Слово 69. О том, что безмолвникам полезно не иметь забот, и вредны входы и выходы

A person who cares deeply cannot be meek and silent; because the necessary reasons for the affairs that burden him force him involuntarily, even if he did not want to, to engage in them 552 and spend time in them, and waste his silence and silence. Therefore, a monk must place himself before the face of God and always immutably raise his eye to God if he truly wants to protect his mind, purify and stop the small movements creeping into it and learn in the silence of thoughts to distinguish between what is incoming and what is outgoing. The numerous cares of the monks serve as a sign of their relaxation in readiness to do the commandments of Christ and reveal their impoverishment in the Divine. Without liberation from worries, do not look for light in your soul, nor for silence and silence when relaxing your feelings. Where there are worries about business, do not multiply your worries - and you will not find soaring in your mind or in your prayer. Without unceasing prayer you cannot get closer to God. After the labor of prayer, placing new care on the mind produces a waste of thoughts. Tears, hitting oneself on the head during prayer and falling on one's face with ardor awaken in the heart the ardor of its sweetness, and the heart soars with praiseworthy enthusiasm to God and cries out: “my soul thirsts for” You, the mighty, living God; when will I come and appear before Your face, O Lord” (Ps. 41:3)? Whoever drank this wine and then lost it, only knows in what disastrous state he was left and what was taken away from him due to his relaxation. Oh, what an evil it is for those living in silence to see people and talk with them! Truly, brethren, it is much worse than for those who do not keep silence. Just as strong ice 553 suddenly covers the tree buds, dries them out and destroys them, so meetings with people, even if they were very short-lived and allowed, apparently for a good purpose, dry up the flowers of virtue, which have just blossomed from the dissolution of silence, tenderly and abundantly surrounding the tree of the soul, planted “by the outgoing waters” of repentance (Ps. 1:3). And just as strong frost, covering the greenery that has barely grown from the ground, burns it, so a conversation with people burns the root of the mind, which has begun to produce from itself the seed of virtues. And if conversation with people who are in some ways abstinent, and in others who have only minor shortcomings, is usually harmful to the soul, then isn’t talking and meeting with people who are ignorant and stupid, not to mention the laity, much more harmful? Just as a noble and respectable person, when he gets drunk, forgets his nobility, and his condition is dishonored, and his honor is subjected to ridicule for the alien thoughts that entered him from wine, so the chastity of the soul is outraged by the sight of people and conversation with them, forgets the way of protecting itself, the intention of its will is erased from a person’s thoughts, and every foundation of a praiseworthy dispensation is eradicated. Therefore, if conversation and the dispersion of oneself, which occurs with one who is in silence while floating thoughts, or even one approach to this, just to see or hear what enters through the gates of sight or hearing, are sufficient to produce in a person coldness and darkening of the mind for the Divine, and if a short hour can cause so much harm to an abstinent monk - what can we say about constant meetings and long-term inactivity in this? The evaporation emanating from the womb does not allow the mind to receive Divine knowledge, but darkens it like fog rising from damp earth and darkening the air. Likewise, pride does not understand that it walks in darkness and has no concept of wisdom. For how can she understand this when she remains in her darkness? That is why, with her darkened thoughts, she exalts herself above all others, being the most insignificant and weakest of all and being unable to know the ways of the Lord, but the Lord hides His will from her, because she did not want to walk the path of the humble. To our God be glory forever and ever! Amen. During icy conditions, that is, during a rapid transition from thaw to frost. In Syriac text: "frost". You might be interested in: