Письмо 63
The Call to Serious Purpose
The author rebukes the recipient for a lack of monastic discipline and urges an immediate return to a life of prayer and contrition.
How can this be? You went off to a monastery, and you don't even know what you're doing. It's laughing one minute, then outings, then idle chatter. You don't read at all, and you go to church lazily. So it turns out you went there for fun. The fact that things were a bit rough before you left is no excuse.1 Come on now—get to work, and quickly. You need to feel a little contrition, weep a little, and ache before the Lord.2
The Path of Contrition
The essence of the spiritual life is found in constant weeping and humility before the Lord.
That is the whole matter in a nutshell. Those who are amending their lives weep because they aren't yet set right, and those already set right weep because they aren't as right as they ought to be and as they would wish. So weep over it all. Lord, have mercy.
Read the original Russian
Как же это? Заехали вы в монастырь, а не знать – что делаете! То смехи, то гулянья, то болтанья. Читать не читаете, в церковь ходите с ленью. Выходит, что поехали туда на потеху. То, что пред отъездом туда было немного крутовато, – неоправдание. Ну-те-ка, поскорее за дело. Надо немного сокрушиться, всплакнуть и поболеть пред Господом.
В этом сокращение всего дела. Исправляющиеся плачут от того, что неисправны, а исправные плачут от того, что не так еще исправны, как бы следовало и как бы хотелось. Так все плачь. Господи, помилуй.
Notes
- 1 ↩«крутовато» is colloquial: roughly 'a bit hard/harsh/rough'; rendered as 'a bit rough' for the strain before departure, not moral strictness.
- 2 ↩«сокрушиться» is the classic Russian verb for being broken in repentance (сокрушение/compunction); «поболеть» is spiritual aching/sorrow before God, not physical illness.
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