To remember:
At the same time the Bishop [Nektary] warned the fathers not to fall into pride. When they visited him in San Francisco in 1975 he told them: “Don’t think that anything you have is by your own efforts or merit. It’s a gift of God.” In Optina, his brother Ivan Kontzevitch used to say, the monks walked as if on tiptoes before God. There was some joking and kidding, but no one ever said anything that would disturb their inner quietness and God’s presence among them. As Bishop Nektary explained, “They were treasuring the grace.” This was perhaps the most important lesson that Bishop Nektary had learned at Optina and therefore he often told the Platina fathers: “Do not spill the grace of God.”
. . .
Spiritual vigilance kept with special strictness during Great Lent was to be maintained during and after Pascha as well. Without the guarding of oneself, there was a tendency to fall into a state of sourness after tasting so much sweetness. One young convert, radiant after experiencing his first Pascha in the wilderness, was asked by Fr. Seraphim: “Well, how did you like the Feast?”
“It was wonderful!” replied the elated pilgrim.
“Don’t waste what you’ve been given,” Fr. Seraphim said, echoing the words of Bishop Nektary. “Don’t spill the grace. Keep it there!” As he said this, Fr. Seraphim tapped the young man’s chest, right on his heart.
–Hieromonk Damascene, Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works (St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood: 2003), pp. 587-588, 600
