Blessed are those whom Thou have chosen and taken O Lord

What joy of life does not come without grief? What glory stands unchanged on earth? All ages are submissive to death. But the death of death is different. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His venerable ones. Serafima became an angel during her lifetime. Seraphim means fiery, and she burned with love for God like a torch, showing her neighbors the way to Him. Like a six-winged seraphim, she worked for Him in six hands. She had time for both the neighbors and those afar: she managed to feed hundreds of the poor, and to bring whole villages to Christ, at the same time not to miss church services. It is unknown when she slept. However, life was not too kind to her – the Lord tested her with sorrows more than once. But she learned the main thing in Orthodoxy – to forget about oneself. And the Giver of life did not wait long to take her to a better world, for she was already worthy. At the last service for her, all the priests of the Manila deanery prayed. Because of the strict quarantine, only the closest relatives were able to participate in the burial, but thousands of people in different parts of the world with prayers helped the angels carry Seraphim’s soul to a place where there is no illness or sadness.