- Geronda, how should a monk use modern conveniences?
- He should always have fewer and simpler things than the rest of the people. I feel much better when I use wood for heating, cooking and handiwork. But when the forests become obsolete, I will use the simplest and cheapest available resources. An oil stove, for example, or some humble type of heating, and petrol gas for handiwork.
- How can one determine whether something is really essential in a Coenobitic Monastery?
- If they think in a monastic way, it will be easy to figure it out. If a monk or nun does not think in a monastic way, then everything becomes a necessity and he becomes worse than those who live in the world. Monks must live in humbler circumstances than they did when they lived in the world; never better. We should not have better things here than we did at home. In general, the Monastery must be poorer than the homes in which we were raised. This will help the monk with his interior life and will also be of help to lay people. God has provided that we do not find peace in possessions and comforts. If laymen are troubled by all these modern comforts, you can imagine how much more they trouble the monk. If I found myself in a rich house and the host asked where I would like to stay, in the living room with the fancy furniture, or in a stable with a couple of goats, I would honestly say that I prefer the stable with the goats because I would find more peace there. When I left the world to become a monk, I was not seeking a better house or a palace. My goal was to find something worse than what I had been used to. Otherwise I am not doing anything for Christ. But today's logic works like this: "How could living in a palace harm your soul? If you stay in the stable, it's going to stink while the palace will be full of sweet scents and it will be easier to make your prostrations." We must have a spiritual sensor. You see in a compass, both arrows have magnets that turn it in one direction or the other. Christ has a magnet too, but we need one ourselves in order to turn towards Him.
In the old days, life in the Coenobitic Monasteries was so hard! I remember in the kitchen they had a cauldron and used a crank to lift it. And we used wood to light the fire in order to cook. The fire was either too low or too high and the food would stick at the bottom of the cauldron. When fish would get stuck, they used a steel broom to scrape the bottom. Then we had to collect the ashes and place them in a clay jar with a hole underneath to make lye and wash the dishes. This was so rough on our hands! And we lifted the water with a windlass to the archontariki. Some of the things that I see today in Monasteries are not justified.
In one Monastery, I saw the monks cutting bread with a machine. That's not right! If someone is ill or not feeling well and cannot cut the bread with a knife, and there is a need to cut it because there is no one else to do it, then using a machine is justified. But when you see a healthy man cutting the bread with a wheel, you know there's something wrong. This fellow can work a jackhammer, but he uses a machine to cut bread, and considers it an achievement!
Make sure that you advance in spiritual matters and not in equipment and comfort. Do not delight in these things. If Monasticism abandons the ascetic life, it will not be Monasticism anymore. If you put convenience above Monasticism, above ascesis, you will not prosper. The monk avoids conveniences, because they do not help him spiritually. In secular life, excessive conveniences make life difficult for people. But comforts do not befit a monk, even if he could find peace in them. We should not seek comforts. During the time of Saint Arsenios the Great (4), they did not have electricity or gas lights; only some fancy lamps in the palace that used very fine oil. Couldn't he have brought these lamps with him in the desert? Of course he could. But he did not do it. He used a cotton fuse with whatever kind of seed oil was available at that time.
In doing our chores, we sometimes may justify the use of machines or other conveniences to do our work faster and have more time for our spiritual life. As a result our life becomes stressful and full of concerns and anxieties, and we come to resemble lay people rather than monks. When some young monks joined a Monastery, the first thing they did was to buy pressure cookers in order to gain time for their spiritual activities; they ended up sitting around and talking for hours. It's not that modern conveniences help us gain time and apply it to spiritual things. These devices do save us time, but we don't seem to have enough time to dedicate to prayer.
- Geronda, I heard people say that Saint Athanasios the Athonite was a progressive!
- Yes, he was progressive, but not in the sense that people understand the word today. Let them read the life of Saint Athanasios and see the difference. The Monastery had eight hundred to one thousand monks during his time and many people sought help there! There were numerous poor and hungry people who gathered at the Lavra Monastery to find food and shelter. The Saint had even purchased two oxen for the mill in order to cope with all these mouths. Why don't they do the same today? He had to create a modern type oven so that he would have bread to give to people. The Byzantine emperors had endowed the Monasteries with a lot of property because they served as Charitable Institutions. The Monasteries were established to help people spiritually and materially, which is why the emperors endowed them so well.
We must understand that if we carry on this way (without discrimination), the day will come when this world will end, and we will find ourselves standing before God, in debt. We monks should make use not only of everything that people discard today, but also of all useless things that the rich have thrown away in the past. You must remember two things: first that we are going to die and secondly that we may not die from natural causes. Either way, you should be prepared. If you remember these two things, all will go well, spiritually or otherwise. And then everything else will fall into place.
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