Письмо 21

We read your letter with considerable surprise; you of little faith, why did you doubt (Matthew 14:31)! Thus spoke the divine Savior to His beloved disciple Peter at the time when he was drowning; now, too, the drowning has happened to you, and we, with the same voice of the Savior, appeal to you: “of little faith, could not the repeated experiences of our instructions from the divine scriptures and the holy God-bearing fathers convince you of the truth of the saving path followed by the reverend fathers, whom we strive to imitate, to the best of our ability? Although you are unworthy and poor in virtues, we wish you, who want to be saved, to follow the path they showed us; and therefore your lack of faith grieves us in the least: if you want to listen to us, then: “evil thoughts enter into your hearts” (Matthew 9:4). Examining, almost subtly, the actions of the enemy of the human race, we see how he strives, under the pretext of truth, to seduce you from your chosen path - from the path of virtue! – I ask you: can someone who doesn’t know it teach a foreign language? There is a great difference between people who know by experience and those who know by hearsay. – Whoever is called to what rank, let him remain in it. – Experience is the best teacher. It is written: “Let your friends be many, but one adviser among thousands” (Sir.6:6)! And when you doubt our advice and instructions, why do you resort to us? According to the rules of monastic tradition, at tonsure, the Gospel is handed over to the elders, and not to the spiritual fathers, to whom the novices must open their consciences in order to receive advice and instructions on how to resist the temptations of the enemy; but this is not a confession, but a revelation, fulfilling in this case the apostolic tradition: confess your sins to each other (James 5:16). The sacrament of confession is completely different and has nothing to do with revelation; The duties of a confessor are completely different from the relationship with the elders. We recall one Synclitic, which the bishop handed over to one old woman, and asked her, what is the state of correction? I received an answer that I was too kind to her; then he handed her over to another strict old woman, and, after some time, learned from her that this had softened her morals; Isn’t it also an image of the current legend? Mother Abbess acts prudently and in accordance with the rules of monastic tradition, wanting to accustom them in advance to cleansing their conscience, before tonsure as a monk; and thereby makes a real skill, according to the tradition of the holy fathers, who shone in monasticism. – As for the fact that it is impossible to pray in a cell without a priest, this is more worthy of laughter than of belief. How many holy women we see, who lived in the desert and shone during fasting; - what did they do if not pray in solitude: Saint Mary of Egypt offered her prayers in the desert without a presbyter, and only in the last year of her life was she honored to see Saint Zosima and receive the Holy Mysteries of Christ from him. - As for the fact that doing nothing without the blessing of the old woman is not only useful, but also saving. – From the many examples available in the Patericon and the writings of the holy fathers, we recall the disciple who, having been sent to the city by an elder for obedience, almost fell into fornication; but, remembering the elder, he was delighted by an invisible force and found himself in his cell. As for the elders, in nunneries we should mean the elders. Not all the elders were priests, this can be clearly seen from the life of the Monk Paphnutius, the Wonderworker of Borovsk (May 1); for in his monastery of 700 brethren there was not a single priest, but all were under the leadership of the elders. – So, it is better to conform to the rules of monastic life and be calm. In the Philokalia, in the epistle of Saint Cassian to Abbot Leontin, it is printed: “Abba Moses said: Let us not exactly what we do, but what we think, be revealed by our father; and let us believe in nothing of our own thoughts, but let us follow in all the words of the elder; and we believe that it will be good even if they tempt us. This doing, not only through true reasoning and the right path, ensures that the monk remains unharmed, but also preserves him from all the snares of the devil without harm” (Part 4, page 157 on the back). This remembering your love from many little things; and entrusting the protection of God and the word of His grace, I remain your unworthy pilgrim, the many-sinner I.L. and the many-sinner I.M. September 19, 1840. You might be interested in: