ‘but I also have the code of immortality! “Christ is Risen!” This is my immortality code,” Father Vasily said.
After this meeting, Mikhail called his sister and thanked her for inviting the priest. The man was also surprised that the priest did not scold him.
However, the story of the priest’s communication with Mikhail did not end there. Two weeks later, the man contracted coronavirus with a complication in his heart. The priest came to the intensive care unit to support him.
“This time we didn’t just talk, we prayed together. Sick and emaciated, he prayed completely sincerely, for the first time in his life he made a confession and took Holy Communion… And he wrote to his sister the following words: “I received Holy Communion, and now I want to know what happened to me?!”, said the priest.
Photo: miloserdieru/instagram.com (the writings in the pictures say, “Coronavirus will lose”, “We, the doctors, really want to win coronavirus!!!”, and “Our doctors will win coronavirus!”
According to Father Vasily, the internal changes in Mikhail are “the result of his meeting with Christ.”
“The Lord always meets us halfway. We can resist this: out of fear, ignorance, mistrust, and often without understanding why. And then the Lord creates such conditions for a person so that his stone heart would crack a little. A crack into which the Light of Christ can fall,” the priest noted.
“I pray that he will remember this meeting with Christ for his whole life. I really hope that he and his sister will go to church. But this is in the hands of God. And, of course, it depends on him how he will perceive this first meeting with Christ. We cannot lead a person by the hand. We help to take the first step, but then he must go by himself,” concluded Archpriest Vasily Gelevan.
They agreed with Mikhail that as soon as the man recovers, he will come to a church in order to thank God.
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