Письмо 37
On Humility and the Source of Wisdom
The author deflects praise for his letters, attributing his insights to the kindness of readers and his own humble study of ascetic tradition.
You write that the Letters are being read with real interest. How remarkable! What do they find there? This has to be credited entirely to the readers' kindness, not to any merit in the book. I just hope no one thinks more of the writer than he really is because of it. There was a time when I had to take up the teaching on the ascetic life.1 Back then, I met two or three people who were fairly well acquainted with the subject. And they introduced me to it as well. I heard some things, read others, and worked some out for myself. Those are all the sources. And who knows what someone else might think.2
The Wisdom of the Paterikon
The author describes the nature of the Paterikon as a collection of experiential wisdom from the desert fathers and introduces a new text for the reader's edification.
At the monastery of St. Savva the Sanctified, I happened to look through many books titled Paterikon-Otechnik.3 These are mostly collections of excerpts drawn from the writings of the holy Fathers. An elder would read a holy father and write down whatever particularly struck him; he would read another and do the same, and so on. That is the origin of nearly all these otechnik books.4 But among the pieces that make them up, many turned out to be writings whose authors must be recognized as the elders of Savva's monastery themselves. What is written in them has to be recognized as the fruit of experience, not of study. I'll send them to you article by article [These articles form a supplement to these letters].5 Read them through. Here, now, it's nothing like those letters of yours! And now I'm sending you one: A Conversation of an Elder with a Disciple.
From Theory to Practice
The author invites questions on the struggle with sin but emphasizes that true understanding comes through active practice rather than mere reasoning.
You say that people come to you with questions about certain points in the supplementary articles, especially the article on the struggle with sin. Collect these questions and send them to me; I'll write answers to them if it proves necessary. It would be better, of course, if each person began this struggle by actually doing it.6 Then every point would clear up immediately. And what are mere reasonings?7 They aren't a bad thing, of course, but they aren't all that important either.
Read the original Russian
Пишете, что «Письма» читаются не без охоты. Дивно! Что там находят? Всячески надо отнести это к доброте читающих, а не к достоинству книги. Как бы при том не подумал кто о писавшем более, нежели сколько есть. Было время, когда мне надобно было заняться учением о подвижничестве. Встретились тогда два-три лица, довольно знакомыя с сим предметом. Они и меня познакомили с ним.
Так, иное слышал, иное читал, иное сам придумал. Вот и все источники! – А иной не знать, что может подумать.
В монастыре св. Саввы освященнаго мне случилось пересмотреть множество книг, озаглавливаемых: Патерик-отечник. Это большею частию сборники статей, извлеченных из писаний св. отцев. Читал старец святаго отца и записывал для памяти, что особенно казалось ему хорошим; читал другаго и тоже делал, и т. д. Таково происхождение почти всех сих отечников. Но между статьями, входящими в состав их, много оказалось таких, коих писателями должно признать самих же старцев Саввинской обители.
Что в них написано, то надо признать плодом не изучения, а опыта. Я буду присылать их вам статью за статьею [Статьи сии составляют прибавление к сим письмам]. Прочитывайте! Вот уж тут совсем не то, что ваши письма! Теперь же препровождаю к вам одну: Беседа старца с учеником.
Вы говорите, что к вам обращаются с вопросами о некоторых пунктах прибавочных статей, особенно статьи о борьбе со грехом. Собирайте сии вопросы и присылайте ко мне: я буду составлять на них ответы, если сие окажется нужным. Лучше бы, конечно, было, еслиб каждый начал борьбу сию самым делом. Тогда тотчас прояснились бы все пункты. А умствования что суть? Конечно, они не худое дело, но и не слишком важны.
Notes
- 1 ↩подвижничество: rendered as 'the ascetic life' (Orthodox spiritual struggle/ascetic practice); alternatives include 'asceticism' or 'the ascetic struggle'.
- 2 ↩Colloquial/archaic Russian «А иной не знать, что может подумать» is an open-ended aside: another person may form any (likely inflated) opinion of the writer; rendered as a natural modern hedge rather than a stiff calque.
- 3 ↩Патерик-отечник: kept as the dual title form; a paterikon/otechnik is a collection of sayings and pieces from the Desert Fathers and other holy fathers.
- 4 ↩отечников: collections of the Fathers (otechnik/paterikon volumes).
- 5 ↩Bracketed clause is in the source as a parenthetical note, not a separate sentence.
- 6 ↩самым делом = in deed itself / in actual practice; rendered as 'by actually doing it' to keep the contrast with mere questions and later 'умствования'.
- 7 ↩умствования = speculative reasonings / mental theorizing, often with a mildly dismissive tone; not mere 'thoughts' and not learned theology as such.
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