This is a true story as told by a pious Christian…

“While I was still a very young child, my father died.  My mother quickly remarried and she and my stepfather put me into an orphanage.  Later on, when I was older, they brought me out of the orphanage to live with them.  My stepfather sent me out to sell lottery tickets to make money.  At the end of each day he would take the money that I had earned, then he would abuse me and beat me badly.  At one stage I felt much despair and said to myself “does God not exist for me”?  I went to church to pray.  Inside I went to venerate and kiss the feet of the icon of the Crucifixion.  I am telling you this, and it still makes my hair stand on end… I felt I was kissing real feet, flesh!”

Source: Translated from the Greek book «Ασκητές μέσα στον Κόσμο, Τόμος Α» (Ascetics in the World, Volume 1), by the Monastery of St John the Forerunner, Mount Athos Press, 2008.

Source: June-July 2015 Lychnos Edition