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The Brethren.

The Holy Hierarch Ignatius Bryanchaninov as if he summed up his life in his declining years wrote “The longer I am walking the way of my life and the nearer I am to the end of it, the happier I am that I took the monastic vows, the stronger I am flaring up with the heart zeal to achieve the purpose for which the Holy Spirit had settled monasticism in the Church. Monasticism is not man’s establishment, but God’s one. Its purpose is to separate a Christian from the vanity and numerous affairs of the world, to connect him with God with the help of repentance and lamentation and to open in him the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Grace of Heavenly King shows itself vividly when He calls a person for monastic life, when He saves a man from the violence of passions and leads him to the anticipation of the eternal glory…”

These are words of a teacher of the Church who was nearly our contemporary, of an ascetic writer. They are in harmony with the evidence of many other spiritually rich ancient and modern men and women, who experienced the virtue of the real monastic life, which is so helpful in attaining the Holy Spirit, in attaining the Heavenly Kingdom.

According to Starets Paisius of the Holy Mount Athos a monk silently preaches Christ with his life and helps his neighbour with his prayer.

Once somebody asked Starets Paisius “Why are the monks sitting here? Why aren’t they going into the world to public service?” Starets answered “Shouldn’t beacons stand on the rocks? Would you order them to move to cities and join street-lamps in their work? Beacons have their own purpose and street-lamps have their own one. A monk is not a lamp which hangs over the city pavement and gives light to pedestrians so that they don’t stumble https://australian....ia/. A monk is a far beacon which is set on the rocks and lightens up seas and oceans with its radiance so that ships sail in the right way and come to God, their destination.”

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