How do we manage the fear of death?
Every true prayer is a fight with the death and a denial of it. Every true prayer is a fight for life and an admission of it.
What is true prayer? It is the prayer that makes you stronger than death, through which you conquer the fear of death.
If after you have finished praying while looking at yourself you feel the same fear of death as before, then know that your prayer was not a true one.
If after you have finished praying while looking at yourself you think about death with indifference, then know that your prayer was a true one.
If after you have finished praying while looking at yourself you feel an urge to unite as soon as possible with the true life, then know that your prayer was a victory.
Before dying on the Cross, Christ had already overcome death when he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane.
(Translation from: Sfântul Nicolae Velimirovici, Învățături despre bine și rău, traducere de Pr. Teofil Petrescu, Editura Sophia, București, 2006, pp. 208-209)
