from The Brothers Karamazov
Fyodor Dostoevsky
(1821-1881)
Do not forget to
pray, my boy. If your prayers are truly sincere, every day a new fervor will
appear, a new thought of which you were unaware before, and that will give you
new strength. You will understand then that prayer is education. Remember this,
too. Repeat to yourself every day and as often as you can:
O Lord, have mercy on all those who will appear before You today.
For every hour, every second, thousands leave this world and their souls appear before the Lord, and no one knows how many of them leave this earth in isolation, sadness, and anguish, with no one to take pity on them or even care whether they live or die. And so your prayer for a man will rise to the Lord from the other end of the earth, although he may never have heard of you or you of him. But his soul, as it stands trembling before the Lord, will be cheered and gladdened to learn that there is someone on earth who loves him.
And the Lord’s mercy will be even greater to both of you, for, however great your pity for the man, God’s pity will be much greater, for He is infinitely more merciful and more loving than you are. And God will forgive him for your sake.
Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky, was born in Moscow in 1821, the second son of a staff doctor at the Hospital for the Poor. Dostoevsky graduated as a military engineer from the Army Engineering College in St. Petersburg, but resigned his commission in 1844 to devote himself to writing. His writings, which include Notes from Underground and Crime and Punishment, deal with moral and philosophical questions and had a profound influence on the the twentieth century novel. Published in 1880, The Brothers Karamazov was his last, and perhaps greatest, work. He died in St. Petersburg in 1881.
