On the discovery of God

This article presents a collection of spiritual and moral maxims composed by the Serbian archpriest Vasilije Ivosević and translated from Serbian into French. The approach draws on traditional aphoristic wisdom, inherited from Orthodox parenetic literature. The central idea is that God reveals Himself to man through creation, moral conscience, and the practice of Christian virtues — prayer, repentance, humility, fasting, and good works. Each maxim articulates an observation drawn from daily, rural, or artisanal life, paired with a corresponding spiritual truth. On the theological level, the collection illustrates the Orthodox conception of the spiritual life as a progressive and concrete exercise, emphasizing the interdependence of faith and works, and divine mercy as the foundation of salvation. The value of this text lies in its transmission of a Serbian popular piety rooted in the patristic tradition.