"Beauty Will Save the World"

"Winter was so beautiful.  You would come out onto the porch and everything around was white: the pines, the bushes and the paths between the cells, and you could see Lake Seliger, silent, calm, ice-veiled.  Only rabbit tracks speckled the whiteness of the snow-shroud in numerous loops.  Father Agapit would come outside and glorify God for the beauty He had created.  Tears of gratitude often poured down his face. 'O Lord, My God!' he would say.  'I thank you for having created the sky and the earth.  I thank you for this beauty which warms the souls of men.'  He would stand there for a long time singing praises to God."

-From Father Arseny: A Cloud of Witnesses, pg. 138