In the Russian novel, The Brothers Karamazov, a woman has come to talk witha holy man about her problems with faith. "What if I've been believing all my life, and when I come to die there is nothing but burdocks growing over my grave? . . . How can I prove it? How can I convince myself?" The holy man's answer is: "By the experience of active love. In so far as you advance in active love, you will grow surer of the reality of God and of the immortality of the soul."