Письмо 39
The Single-Minded Path
The author emphasizes that monastic life requires a radical commitment to solitude, detachment from worldly social habits, and a singular focus on the heart's disposition.
If you're going into a monastery, go for the sake of solitude. Monastery life goes poorly for anyone who lives among many but tries to live as if they were still in society. And there you should know only one person—the superior, or your spiritual father and elder; and toward the rest you should be so disposed as if they weren't there.1 Then everything will go well; but without this, the confusion is such that it's worse than Petersburg balls. Education and half-education are secondary for those looking to enter a monastery.2 The main thing is the core—i.3 e.4 a good disposition of the heart and a good purpose.
Trusting in God's Guidance
The author encourages the reader to trust that God will provide the necessary formation and grace, regardless of the perceived decline in contemporary monastic standards.
Clear notions about everything will come later on their own, and with them nobility of heart—and even nobility of manner—as more than one example has shown.5 It's true that monastic life today, people say, doesn't match the old ways; but when God makes the path, He will lead you where it will be good and saving for the soul. Believe this.
Read the original Russian
Уж когда в монастырь, то на одиночество. Плохо жить в монастыре тому, кто в общении со многими хочет жить там, как бы в обществе. И там одного только знать надо, – настоятеля или духовнаго отца и старца; а относительно прочих должно быть так расположенным, как будто их нет. Тогда все пойдет хорошо; а без сего сумятица такая, что хуже Петербургских балов. Образование, полу-образование для желающих вступить в монастырь суть вещи сторонния. Главное – середка, т. е. , доброе настроение сердца и благая цель.
Светлыя о всем понятия придут после сами собою, придет и благородство сердца и даже благородство приемов, как это показал не один пример. Правда, что жизнь монастырская нынешняя, как говорят, не походит на старинную, но когда Бог устроит путь, то приведет туда, где будет хорошо и спасительно. Веруйте сему.
Notes
- 1 ↩«Духовный отец и старец» names the confessor/elder relationship of Orthodox monastic practice; «настоятель» is the house superior (abbot/abbess).
- 2 ↩«Сторонния» = peripheral/side matters, not central to monastic vocation; «полу-образование» keeps Feofan's pointed 'half-education'.
- 3 ↩Source sentence is a fragment: «т.» begins the abbreviation «т.е.» (that is), continued in s7 and completed in s8.
- 4 ↩Fragment completing «т.е.» (that is) from s6.
- 5 ↩«благородство приемов» rendered as “nobility of manner” (refined ways of dealing with people and things); could also mean refined methods or bearing.
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