Learning and keeping the divine commandments has this healing purpose: first to correct the external conduct of man, then to help him to purify the contents of the heart.

This saving interior work for the acquisition of the evangelical, the only real, eternal and ultimate freedom is called by the holy Fathers "art of arts and science of sciences".

Father Raphael is the man who was able to combine the truly encyclopaedic secular education with the equally excellent knowledge of the apostolic writings and the personal experience, which he acquired through the cultivation of obedience and the wish of Jesus.
The subject of Father Raphael's books varies: theological, ascetic, hagiological, hermeneutical - speeches, love-answers, polemics, apologetics, etc. We, as monks, preferred to first translate one of his books on prayer, because on the one hand it needs us more today, and on the other hand because it is the author's favorite and basic spiritual work. (Archimandrite Ephraim Vatopedinos, from the presentation on the back cover of the book)