Keeping with our off-beat fare this week, we thought we'd present one of favorite passages from Dostoyevsky's writing. It's found in the “Thoughts and Teachings of the Elder Zossima” of The Brothers Karamazov.
Fr. Zossima, the revered elder of Alyosha Karamazov, is dying. He is speaking of virtue and love to those at his bedside. He tells them about a dying youth who asked the birds to forgive him:
That may sound absurd, but when you think of it, it makes sense. For everything is like the ocean, all things flow and are indirectly linked together, and if you push here, something will move at the other end of the world. . . Understand that everything is like the ocean. Then, consumed by eternal love, you will pray to the birds, too. In a state of fervor you will pray to them to forgive you your sins.
