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(1) About silence, and what kind of work must be done by one who wishes to courageously abide in it. 1. Having the intention of telling you something small about silence, which is the most perfect of the ascetic virtues, I ask you to give me attentive listening. You who desire its perfection and are preparing to ascend to its height through success and improvement of yourself on the path of other virtues, I ask you to pay attention to my words, so that from my present word you can learn what the practice of silence consists of, and then make an effort to become worthy of accept this feat (of silence) and go through it as you should, if you want to rise to its height and be enriched by its wealth. Whoever has become silent and lives alone in his cell, let him be like the First Martyr Thekla. She, leaving everything worldly, forgetting even her very bodily needs, sat at the window and listened to the teachings of St. Paul. The story about her says that she did not leave her room and, as if chained to the window, did not leave him even to take food or quench her thirst, but only listened to Paul, who taught, and only when he had already left that place, she ran, alone, after him, and began to look for him - she left both her parents and her fiancé, her betrothed, and was looking only for Saint Paul with the great love, - I didn’t want to think about anyone else, but thought only about Saint Paul; and such a strong love for Saint Paul took possession of her that she revered as sacred the place where Saint Paul sat and taught, and kissed the ground on which his foot stepped. Don’t think that I said this is irrelevant, and that nothing of the sort is applicable to a speechless person. No, this is precisely what the practice of being silent should be like. If you don't see it, look for it and you will find it. The silent one, if he wants to be as he should be, let him be like the harlot mentioned in the Gospel - let him also cling to the feet of our Lord, kiss them and wash them with his tears, and not look at anyone else except His alone, who can forgive his sins. Let her be like a bride - let her fall asleep with the groom Christ, so that she can wake up with Him, so that later she can be awakened with Him to eternal life - or, better said, let her always abid in Him, and always have Him abiding in herself. Let him, if he can, be like one of those nobles who stand before the earthly king and converse with him in a friendly manner in secret, in his inner royal chamber—and let him converse with the Lord Christ face to face. Whoever was silent, let him be like the three Apostles who ascended with Christ to Mount Tabor and saw the radiance that covered Him, and the change of His clothes and the illumination of His face, and who, seeing the bright cloud and hearing the voice of God and the Father, testifying from above and saying: This is My beloved Son, became beside themselves and fell on their faces to the ground - so that he too could say, like Peter: there is good for us Here we are, let us create three canopies - for You, and for Your Father, and for the Holy Spirit - one Beginning and one Kingdom, that is, we will create three new dwellings - mind, soul and body, purifying them with contrition, tears, repentance, prayer and confession, we will build their structure higher and decorate it with all the decoration of virtues, so that you may dwell in them forever. He who is silent, let him sit in his cell, as the Apostles sat in the Jerusalem upper room, waiting from above for the power of the Most High Spirit, in order to receive the grace of the Holy Spirit, as the Apostles received it, and then be considered by carnal people as drunk, as arrogant and self-praising, for the reason that he will then begin to propose new dogmas, otherwise there is no way to expound the ancient teaching, speak in a different language and refute the words of those who have a contrary concept of spiritual teaching. Let him also be like Moses, let him ascend to the top of the mountain, let him also go inside the cloud and hide there from the eyes of others. If he becomes such, then he will not only see the back of God, but will consciously appear before the very face of God, and, seeing God Himself, and being seen by Him, and hearing His voice, first he himself will learn the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, then he will teach its laws to others - first he himself will be enlightened, then he will enlighten others with the light of knowledge - first he will be merciful to God, then he himself will begin to have mercy on others - first he will seek from God and he receives, and when he receives, he himself will tell others who seek it from him - first he will be freed from the bonds of his sins, then he himself will begin to free others. Let the good silent one also be like the Apostles, who, after the resurrection of the Lord, sat in the upper room closed by the doors of fear for the sake of the Jews - so that he may be worthy to see Christ entered, or, better said, to see Him constantly present, to see that He is inside with him, and gives peace, which he will seek and receive from Him. If at the same time the Lord blows on him, as he blew on the Apostles, with the word: receive the Holy Spirit; let him accept it with fear and trembling. May he also delve into the most precise contemplation of the Lord and may he touch Him with the hands of his mind and the feelings of his soul, in order to see and know that He is the true God of all. If he turns to the Lord Himself with questions about this, He will not be indignant with him, but, praising his laudable fear (of falling into error), will say to him the following words: “Why are you embarrassed and why are thoughts entering your heart? Peace be with you! I am, don't be afraid. See the glory of My Divinity. Touch Me and know that this is Me. Taste and see. The devil, who is darkness and is transformed into an angel of light in a ghostly, and not truly, way, does not and cannot impart to you either good mood and sweetness, or joy and freedom, or a peaceful state or a sense of intelligence and enlightenment of the soul - which, as you see, I myself have, and I give to you.” The silent person has a duty to make sure that everything we said above is not said only about him according to the nature of his life, but that in fact everything happens in him every day. If he sits in his cell, but does not live his life in such a structure, then what is the benefit of confining his body within the walls? The mind is immaterial and incorporeal, and is not restrained by walls, but is held by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and stands motionless in its natural order, and converses with God. If someone sitting in a cell alone does not know exactly what we said, and does not have it through his constant spiritual work, then what other work does he have to do? He who has given up the work of doing according to the commandments, and has ceased to do works according to the commandments, and has ceased to do the works of the body, which are therefore done, then if he does not know how to do spiritual works, he, of course, remains in inaction, having abandoned both types of works - both bodily and spiritual. If now inaction is bad, then there is no doubt that the one who sits in inaction sins. He who knows how to do spiritual works, this does not hinder him from doing spiritual works and doing things according to the commandments, done physically. With them he receives great help from spiritual work and does them with greater ease. But whoever exercises only in the bodily works of asceticism, when he abstains from them, cannot yet, for that reason, do spiritual works. He still carries in his hands the instrument of visible action and the substance for working with them, that is, the commandments and virtues performed by the body. But he is still inexperienced and untrained in spiritual art, and cannot transform this substance into a spiritual work and show it to be perfect, but doing it is weak and fruitless. So that you can better understand what I said, I will explain it to you with other examples. How many people have cried like the harlot, but have not received the forgiveness of their sins like she did? How many climbed Mount Tabor, but did not see the transfigured Christ there, not because our Lord Jesus Christ and God were not present there (for, of course, He is there too, as if He were omnipresent), but because they themselves were unworthy to see His Divinity? How many Jews were in that house and in that upper room where the Apostles sat, but none of them received the grace of the Holy Spirit? How many have expounded the Divine Scriptures, but have not known Him who speaks in them? How many died on the mountains and in the abysses, but were not worthy more than the whole world, so that the whole world was not worthy of them, but they (wonderful are your judgments, Lord!) were placed on an equal footing with the whole world and were numbered among it? How many have been silent, and are still silent, and do not even know what the very name of silence means, and not just that sacrament that is performed in silence? For the knowledge of God (knowledge with God) is not generated by external silence, as others think, erroneously interpreting the saying of the Prophet David, which reads: Be ye still and understand that I am God (Ps. 45:11), but, on the contrary, silence is generated by the knowledge of God (knowledge with God) in one who strives well and lawfully. If we call this abolition the removal from works and say that silence is inaction, and we prefer avoidance from works and inaction to doing the commandments, then how can we appear as executors of the law of Christ, which says: whatever you want, let men do to you, and you do likewise to them (Luke 6:31); and in another place: If I have washed your noses, the Lord and teacher, you also must wash each other’s noses (John 13:14); and again: he who wants to be first in you, be the last of all, a servant and servant of all (Matthew 20:26–27; Mark 10:43–44); also the commandments of the Apostle Paul, who says: if anyone does not want to do it, let him eat (2 Thess. 3:10); and in another place: I told you everything, that it is fitting for those who labor to intercede for the weak (Acts 20:35); and again: Will you serve my demand and those who are with me with these hands (Acts 20:34)? – The Holy Apostles and God-bearing fathers who came after them did not prefer silence to pleasing God, which happens through good deeds, but, having demonstrated their faith through fulfilling the commandments of God, they were honored to know God and love Him; and since they therefore desired to abide with the one God, they left the field of the world and from the worries caused by the wars there - and became silent. And now those who still struggle legally leave the world and its noise, and become silent in order to taste the fruit of their labors, not being disturbed by anything earthly, neither pleasant nor sorrowful. When they enjoy themselves insatiably, having tasted all the blessings of silence, and receive confirmation of the feeling that, as the Apostle says, they are unworthy of the passion of the present time for the glory that desires to appear in us (Rom. 8:18), then they are no longer content with those exploits that they achieved before, but, after resting from them in such consolation and pleasure given in silence, they go out again to exploits in fulfilling the commandments of Christ and in virtues that are physically manifested, not for the purpose of doing good for themselves, not for salvation for their own sake - although this, of course, will be for salvation - but with that purpose they again enter into such exploits and begin to strive in them in order to do what is pleasing to God, Whom they love and by whom they are loved (to act according to His will, being in His hands a submissive instrument). They no longer fight the devil as they fought before - they suffered blows from him and inflicted them themselves - but the enemies, as soon as they see them, come into fear and run away. They also immediately take into their care those who are wounded by enemies, anoint their wounds with oil, bandage them and heal them; Having been cured, they teach how to fight these enemies, with what weapons and machines. Everything that we have said, if the one who has become silent does not know good, or the one who has become an abbot over others, or who has undertaken to be the teacher of others, then neither the one who has become silent is not silent, although he thinks that he is silent, but sits only in a cell alone, locked by the body, not knowing the purpose of silence; neither the one who has taken upon himself the abbot is truly the abbot, but follows a path he does not know which way, or, better to say, wanders outside the present path and is in danger of plunging both himself and those who follow him into the abyss of eternal torment; neither the one who undertakes to teach others is a true teacher, but a deceitful and lost one, because he does not have true wisdom in himself - our Lord Jesus Christ. But what can we say about the power to bind and decide, which such people also use, when even those who have the Holy Spirit within them, resolving sins, or are spirit-bearing, fear and tremble, lest they do something inconsistent with the will of the Holy Spirit, Who dwells in them and speaks His will through them? And how can one reach such a frenzy and such audacity that, without receiving the grace of the Holy Spirit, one speaks or does the works of the Holy Spirit - doing the works of God without the will of God? Alas and woe to those who dare to do this, because they will be condemned to eternal torment on the day of judgment, on which our Lord Jesus Christ, the infallible and impartial Judge, will reward everyone according to his deeds, according to his thoughts and words. To Him belongs all glory, honor and worship, with His beginningless Father and the All-Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen. You might be interested in: