Preface

The reader who is familiar with the tradition of the Orthodox Eastern Church will readily perceive that the Experiences offered here for his attention present the teaching of the holy Fathers concerning the science of sciences, concerning monasticism—a teaching applied to the demands of the present day.[1] The principal feature that distinguishes the life of ancient monasticism from that of more recent times consists in this: that those who took the monastic vow in the first centuries of Christianity were guided by God-inspired teachers, whereas now—as the Venerable Nil Sorsky notes, in agreement with other later Fathers—those in monastic life must be guided above all by Holy Scripture and the writings of the Fathers, owing to the extreme scarcity of living vessels of Divine grace. The explanation of this tendency and of the necessity for it forms the central thought of the Experiences throughout their entire extent.

The articles of which my book is composed were written at different times and for different reasons—chiefly in response to ascetic questions that arose among communities of monks and of God-loving laypeople who were in spiritual communication with me. As I bring my earthly pilgrimage to its close, I have considered it my duty to review, correct, supplement, gather into one whole, and publish in print all the articles written by me in the rank of archimandrite.[2] I have considered this my duty for two reasons: first, because many of the articles had spread in manuscript copies with greater or lesser errors; and second, because I regard myself as obliged to render to Christian society an account of my sojourn in the Promised Land that flows with spiritual gifts and blessings—an account of the monastic life as it appears in the holy tradition of the Orthodox Eastern Church, and as Divine Providence has permitted me to behold it in certain of its living representatives.

It remains for me to ask of my readers indulgence for my poverty of understanding, and to beg their prayers for my poor soul.