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[Alexandr Korol]

And because of that, a person makes wrong decisions, wrong thoughts come to mind, uncontrollable instincts appear. And in order to at least manage yourself, to regain this inner strength, to control yourself and your life, that’s why fasting is needed. That’s the purpose of fasting, in a way. But there’s still a lot more interesting things to explore.

So, when the messenger Lyubov met me, it was probably just a coincidence of events. The next day, I met the priest, and I was asked, “Do you want to work? Do you need a job?” I said, “Yes.” Maybe I wouldn’t have agreed otherwise, but because the messenger had said to learn about the church, I agreed, and everything just fell into place. However, I didn’t work at the church for long. The reason was that I was also studying at the university, and I was still young and uncertain about what I wanted, but it was a positive experience – I just visited and got to know everything, and they showed and told me a lot. After that, my attitude toward the church became more positive and interested. When I say that maybe the messenger Lyubov didn’t mean exactly what I thought – well, you see, I took it literally, that she meant “know the church”: this is the church, it stands here, get to know it. But as I later understood, and it turned out that another messenger visited me at the Church of Peter and Paul on Nevsky, number 22, an elderly man. He talked about “On this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” He said something like that, but it was about something else. He told me that “the church is a gathering of believers, not just a building.” Of course, you can interpret this differently, understand it differently, but from that moment on, I thought maybe this was what Lyubov meant, that I should understand what believers are, or what faith truly means – something more philosophical, rather than just physically getting to know the church: how it’s structured or who works there. So, my interpretation changed after that. At first, I took it literally, but then I understood it a bit differently.

Question: You talk about how you bought an icon from an antique shop, from which you felt energy and through which you were able to turn off thoughts in people and yourself, and influence food and drinks. Could you please explain why this particular icon has such an effect? What is the principle behind it?