Глава II. О том, что со всем усердием должно искать безмолвия

1. Someone said to Abba Arseny: my thoughts confuse me, saying: you can neither fast nor work; at least visit the sick, for this too is love. The elder, seeing the demonic intrigues in this, answered him: go - eat, drink, sleep and do not work, just do not leave the cell, for he knew that patient stay in the cell leads the monk to his rank. 2. Saint Abba Anthony, once staying in the desert and falling into despondency and deep darkness of thoughts, cried out to God: Lord! I want to be saved, but my thoughts won’t let me. What should I do in my grief? How to escape? Then he got up and left the cell. And then he sees someone similar to himself, who was sitting and working; then he got up from work and prayed; then he sat down again and twisted the rope; then he began to pray again. It was the Angel of the Lord sent to instruct and strengthen Anthony. And the Angel said in his ear: Do this and you will be saved. Hearing this, Abba Anthony was very happy and encouraged. I started doing this and was saved. 3. He also said: just as fish, remaining on land for a long time, die, so monks, lingering outside their cells for a long time or staying with worldly people, lose their love of silence. Therefore, just as a fish rushes into the sea, so we must remain in the cell, so that while remaining outside it we do not forget about internal storage. 4. He also said: whoever lives in the desert and in silence is free from three temptations: from the temptation of hearing, tongue and sight; He has only one temptation—temptation in his heart. 5. Abba Arseny, while still in the royal court, prayed to God like this: Lord! Teach me how to be saved? And this voice came to him: Arseny! Run away from people and you will be saved. Retiring into the desert, he again prayed to God with the same words and heard a voice saying to him: Arseny! Run, be silent, remain in silence, for this is the root of sinlessness. 6. Abba Mark asked Abba Arseny: why are you running from us? The elder answered him: God knows that I love you, but I cannot be with God and with people. In heaven, thousands and myriads have one will, but people have many wills. So, I cannot leave God and be with people. 7. They said about Abba Arseny that his cell was 32 miles away from the others 7 . He almost never left it, because others fulfilled his needs. When the Skete was devastated, he came out and said: the world has lost Rome, and the monks have lost the Skete. 8. Abba Arseny once came to a certain place where reeds grew, which swayed from the wind. The elder asked the brothers, what does this noise mean? The brothers answered him: it is the reeds making noise. Then the elder said to them: in truth, if someone sitting in silence hears the voice of a sparrow, then his heart cannot maintain its previous state; all the more difficult is it for you to preserve it with such noise from this reed. 9. During Abba Arsenius’s stay in Canopus, a certain maiden of a senatorial family, very rich and God-fearing, came from Rome to see him. Archbishop Theophilos received her, and she asked him to convince the elder to accept her. Having come to the elder, he asked him: such and such a girl of a senatorial family has come from Rome and wants to see you. But the elder did not agree to see her. When she was told about this, she ordered the animals to be prepared for the journey, saying: I believe in God that I will see him, for I did not come to see a man - there are many people in my city - I came to see a prophet. When she reached the elder’s cell, by God’s dispensation it happened that he was outside of it. Seeing the elder, she fell at his feet, but he raised her with anger and, looking intently at her, said: if you want to see my face, here it is, look! But out of shame she did not look at his face. The elder said to her: have you not heard about my affairs? You need to look at them. And how did you dare to make such a voyage? Or don’t you know that you are a wife and shouldn’t go out anywhere? Or do you want, returning to Rome, to tell the other wives what Arsenia saw, and make the sea the path of the wives coming to me? She said, if the Lord wills, I will not allow anyone to come here, but pray for me and remember me always. The elder said in response: I will pray to God that He will erase the memory of you from my heart. Hearing this, she left him in great confusion and, arriving in the city, fell into a fever out of sadness. Blessed Archbishop Theophilos was informed of her illness, and he came to her and asked to tell her what was wrong with her. Oh, it would be better for me not to come here at all! I asked the elder: remember me, - he told me: I will pray to God, may He erase the memory of you from my heart. And now I'm dying of sadness. The archbishop said to her: or do you not know that you are a wife and that through wives the enemy fights against the saints? That’s why the elder told you so, and he will always pray for your soul. This calmed her thoughts, and she joyfully went to her homeland. 10. Abba Arseny once lived in the lower reaches of Egypt and, being embarrassed by visits, decided to leave his cell. Taking nothing from it, he went to his disciples Alexander and Zoil, the Faranites. The elder said to Alexander: swim up the river, and he did so; and Zoilu said: go with me to the river, find me a ship that would go down to Alexandria, then you too swim up to your brother. Zoilus, although he was embarrassed by this word of the elder, remained silent, and they parted. The elder, having descended to the borders of Alexandria, fell ill there with a serious illness. His disciples said to each other: did any of us offend the elder and for this reason he moved away from us? But they didn’t find anything in themselves. Upon recovery, the elder said: “I will go to my fathers,” and, sailing upward, he arrived in Petra, where his disciples were. When he was near the river, a certain Ethiopian girl approached and touched him, and when the elder reproached her, she answered: if you are a monk, go up the mountain. The elder, amazed by this word, said to himself: Arseny, if you are a monk, go up the mountain. When they met, Alexander and Zoilus fell at his feet, the old man also threw himself down, and both he and he wept. Then the elder asked them: haven’t you heard that I was sick? They answered: they heard. And to his question: why didn’t you come to see me? - Abba Alexander said: your excommunication from us was not well understood and did not benefit many, for they said that if we had not disobeyed you, you would not have excommunicated from us. The elder said to them: and now people will say: the dove found no rest for her feet and returned to Noah in the ark. So they were reconciled, and the elder remained with them inseparably until his death. 11. One of the elders came to Abba Arseny, and when he knocked on the door, the elder opened it, thinking that it was his servant. When he saw that it was another, he fell on his face. The one who came said to him: get up, Abba! Let me kiss you. But the elder answered: I will not get up unless you leave, and despite his long prayers, he did not get up until he left. 12. They told about a certain brother who arrived in Skete to see Abba Arseny. Arriving at the church, he asked the clergy to give him the opportunity to talk with the Abba. They told him: Be patient a little, brother, and you will see him. But the one who came said: I will not taste anything until I see him. Then the clergy sent one of the brothers to take him to the elder, for his cell was far away. Knocking on the door, they entered, greeted the elder and sat down in silence. After some time, the brother guide said: I will go, pray for me. The wandering brother, not finding the courage to be with the elder, also said: I will go with you. And they went out together. Then the wandering brother asked his guide to take him to Abba Moses, one of the robbers. When they came to him, he received them with joy and, having treated them in a friendly manner, sent them away. After this, the brother who accompanied the stranger asked him: Behold, I took you to the stranger and to the Egyptian; Which of the two did you like more? He replied: I liked the Egyptian better. Hearing about this, one of the elders prayed to God like this: Lord! Reveal this matter to me, for one runs away from people for the sake of Your name, the other - for the sake of Your name - receives them with open arms. And then two large ships were shown to him on the river; and he sees that Abba Arseny and the Spirit of God sailed in silence on one, and Abba Moses and the Angels of God sailed on the other, and these fed him with honeycomb. 13. Once the elders came to Abba Arseny and strenuously asked him to talk with them. He opened it to them, and they asked him to speak a word about those who were silent and had no one to see. The elder tells them: while the girl lives in her father’s house, many want to marry her. When she gets married, not everyone likes her anymore: some humiliate her, others praise her, and she no longer has the same honor as before, when she lived in secrecy. This is what happens with the soul: as soon as it becomes open to everyone, it cannot please everyone. 14. Abba Vitim said: I once went to the Skete, and some people gave me apples to distribute to the elders. Having arrived, I knocked on the cell of Abba Achilles to give it to him, but he said: truly, brother, I would not want you to knock now, even if it were manna; do not go to other cells. Then I went to my cell and took the apples to church. 15. Abba Dula said: if the enemy forces us to leave silence, we will not listen to him in the fight against him, for there is nothing equivalent to silence and fasting - they bring sharp vision to the inner eyes. 16. He said: cut off relations with others, so that warfare is not so close to your mind and does not disturb the order of your silence. 17. Abba Eucedrius said: cut off worldly habits, so that your mind is not disturbed and the rule of your silence is not violated. 18. Abba Theodore of Thermaeus said: a man who knows the sweetness of a cell runs away from people, but not because he despises his neighbor. 19. Again he said: if I do not cut off pity from myself, then it will not allow me to be a monk. 20. Abba Joseph once fell ill and sent to Abba Theodore to say: come, so that I can see you before I leave my body. It was then the middle of the week, and he did not go, but sent a message: if you live until Saturday, I will come; if you leave, we will see each other in the next world. 21. One brother came to Abba Theodore so that he could teach him how to sew mats and bring him some rope. The elder said to him: go and come here in the morning. When he arrived, the elder stood up, wet the rope and sewed the first stitch for him, saying: do this and that, and left him. Having entered his cell, the elder sat as usual, and at a certain hour he offered him food and sent him away. When the brother came again in the morning, the elder said to him: take your rope from here and get away, for you came to plunge me into temptation and worry. And he did not allow him to stay with him any longer. 22. Mother Theodora said: it is good to remain silent, for a wise man leads silence (Prov. 11:12). Truly, it is a great thing for a virgin or a monk to remain silent, especially if they are still young. But you should know that as soon as someone decides to remain silent, the evil one immediately comes to him and burdens his soul with despondency, cowardice, and thoughts; the body is aggravated by illness, exhaustion, weakening of the knees and all members. Thus, it relaxes all the forces of the soul and body and puts in the thought - I am sick and do not have the strength to complete the rule. But if we stay sober, we will ruin all his such machinations. Thus, there was one monk who had chills and fever when the time came to begin the rule, and there was a strong noise in his head. Then he said to himself: I’m sick and maybe I’ll die. So, I will get up and, before I die, I will complete the rule. With this thought he overcame himself and completed the rule. When the rule ended, the heat ended. Again, at the hour of the rule, the heat began, and again the brother, with the same thought, overcame himself and completed the rule. And thus he defeated temptation. 23. Abba John said: if a person has the blessings of God in his soul, then he can sit in his cell, even if he does not have the blessings of this world. And again, if a person has the blessings of this world and does not have the blessings of God, because of the blessings of the world he will sit in his cell. But someone who has absolutely neither the blessings of God nor the blessings of this world cannot sit in his cell. 24. In a certain monastery there lived a brother who practiced asceticism very strictly. Having heard about him, the brethren from Skete came to see him and went up to the place where he was working. After giving them a kiss, he turned away and continued working. Those who came, seeing this, said to him: John, the one who clothed you with the schema or who made you a monk, probably did not teach you to accept mercy from your brothers and say to them: pray or sit down? He answered them: sinful John does not have time for that. 25. They told about Abba Isidore that when any brother came to him, he ran away to his inner cell. The brothers said to him: Abba! what are you doing? He answered: and the animals escape by running into their lairs. He said this for the benefit of the brothers. 26. Abba Hierax said: I never spoke and did not even want to listen to worldly speeches. 27. There was one scholastic in Alexandria named Cosmas - a wondrous and virtuous man, humble-wise, merciful, temperate, a virgin, a silent man, a stranger, a lover of the poor. Having great boldness towards him, I asked him one day: do me a favor, tell me how long have you been silent? Since he was silent and did not answer, I again asked him: for the Lord’s sake, tell me. And after a short silence he answered: thirty-three years. I asked him again: show me your complete love, knowing that I am asking for the benefit of my soul - tell me, what have you managed to do in such a time of idleness? Then, sighing greatly from the depths of his heart, he said: What can a layman succeed in, especially living in his own home? But I again begged him, saying: for the Lord’s sake, tell me and use me. And forced by my persistence, he said: forgive me, in three things, I know that I managed to: not to laugh, not to swear and not to lie. When I heard this, I glorified God. 28. Abba Macarius the Great once in Skete, dissolving a church meeting, said: run, brothers. One of the elders asked him: Father! Where can we run beyond this desert? Then Abba Macarius put his finger on his lips and said: run away. Then he entered the cell and, closing the door, sat down in silence. 29. Abba Moses said to Abba Macarius in Skete: I want to remain silent, but the brethren do not let me. Abba Macarius says to him: I see that you are soft-hearted by nature and cannot reject your brother. Therefore, if you want to be silent, go into the desert inside Petra - there you will be silent. Abba Moses did this and found peace. 30. Abba Isaiah asked Abba Macarius to say a word of edification. The elder told him: run away from people. Abba Isaiah asked: what does it mean to run away from people? The elder answered: sit in the cell and mourn your sins. 31. Abba Aio asked Abba Macarius: tell me a word of edification. Abba Macarius said: sit in your cell, mourn your sins, do not like human conversations, and you will be saved. 32. Abba Moses said: a person who runs around people is like ripe grapes, and one who is among people is like unripe grapes. 33. Abba Mark said: he who wants to cross the mental sea must endure long, be humble, watch, and abstain. Whoever, without these four virtues, rushes into this sea will only beat and torment his heart, but will not be able to pass. 34. He said: it is impossible to remain silent with benefit because it removes you from evil deeds, but if four more designated virtues are added to it with prayer, then there is no quickest path to silence. 35. He said again: one cannot be silent with the mind without being silent with the body; nor destroy their mediastinum without silence and prayer. 36. Abba Nilus said: a monk who loves silence is inaccessible to the arrows of the enemy, but he who turns in crowds often suffers wounds. For in him, anger gradually becomes shorter and lust, without being irritated, little by little gets used to quieter aspirations, and any passion in general, being not excited, becomes more moderate day by day and, finally, completely ceases, forgetting with the passage of time about its inherent action; Only simple memories of things remain, and passionate disposition lags behind. 37. He said: Silence is good because in it one does not see anything that can harm; what is not seen is not accepted into thought; what is not born in thought does not move the dreaming of memory; does not move memory - does not irritate passions; and when passion does not move, our interior has deep silence and great peace. 38. Abba Joseph asked Abba Nesteroy: what should I do with my tongue, for I cannot hold it? The elder says to him: Do you have peace in this? He answered: no. Then the elder said: if you have no peace, why are you speaking? It’s better to be silent, and when the interview happens, listen more than talk. 39. Abba Pimen said: the beginning of evil is amusement - walking back and forth and bothering. 40. He said: we must flee from all carnal things. A person who is near carnal temptation is like standing over the deepest abyss, and the enemy, at whatever hour he judges, easily throws him down. And whoever’s body is far from this temptation is like a man standing far from the abyss, and although the enemy will drag him to overthrow him, as long as he attracts and forces him, God sends him help. 41. He also said: if you remain silent, you will have peace wherever you happen to live. 42. A thought said to one brother living in the Thebaid desert: why are you sitting here fruitlessly? Get up, go to Cenobia, and there you will bear fruit. The brother went to Abba Paphnutius and revealed his thoughts to him. The elder told him: go, sit in your cell and say one prayer in the morning, one in the evening and one at night; when you want to eat, eat, when you want to drink, drink, when sleep comes, go to bed, but stay in the desert and do not believe this thought. He also went to Abba John and told him the words of Abba Paphnutius. Abba John tells him: don’t say prayers at all, just sit in your cell. Then he went to Abba Arseny and told him everything. The elder said: Keep it as the fathers told you, for I have nothing more to say to you than this. And he walked away. 43. There were masters in the Skete - the artists Abba Paul and Abba Timothy, who suffered disturbances from the brethren. One day Abba Timothy says to his brother: what do we need in this art? They keep us silent all day long. Abba Paul answered: the silence of the night is enough for us, if our heart is sober. 44. The brother asked Abba Rufus: what is silence and what is the benefit of it? The elder replied: to remain silent means to sit in your cell with reason and with the fear of God, refraining from rancor and arrogance. Such silence, being the parent of all virtues, preserves the monk from the kindled arrows of the enemy, not allowing him to be wounded by them. So, brother, acquire such silence, remembering your mortal outcome, for you do not know at what time the thief will come (Luke 12:39). Be careful about your soul. 45. Abba Sisoes' disciple said to him: Father! You have grown old; Let's go and set up a cell for ourselves closer to the village. The elder said: let's go where there is no woman. His disciple said to him: Where is there no wife except in the desert? So, said the elder, lead me into the desert. 46. ​​Abba Amun from Raifa once came to Kitema to visit Abba Sisoya and, seeing that he was grieving for leaving the desert, asked him: why are you grieving, Abba? What could you do in the desert at such an old age? The elder looked at him with a stern look and answered: what are you telling me, Amun? Wouldn't freedom of thought alone in the desert be enough for me? 47. The brother asked Abba Sisoes: How did you leave the Skete, where you lived with Abba Or, and settled here? The elder answered him: when the Skete began to become more crowded, I, having heard that Abba Anthony had died, came here to the mountain and, finding that everything was calm here, settled for a short time. The brother says to him: how many years have you been living here? The elder answered: seventy-two years. 48. They told about Abba Sisoes of Thebes that, as soon as the church meeting ended, he quickly ran away to his cell. They said about him that he had demons, but he did God's work. 49. The brother said to Abba Sarmat: my thoughts tell me: go out and visit the brothers. The elder answered him: do not listen to them, but say: I obeyed you before, but now I cannot obey you in this matter. 50. Mother Synklitikia said: many who settled on a secluded mountain live as if they lived in a crowded place - and perish. For it is possible, being among people, to be alone in thought, and, living in solitude, mentally to always be, as it were, in a crowd of people. 51. Abba Tithos, during his stay in Klysma, deepened in thoughts, said to his disciple: pour water into the dates, my son. He answered: we are in Klysma, Abba. The elder said: what should I do in Klysma? Lead me up the mountain again. 52. The elder said: sitting well in a cell enriches a monk with all sorts of blessings. 53. He also said: a monk must buy himself silence by neglecting all bodily inconveniences. 54. Someone told: there were three hardworking friends, and one of them chose as a feat to pacify those who were quarreling, according to the word of Scripture: blessed are the peacemakers (Matthew 5:9); another is to look after the sick; and the third went silent into the desert. The first, working on the quarrels of people, could not reconcile everyone and in despondency came to the sick servant, but found that he, too, was faint-hearted, having failed to fulfill his vow. Agreeing, both went to see the silent man and, telling him about their grief, asked him to tell them what he had acquired. After being silent for a while, he poured water into the vessel and said to them: Look into the water. And she was cloudy. A little later, when the water had settled, he again said to them: look now. When they looked, they saw their faces as in a mirror. Then he tells them: just like someone who is among people because of worries and embarrassment does not see his sins, when he remains silent, and especially in the desert, then he clearly sees all his shortcomings. 55. The brother came to one great experienced old man and said to him: Father! My soul is heavy; I'm suffering. The elder said to him: sit in your cell, and God will give you consolation. 56. The elder said: just as on the path you pass, no greenery will sprout, even if you throw seeds there, because that place is always trampled. So it is with us. But keep quiet from every thing, and you will see something growing within you that you did not see before, because you walked in it. 57. The brother asked the elder: is it good, Abba, to live in the desert? And the elder answered: when the sons of Israel stopped wandering in the desert for a while and settled in the tabernacles, then it was given to them to know how they should fear God; and the ships, while sailing along the sea, remain inactive regarding profit, but when they enter the pier, then they begin their bargaining. Likewise, a person will not receive the knowledge of the truth if he does not patiently remain in one place. And God Himself chose silence above all the virtues, as it was proclaimed: to whom will I look, only to the meek and silent and trembling of My words (Isa. 66:2). The brother asked again: if there is any need to speak to a woman, how should you answer her? The elder said: such necessity often comes from the devil: the devil has many pretexts that seem necessary. But if there is a true need to speak to a woman, do not let her say too much, but when you yourself begin to speak, combine a lot in small things and quickly let her go, for if you stay for a long time, then know that the impression from her will upset your thoughts. The brother also asked: how can a person get rid of the sin of condemnation? The elder answered: just as he who puts fire into his bowels inevitably gets burned, so he who enters into conversation with people will not be clean from the sin of condemnation. The brother asked: what do the devil’s dreams at night mean? The elder said: just as during the day the devil occupies us with extraneous thoughts so that we do not engage in prayer, so at night he covers our mind with dreams and, darkening us, turns us away from night prayer. The brother asked again: what should a person do in order to receive the gift of virtues? The elder answered: whoever wants to learn some art, abandoning all other concerns, engages in it alone and stays with the teacher, humbling and humiliating himself, and thus learns the art. Similarly, a monk, if he does not abandon all human concerns and humiliate himself, so as not to think that he is better than such and such or equal to him, will never acquire virtue; if he humbles himself and abases himself, then the virtues and the desire for them, as for doing, will come by themselves. 58. One elder told us: my Abba throughout his life was extremely fond of going to further deserted places and being silent there. One day I asked him: Abba! Why are you running away into the desert? He who stays near the world, sees it and despises it for the sake of God has a great reward. The elder says to me: believe me, my son, until a person comes to the measure of Moses and becomes almost the son of God, until then he cannot receive benefit from the world. But I am the son of Adam and, like my father, as soon as I see the fruit of sin, I immediately desire it - I take it, eat it and die. For this reason, our fathers fled into the desert and there they killed gluttony, not finding food that gave rise to passions. 59. The elder said: he who has sinned before God must remove himself from all human love until he is convinced that God has become his friend, for human love separates us from the love of God. 60. He said: just as someone who has died in a city no longer hears the talk or conversations of those living there, nor the songs, but for everything he is dead and is transported to another place, where there is no noise or cries of the city, so a monastic, as soon as he puts on the schema, must leave his city, leave his parents, relatives and all his known people there and no longer delve into the worries and sorrows of everyday life, as well as in unrest and storms. and the waves of the vain and stifling world. For if he, having accepted monasticism, does not leave his city or village, then he is likened to a dead man lying in a house and smoldering, from which everyone who smells his stench runs away. 61. He said again: when unsalted meat spoils, so that everyone turns away from it because of its stench, then worms settle, live and crawl in it, hide and wear it out; however, as soon as salt is put into the meat, the worms living in it immediately die and disappear and its stench ceases, for this is inherent in the nature of salt; in the same way, a monk who indulges in earthly affairs and vanities, who is not silent in his cell, who does not arm himself with the fear of God, who abandons prayer, vigil and fasting and does not partake of the power of God, which is prayer, vigil and fasting - spiritual salt - becomes spoiled and filled with the stench of evil thoughts, so that God and the Angels turn their faces away from him because of the terrible stench of vain thoughts. his thoughts and the darkness of passions operating in the soul and in the most indecent mind. Look how these worms, that is, the spirits of malice and the powers of darkness, how they walk in him, live in his unclean thoughts, crawl and dive in his soul, devour, corrupt and destroy it! As soon as a monk resorts to God, renounces vanities and believes that God can heal him, spiritual salt is sent to him - a good and humane Spirit, with the coming of which all passions flee. 62. He said: a monk should not worry about kindly branching and shady trees, nor about good springs, nor about colorful meadows, nor about gardens with all kinds of vegetables, nor about beautiful houses; He should not live brightly, nor think about honors, nor occupy his mind with herds of sheep and herds of oxen, but he must use with gratitude what is necessary, and in some strange way lead a life alien to any carnal pleasure. If a monk, having relaxed himself, becomes bound by such things, then he will neither be able to become a friend of God, nor avoid human condemnation, for in this case he must quarrel over borders and borders, and because of the splendor of houses, to receive nobles, because of gardens to be bothered by everyone, because of herds of sheep and oxen, to tinker with slaves and mercenaries, because of arable land and meadows, quarrels even go as far as beatings, getting involved in litigation over vineyards, since one will violate the boundaries of the vineyard and add something to his own, another will let the cattle onto the grass, the third will divert the water flowing into the garden. So, one should not bring oneself to the point of having to suffer in this way, quarrel, be worse than the raging ones and call on the authorities for help. What good is it for a monk, having renounced the things of this life, to fight again over the same things, for no one who has ever been a warrior is bound by the purchases of this life (2 Tim. 2:4). Therefore, let's begin to move away from things, let's despise property and everything that plunges the mind into the waters of life and brings it down into their depths, let's throw off the load so that the ship floats a little and so that the helmsman - the mind - can be saved with the thoughts floating on this ship. 63. The elder said: just as from a bathhouse, if you open the door often, all its warmth soon leaves, so it happens with the soul: if a person speaks often and a lot, then, even if he sometimes says good things, his warmth dissipates through the sound door. So, timely silence is good, for it is the mother of the wisest thoughts. 64. The brother asked the elder about how one should remain silent in a cell. And the elder answered: he who is silent in his cell must prostrate himself before the face of God and with all his might resist the evil thoughts sown by the enemy, for this is what it means to flee the world. 65. The brother asked: what is the world? And the elder answered: the world is a sinful distraction; the world is - work through force for profit and satisfaction of carnal desires; there is peace - to think that you will always remain in this century; there is peace - caring for the body more than the soul and vanity in what you deny yourself. I did not say this on my own, but the Apostle John spoke it, saying: Love not the world, neither those who are in the world (1 John 2:15). 66. He said: he who is silent, while still in the body, must examine himself every hour, whether he has passed those who hold him in the air and whether he has freed himself from them? For while he is subject to their slavery, he is not yet free from them. 67. The brother asked the same old man: what should a silent person do? And he said: he needs the following three things: to constantly have the fear of God, to pray with patience and not to depart from the remembrance of God in heart. 68. The brother asked the elder: what is silence and what is the benefit of it? The elder told him: to remain silent means to sit in your cell with reason and the fear of God, refraining from rancor and arrogance. Such silence, being the parent of all virtues, preserves the monk from the kindled arrows of the enemy, not allowing him to be wounded by them. O silence - the glory of the monastics! O silence - heavenly ladder! O silence - the path to the kingdom of heaven! O silence - the mother of contrition! O silence - the source of repentance! O silence - the mirror of sins, revealing to man his sins! O silence, the giver of freedom to tears and sighs! O silence - enlightener of the soul! O silence, the parent of meekness! O silence, the cohabitant of humility! O silence - the guide to a peaceful state! O silence - the interlocutor of the Angels! O silence - the light guide of the mind! O silence - an ally of the fear of God, a spectator of thoughts and a collaborator of reasoning! O silence - the parent of all good: the support of fasting, the bridle of the eyes, hearing and tongue, the barrier of gluttony! O silence - a school of prayer and a school of reading! O silence - silence of thoughts and calm haven! O silence - an unceasing prayer book to God! O silence - the guardian of unheated wisdom for the young and the guardian of untroubled peace for those who sit with willing patience in their cells! O silence - a good yoke and a light burden, resting and bearing those who bear you! O silence - joy of the soul and joy of the heart! O silence - a guardian only about her own and an unhidden interlocutor with Christ, who has death before her eyes day and night! O silence - every day and every night, waiting for Christ and keeping its lamp unquenchable, constantly calling on Him, saying: my heart is ready, God, my heart is ready (Ps. 56:8). O silence, the destroyer of idle talk and jokes, and instead of laughter, the giver of tears to those who have acquired you! O silence - the enemy of shamelessness, the hater of insolence and the ever-present recipient of Christ! O silence - the mother of reverence! O silence - a prison of passions! O silence - the field of Christ, producing good fruits! Acquire this, brother, remembering death. 69. One of the elders of the Kalamon Lavra asked a brother who lived in silence on the mountain: tell me, brother, what have you acquired in such a long time of your silence and asceticism? The brother answered him: come in ten days, and I will tell you. The elder came ten days later, but found his brother already deceased and saw a tile on which was written: forgive me, father! While fulfilling my rule, I never left my mind on earth. 70. Two brothers lived together in the desert. One of them, every time he remembered God’s judgment, ran away into the deepest desert and walked there alone. Another followed him to look for him and one day, when after much effort he found him, he asked: why are you leaving? Are you the only one who has sinned in the world? The brother answered him: Do you think I don’t know that my sins have been forgiven? I know that God has forgiven me my sins, but I lift up this work so that on the day of judgment I can be a spectator of those condemned. 71. One brother came to a certain elder at the Octodecat Lavra in Alexandria together with a layman and said to him: give us, father, instructions on how to live together, for this brother also has the intention of renouncing the world. The elder replied: You are doing well, my son, that you are renouncing the world, seeking salvation for your soul. So, sit soberly in the cell where you judge, just remain silent, pray unceasingly and trust in God, children, that He will send you His wisdom to enlighten your mind. 72. He said: children, if you want to be saved, run away from people, for now we are knocking on every door without rest and going around cities and villages, so that somewhere we won’t have to buy food for the love of money and vanity and satisfy our souls with vanity. 73. Again he said: So, let us run, children, for the Lord is near! 74. They said about one silent elder that he lived thirty-five years in silence, fasted for two days, was always silent and did not speak to anyone at all, but when there was a need to say something, he showed it with signs. I saw him in the country of the Eliots, for I lived in it for ten years. 75. The elder said: if you want to remain silent, then settle either in a remote desert or in a monastery among a crowded brotherhood. If you settle separately, but in a place not so remote, you will encounter great anxiety, because when someone comes there, you will need to receive him, because, except with you, he has nowhere to calm down and rest. If you live in a place where there are many other brothers, then, although you will not accept the one who comes, your thoughts will not confuse you, for he will be able to find shelter with another; many brothers will be your protection and will give you the opportunity to be at peace. 76. The elder said that prison means sitting in a cell and always remembering God. This is what it means: Flee in prison, and come to Me (Matt. 25:36). 77. The elder said: some spend a hundred years in a cell and do not learn how to sit in a cell. One mile is a thousand steps. You might be interested in: