Abbot Nikon (Vorobyov)
Dear..!
May the mercy of God and peace be with thee and with... I have received thy letter. It is long since thou hast written to me of thy state. I rejoice at what thou writest, if thou truly dost experience what thou describest to me; for often people write only of what they have imagined, read, or heard from others. What thou describest to me is certainly experienced by everyone who walks the right spiritual path. Take care for thy salvation, labour, pray. Keep peace with all, judge no one. Pity everyone; judge not open sinners, but entreat the Lord to forgive them and to enlighten their minds, that they may be saved.
The measure of a man's spiritual growth is his humility. The higher a man is spiritually, the more humble he is; and conversely, the more humble he is, the higher he is. It is not the keeping of a rule, not prostrations, not fasting, not the reading of Holy Scripture that leads a man to God, but only humility. Without humility everything, even the greatest ascetic labour, is not only useless to a man but may prove altogether ruinous. Yet today we see that a man has only to pray a little more, to read psalms, to keep a fast — and already he thinks himself better than others, judges his neighbour, teaches another when he is not asked, and the rest... And by this he proves only his spiritual emptiness and his distance from God, his dwelling “in a far country” (the prodigal son by disobedience left his father's bosom and went “into a far country”, that is, into the dwelling place of the demons). Fear to exalt thyself. The Lord Jesus Christ says that if you have done all that is written (that is, have kept all the commandments), count yourselves unprofitable servants; count that you have done only what it was your duty to do. And salvation is God's reward to the humble and to the contrite of heart. Therefore we must ask of the Lord humility. Humility does not live together with the judging of one's neighbour nor with taking offence. If we judge others, or take offence when we are insulted in some way, then we have no humility at all. The holy ascetics always sincerely thanked those who offended and insulted them, for by bearing offence they learned humility. The Mother of God bears witness that God chose Her for Her humility. And the Saviour Himself calls us all to learn of Him humility: not fasting, not prayer, not even love of neighbour, but humility. Only through humility does a man become “one spirit” with God, Who humbled Himself even to being spat upon, struck and crucified. It goes without saying that with all our strength we must strive to keep all the commandments; but again I repeat that without humility this is either useless or harmful; do not misunderstand me.
May the Lord enlighten thy mind and deliver thee from the wiles of enemies visible and invisible.
God bless thee.
