From the Introduction: THE FALL OF ADAM AND EVE brought about what every human being cannot escape in this temporary life: sickness, suffering and eventually death itself. The Holy Fathers and Saints throughout time have again and again taught us this basic cosmological / anthropological truth. For example, St. Basil the Great declares: Illness is not fashioned by the hand of God… God, who made the body, did not make illness, just as He made the soul but by no means made sin (God is Not the Cause of Evil). St. Maximos the Confessor teaches: God, in creating human nature, did not introduce suffering into it (To Thalassios). The great hesychast teacher of the 14th century, St. Gregory Palamas, says: God created neither death, nor illnesses, nor infirmities (Homily 31). All these Patristic teachings simply present the age-old Biblical teaching that creation was made in a state of goodness and paradisiacal bliss (Gn. 1-3), and that it was only upon man’s rebellion against God through disobedience to the commandment to fasting from the forbidden tree that sickness, suffering and death entered into the cosmos (Rm. 5:12). Such is our present day plight. However, if we approach suffering and sickness in a godly way, we will reap many spiritual benefits for the sake of “the one thing needful” (Lk. 10:42) - the salvation of our soul!