Our "My 5+" project shines a light on many different people, members of our large monastic family who live and labour among us. Every single one is wonderfully unique. We have asked them to tell us about five things - perhaps books, films, musicians, historical figures or activities - that have left the greatest mark on them and to which they return again and again.
Nun Serapiona (Sheleg) was born in 1981 in Minsk. In 2000 she graduated from School-Lyceum No. 26 with an arts focus, then studied design at the European Humanities University. In 2006 she entered the St Elisabeth Convent. On 15 April 2021 she was tonsured a nun. She carries out her obedience in the monastery’s construction and maintenance department. Nun Serapiona speaks about the miracles that fill her life.
What is a miracle? It is something rare, something you would never expect, something even impossible if things went as usual.
And yet - is not the normal course of life itself a miracle? Is not our very place in that life wondrous? We have grown so used to the marvel of being alive that it seems ordinary to us now...
And a miracle, too, is that moment when you suddenly sense God reaching into your life, when you feel His touch: "What is man that You are mindful of him?"
In my life there was such a miracle - an unexpected meeting, the most important event of all.
God is alive. He works when you least expect it - always in ways no one can predict, never as you might plan. I speak only from my own life. Let me share what God has done in my life.
When I was a little girl of about eight, I was walking across a field on a bright summer day. A large crop of potatoes was already growing there. At some point, I dropped the socks I was carrying in my hand. When I reached the edge of the field and realised they were gone, I was very upset. They were a gift from my parents, I loved them, and even such a small thing can mean a great deal to a child. I started walking up and down the rows, looking closely into the furrows, but I found nothing.
Then - and even today I cannot explain how, since I do not recall anyone teaching me about the Lord back then - I called out to Him: "Lord, if You are real, please help me." I began to look again, and right there in the middle of the field, just a few steps away, I spotted what I had dropped. I suppose I thanked God, but after that, things simply went back to normal. I completely forgot all about it.
At about thirteen or fourteen, a question pressed on me: is there a God or not? If not - live as you wish, but what is the point? If there is - how should one live?
One day, a quick prayer flashed through my mind: "Lord, if You are there, show Yourself to me, and then I will serve You." That brief thought did not escape God's notice, brief as it was. He answered - but not at once, only years later.
And that was the second and greatest miracle: meeting God.
Many times people have asked me to tell how it happened. I can only say this: God knows how to speak to the one He created. He can address you without words, yet you know it is God speaking. You live your life, expecting nothing, and suddenly, in a single moment, the Great God enters your small world...
It is as if the mist that had always clouded your mind drops away, and you begin to see:
God exists.
God is beautiful beyond words.
God is love...
Then a thought flashes: "How much I have sinned before God!" Not fear, but a sharp pain in the heart: "I have offended such a beautiful God..."
From that moment, I can say, God took me in His arms. About a month later I was baptised, and then I watched my life change as if from the outside. It was not from me. It was happening to me, and I was only a witness. It was such a strange feeling that I even began to wonder: what is going on with me? Am I losing my mind?
Back then, God picked me up like a tiny baby and carried me straight into His church. And He holds me in His arms to this very day.
People ask: is there a God? How can we prove it? I would say: if this truly matters to you, if, after meeting God, you are ready to give your life to Him and live as He wills, then you will not go unheard, you will not be left without an answer. God is very near. He hears even your hidden thought. Only be sincere - and humble, as far as you can.
The third miracle: a calling.
So, I had met God, been baptised, and was reading the Gospels, and I began to wonder how I ought to live, how I could serve Him. I was in my final school years. Then, just after entering university, during the summer, I was out walking in nature and suddenly I "heard" in my heart: "A monastery?.."
God made us free; He does not force our hand. But when He offers something, He waits for you to reply. At the same time, you know that what God offers is the very best for you. In this is His love...
I said, "Yes." But it did not happen at once. Five or six years passed before what God had placed in my heart became real.
The fourth miracle: coming to the monastery
When I told my mother what I wanted to do, it was like a force of nature had been unleashed: I knew then that it was going to be almost impossible.
Nearly six years of sorrow and what seemed a dead end. Yet God gave me a spiritual father, and his kind word and gentle look supported me: "How are things? How is your mother? Will she resist? Then wait..."
At last I accepted that perhaps my place was in the world. Then a friend said, "At least try working at the monastery." I went. The priest blessed me to work in the ceramics workshop, painting pottery. In the monastery then, as now, there was a rule: every day to read the akathist to St Nicholas the Wonderworker. And we read it. I remember reading and saying to myself: "Of course, this is impossible - but you, Saint Nicholas, somehow help..."
And somehow the impossible happened... After about four months I said to the priest, "I want to leave home." - "Where to?" - "Here." - "Then come." I quietly moved my things over a few days, not thinking how it would all work out. With the last of my things, I went down the steps to St Nicholas Church, and a thought came: "This is it - here until death..."
I opened the door - lights, many people, a service under way. "What feast is it today?" I asked. "The commemoration of St Nicholas." It was 22 May 2006. That became the day I entered the monastery.
What did I say to my mother? It felt as if someone gave me the right words... Quietly, peacefully - though not without sorrow - it was resolved. Since then, I feel that St Nicholas is alive and near, quick to hear and ready to help in any situation.
The fifth miracle: life in the monastery
Working there as a lay helper feels like childhood.
When you receive your habit as a novice, your whole day there is unexpected joy. You begin to see how, through obedience, God works wonders in you: you sense His help, His mercy. You grow little by little.
Tonsure into the rassophore is again the grace of obedience, but now you also begin to see yourself, your weaknesses. You learn humility, not to judge others. You realise: what the All-Good God wants from you is your humility.
And now, nearly fifteen years after I first arrived, I have received the full monastic tonsure. God gives you a new name and the chance to begin again, as if on a blank page. Take courage! Live like an angel on earth - in obedience, humility, labour, prayer, repentance.
Monastic life is giving your whole self to God.
Monastic life is undivided love for the Creator and Saviour.
Monasticism is an angelic life - the life of the age to come - begun here on earth.
For me now, monasticism is a great gift from God, a great trust - and yes, a miracle. What kind of angel am I? And yet the Creator grants even this mercy in His love.
These are the miracles God has worked in my life. And the fifth is not finished - it continues: are you a nun or a monk? Become like the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what a venerable one truly means - "one who has become supremely like God."
Lord, help me! Glory and thanks to God for all things.
Prepared by Nun Olga (Velikaya)
