Elder Paisios - The secular spirit in Monasticism

 

-Elder, there are many who say to us: “You are living in Paradise”.

G.P. Well, you had better say a prayer to not lose the other Paradise.  I would be comforted, if secular people were impressed by your spiritual development, without you perceiving it (on account of your spiritual progress) and without you striving for it; instead, it should happen on its own - internally and naturally.  

Try not to lose yourselves in lost issues, so that you don't lose Christ.  As much as possible, try to attain a monastic conscience.  Live spiritually like nuns; don't forget Christ, so that He will remember you.  I have no intention of sorrowing you - only to help you, to support you.  Try to discern the secular spirit which, when it penetrates Monasticism saddens Christ Himself, and discard it as a foreign spirit.

Unfortunately the secular spirit of the world has also entered many Monasteries, because certain Fathers of our time are channeling Monasticism through a secular channel and souls are not guided towards the patristic spirit of Grace.  I am seeing an anti-patristic spirit prevailing in Monasteries nowadays; they do not accept that which is good, and patristic - that is, they do not live patristically but instead, they flatten all the spiritual heights that are in the name of obedience and the excising of one's personal will, and they obey their respective secular wills.  That way, they no longer make any progress, because they have invited temptation - the secular spirit - as their coenobitic cell-mate.  We have no right to interpret God's commandments they way they suit us, nor do we have the right to present Monasticism the way we want. It is one thing to acknowledge our weaknesses and humbly ask for God's mercy; but for me, the greatest evil is that there are those who regard the secular spirit as "progress", when they should be perceiving it as a fall and should be vomiting it in order to be cleansed spiritually, so that the Holy Spirit will come quickly.  It is the Holy Spirit Who sanctifies, informs and supports souls.

There are also those who say:  "We should present our Culture".  What Culture should we present? The secular culture? Normally, we as monks should present our spiritual culture - our spiritual progress. Where is our spiritual progress?  We shouldn't outdo secular people in secular progress.  Secular people are tormented by that secular progress - monks even more so!  We need to run much faster "spiritually", so that secular people might do something also.  

Even if we do what a very spiritual layman does, even that won't be of any help, because people will merely have a very spiritual layman as their example.  We need to surpass them.  A monk shouldn't have secular progress as his objective. It would be abusing Monasticism. A Monk who thinks in a secular manner has obviously lost his path; although he had set off for Christ, his soul is turned towards the world.  With secular development - which is regarded as progress - Monasticism is led into spiritual decomposition.  There are so many things that have been lost in Monasticism also - the same way as in the world, when honour and respect are lost and are regarded as mere conventions!  

That's why it pains me and I feel I'm going to burst! I feel like heading for the mountains!  When a person has not experienced something sublime, he doesn't worry all that much about the spiritual life that he leads in his own manner.  But for one who is forced to live in that manner, have you any idea what kind of torture it is?  If Christ were to make me worthy of living the way I want - in isolation - and dying bravely, I would consider it as dying on the war front. Now it is worth dying, worth giving witness, worth offering a sacrifice, for the sake alone of not having the Holy Fathers slandered...

Shouldn't we pause to think a little about the Blessed Fathers whom we read constantly - where they lived and how they lived?  The Lord had said: "Foxes have lairs, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest His head!"  What an awesome statement!  And have you noticed how they strived to emulate Christ by living in caves?  They could feel the joy of Christ in everything, because they emulated Christ in everything.  

All their attention was focused there. The Holy Fathers had made the Desert their spiritual polity, and yet today, we are turning it into a secular polity .  Christ's Church flees to the Desert in order to be saved, and we have turned the Desert into a secular polity, such that people become scandalized and are not helped and have nothing to reach out to. That is the immense danger that I can see in these difficult years that we are living in.  Even though we have more reason nowadays to live more monastically - in order to have divine strength - we are unfortunately being altered by the secular spirit and are becoming weaker.  In other words, we are driving away our spirit, leaving only our empty carcass.

Nowadays there are monks who live Monasticism superficially: they don't smoke, they live chastely, they read the Philokalia, they always refer to the Fathers. This is similar to the secular behavior, where those who refrain from telling lies, who cross themselves, who go to Church and when they grow up, pay closer attention to moral issues, and think that this is all that's needed.... well, this is what is happening in certain Monasteries too, and laypeople are initially attracted; but when they become better acquainted, they realize that those monks don't differ that much from people living in the world, because they have preserved the secular spirit in full.  

If the monks smoked, read newspapers, talked politics, people would then avoid them, inasmuch as they would be just like the secular outsiders and that way, Monasticism would not be tarnished.

When a monk becomes weakened spiritually, with what can he sensitize the secular person?  If we leave a bottle of pure alcohol open it will lose all its zest. It will not kill germs, nor will it ignite with a flame. If you try to use it on a wick burner, it will ruin the wick. The same thing happens with a monk, if he isn't careful: he will drive away divine Grace, and he will be left with his monk's schema (habit) only.  

He will be like the alcohol that has lost its zest.  He won't be able to "cauterize" the devil!  "To monks, angels are the light; to worldly people, monks are the light"! Well, he won't even be a light afterwards.  Have you any idea how destructive the secular conscience can be? If that spiritual element departs from Monasticism, there will be nothing left. Because "if the salt loses its savour", it isn't even suitable for the dunghill. While garbage can become manure, salt cannot be used as manure; and if you use it on a plant, it will wither it.  Our time is an era when Monasticism should be radiant.  This present, rotting state is in need of that "salt".  

 If Monasteries do not maintain a secular conscience but preserve the spiritual state, it would be their greatest offer to society. They would not even have to speak or do anything else, because their very manner of living would be "speaking" for them. And that's what the world needs today.

Have you seen the point that Catholics have reached?  I remember years ago, when I was at the Stomiou Monastery at Konitsa, someone brought me a newspaper clipping which wrote:  "Three hundred nuns protested, about not being permitted to watch a movie at a cinema, and why their skirts had to be long and not knee-length..."  I became so exasperated when I read it, that I exclaimed: "But, why did they ever want to become nuns in the first place?"  

The news article mentioned at the end that they finally discarded their nun's habits. Although, judging by their manner of thinking, they had essentially discarded their monastic attire long before.  Another time, I had noticed a Catholic nun who was no different to a woman of the world.  She was supposedly on missionary work, but was totally..... well, like certain very secular young ladies.  We must not allow that European spirit to infiltrate us also; we must not reach that state too.

-Elder, it seems like a very difficult thing, getting rid of the secular mentality.

G.P. It isn't difficult; you just need to be on the alert. Constantly remember what Arsenios the Great had said: "For what did you exit (the world)?"  We tend to forget why we came to the Monastery.  Everyone starts off more or less well, but they don't end up well because they forget why they went to the Monastery.

-Elder, you said that the secular spirit infiltrates Monasticism and spiritual handling is lost.  Will the true spirit of Monasticism be preserved?
 

G.P. It is only a passing storm; God will not allow it.

-Elder, a thought crossed my mind: Do  monastic retinues who maintain a spiritual course still exist?

G.P. Woe betide, if they didn't exist! There are monks who live very spiritually, noiselessly.  There are souls in every Monastery, in every Metropolis etc... It's those isolated souls that move God, making Him tolerate us...

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