Письмо 34
The Blessedness of Solitude
The author encourages the recipient to embrace their monastic seclusion as a safe harbor for the soul.
May God help you. Work out your salvation.✦1 So you're in a safe harbor. Glory to God. Grant, O Lord, that those who intend to stop by do not disturb you.2 Be wise enough to stay home. It would be good to say farewell to the whole world and tuck yourselves away somewhere so far that even the world's noise wouldn't reach your ears. You've now chosen this good portion.✦ Lord, grant that this time is not wasted for you. And it won't be wasted on its own. But I want you to be more jealous of it, and not let even a minute be spent without something lastingly useful for the soul.3 Someone once said: arrange it so that your thoughts don't wander beyond the monastery walls, and soon you'll find the sweet peace of monastic solitude. This is Mary's most blessed part—to settle yourself so that even in your thoughts there is nothing but the church and the cell.✦ How good that is! I think the blessedness of this state can't even be described.
The Work of Repentance
A call to constant vigilance and humble repentance in light of the brevity of life.
Contact with the world leaves heavy stains on our soul. Sit and scrub it clean! — that's the whole of the work!4 And death is right here. — And you won't even have time to look around before it arrives.5 So let’s at least work as hard as we can. The doors of repentance stand open.6 Make the effort to weep a little before the Lord—and do it deeper, deeper still.7 And what else can we give? Even if we have no tears, let's say: We have nothing, Lord. Save us in whatever way You know—just save us.8
Spiritual Provisions and Divine Hospitality
Practical advice on spiritual reading and a final blessing rooted in the hospitality of the Mother of God.
For your reading: St.9 Isaac.10 .11 .12 It's good that you took him; everything is there. Just pay attention! Gather it up, gather it up.13 This is a little storehouse for you.14 After all, you're a guest of the Mother of God. And She is hospitable — very, very much so. It's so good that you've tucked yourself away. Lord, help you in everything. Every blessing to you from the Lord!
Read the original Russian
Бог в помощь! Спасайтесь! Так вы в безопасном пристанище. Слава Богу! Даруй Господи, чтоб вам не помешали имеющие наехать. Умудритесь – сидеть дома. Хорошо бы проститься со всем миром и закатиться куда-нибудь так далеко, чтоб и звук мирской не заходил в ваши уши. Вы избрали теперь эту благую часть.
Даруй Господи, чтоб это время не прошло для вас даром. Оно и не пройдет даром – само собою. Но мне хочется, чтоб вы были позавистнее и не позволяли бы и минутки потратить без чего нибудь прочно-полезнаго душе. Кто-то, когда-то сказал: сделай, чтоб мысли твои не заходили за стены монастыря, и скоро обрящешь сладкий покой монастырскаго уединения. Это блаженнейшая часть Марии – устроиться так, чтоб и в мысли ничего не было, кроме церкви и келлии. Куда как хорошо! – Я думаю, что блаженство этого состояния и описать нельзя.
Соприкосновение с миром крепко пятнает душу нашу. Сиди, да счищай! – се весь труд! А тут смерть! – И не оглянешься, как пожалует. Будем по крайней мере трудиться, сколько можем. Покаяния отверссты двери. Потрудитесь сплакнуть пред Господом, да так – поглубже – по глубже.
А другое, что дадим? Если и слез нет, скажем: ничего нет, Господи. Ими же веси судьбами спаси, только спаси.
Для читания вам св. Исаак. . . Хорошо, что вы его взяли, там все есть. Только внимайте! Собирайте, собирайте. Это вам запасец.
Ведь вы в гостях у Матери Божией. А Она гостеприимна – очень, очень. Как хорошо, что вы упрятались! Помоги вам Господи во всем. Всех благ вам от Господа!
Scripture echoes
- ↩Phil.2.12 — Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
- ↩Luke.10.42 — Few things are needed, or only one. For Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.
- ↩Luke.10.42 — Few things are needed, or only one. For Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.
Notes
- 1 ↩Russian «Спасайтесь!» is a traditional spiritual greeting/exhortation (literally «save yourselves»). Rendered as the familiar Pauline charge rather than a cold command.
- 2 ↩«имеющие наехать» is colloquial for people intending to drop in/visit; not a hostile «raid» sense.
- 3 ↩позавистнее is comparative of 'jealous/grudging': here, more thrifty and protective of time, not envious of persons.
- 4 ↩Russian «се» is a Church Slavonic demonstrative (“behold/here is”); rendered as natural present-day “that's”.
- 5 ↩«пожалует» is polite/old for a visitor's arrival; death is personified as one who “pays a call.”
- 6 ↩«отверссты» is a Church Slavonic passive participle (“opened/standing open”); kept as stative “stand open.”
- 7 ↩«сплакнуть» is a colloquial/diminutive of weeping (“shed a few tears”); kept as “weep a little,” with the doubled «поглубже / по глубже» as intensifying repetition.
- 8 ↩Ими же веси судьбами is a traditional Church Slavonic petition formula: salvation by the means/paths known to God, not by human choosing. Rendered here as 'by whatever ways You know' for modern readability without flattening the sense of divine providence.
- 9 ↩Source is a truncated fragment (св. = St./holy). Continues in the next sentence as St. Isaac; almost certainly St. Isaac the Syrian.
- 10 ↩Исаак here is almost certainly St. Isaac the Syrian (of Nineveh), a standard Russian monastic reading recommendation, not the biblical patriarch alone.
- 11 ↩Source sentence is only a period; no recoverable wording.
- 12 ↩Source sentence is only a period; no recoverable wording.
- 13 ↩Собирайте can mean gather/collect (spiritual fruit from reading) or store up; diminutive запасец in the next sentence favors gathering as provision.
- 14 ↩запасец is a warm diminutive of запас: a little stock/provision laid by, not a formal reserve.
Letters on the Christian Life companion
Rule yourself daily, not just on retreat
Chosen Portion turns the mirror into a daily practice — a short reading and examining question each morning before you lead anyone.
Chosen Portion makes the mirror daily: the ruler-formation questions this collection preserves become a two-minute morning examination in the app.
- A daily formation reading drawn from centuries of counsel to those in authority
- One pointed examination question a day — two minutes, before the meetings start
- Track your practice over weeks and watch the examined life become a habit