On Monasticism

Monks are not only lamps that shine in the street so that people do not stumble, but lighthouses standing on distant rocks, by which ships find their way in a stormy sea and reach harbour.

He who knows the great dignity of the angelic habit seeks no other rank; if you become a true monk, you will have spiritual joy both on earth and in heaven.

When a monk, for Christ’s sake, refuses to see people, then he sees many people, and in a divine way helps them by prayer in matters that cannot be accomplished by human means.

Monks are the signalmen of our Church: they withdraw from earthly interference so as to keep constant prayerful contact with God, and they help other people.

The holy fathers of Athos were men like us, and Athos, like other mountains, was a wild mountain; but because our fathers laboured with zeal, they sanctified both themselves and the mountain. So now it is called the Holy Mountain, and we pride ourselves on being Athonites.

A monk goes far from the world not because he hates this world, but because he loves it, and in this way he can help more through his prayers in matters that cannot be accomplished by human effort and come about only by God’s intervention. This is how the salvation of the world comes from God.

Monks are the “radio operators” of Mother Church, and clearly, if they go far away from the world, they do it only out of love; they flee from “radio interference” so as to have better contact with the Lord and to be of more use to the world. The foolish demand that some servants of the Church make — that the monk should return to the world — is also made by some foolish soldiers when their unit is in danger. These soldiers demand that the radio operator leave his set and join in the shooting. As if the situation could be saved by adding one more rifle to two. When the radio operator shouts with all his voice to get through: “Save our souls!” and so on, the others think he is shouting in vain; but sensible radio operators do not listen to their abuse and try with all their might to get through, and then at once ask for help from General Headquarters (“the Saviour”), and then great forces of aircraft come, an armoured tank division, a fleet, and so the situation is put right — not by the fighting of that one soldier. In exactly the same way the divine powers act through the prayers of monks; and in our time, when evil has increased beyond measure, we are in great need of divine help.

Monks who care for the salvation of human souls are more loving fathers than fathers according to the flesh, and they have more children than the father of the largest family, for they count every creature of God as their children and brothers, and pray with compassion that each may reach his purpose — drawing near to God.

Parents should not hinder their children when God calls them to monasticism, for this calling is exceedingly great, greater than what they themselves offer to God by their own calling. People in the world go to church at certain times and promise God to light a large or a small candle. But the monk keeps vigil in church every night and has promised himself wholly to God; he burns with love for Him, glorifies Him and gives thanks to Him both for himself and for the whole people.

Where there is no Orthodox monasticism, there is no Church either. Just as a country without an army is unthinkable, and a state under law without police. The monks guard the borders of the Church, protect the Church from her enemies, from those who in this age of materialism have fallen upon the Church like wolves to tear her apart.

The monastic life is a fruitful tree whose root is love and whose nourishment is the tears of repentance.