“Ignaty Brianchaninov says that diseases are the Lord’s reminders to us that our death is not far, and that we should cleanse everything that has been, with true compunction, repentance, and receipt of the Holy Mysteries. God’s Wisdom is so great that the Lord even turns evil to man’s benefit. That is an idea discovered by many of the Holy Fathers. The thing is, that Man can be saved by faith and obedience to the all of the Commandments. In obeying them, a person’s psyche (his soul) is changed; it is renovated, making the person a new man in the image of God, or to be more precise, in the image of the Savior Jesus Christ.

Abbot Nikon (Vorobiev)