On the Active and Contemplative Life

A person is composed of soul and body, and therefore the path of his life must consist of both bodily and spiritual actions—of the active and the contemplative.

The path of the active life consists of: fasting, abstinence, vigil, prostrations, prayer, and other bodily ascetic labors, which constitute the narrow and sorrowful way that, according to the word of God, leads to eternal life (see Matt. 7:14).

The path of the contemplative life consists of the elevation of the mind to the Lord God, attentiveness of heart, mental prayer, and the contemplation of spiritual realities through such exercises.

Anyone who desires to pursue the spiritual life must begin with the active life, and only then proceed to the contemplative; for without the active life it is impossible to arrive at the contemplative.

The active life serves to cleanse us from sinful passions and raises us to the degree of active perfection, thereby opening for us the way to the contemplative life. For only those who have been purified from passions and have reached perfection are able to enter upon that life, as can be seen from the words of Holy Scripture: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8), and from the words of St. Gregory the Theologian (in his “Oration on Holy Pascha”): “only those most perfect in their experience can safely draw near to contemplation.”

So too the Church, glorifying St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, sings: For through silences and struggles against thoughts you first added contemplation of God to the active life, and through contemplation of God you attained perfect understanding, with which you spoke boldly with God and the Angels42 (Akathist to St. Nicholas. Kontakion 10).

One must approach the contemplative life with fear and trembling, with contrition of heart and humility, with much study of the Holy Scriptures, and, if possible, under the guidance of some experienced elder—not with boldness and self-will. “For the rash and presumptuous one,” in the words of Gregory of Sinai, “seeking things beyond his worth with arrogance, strives to reach them before his time.” And again: “If someone imagines, through conceit, that he has attained lofty things—having seized the desire of Satan rather than the truth—the devil easily catches him in his nets, as his own servant” (Philokalia. Vol. 5. St. Gregory of Sinai. “On Delusion and Many Other Subjects”).

If it is impossible to find a guide capable of leading one into the contemplative life, then in such a case one must be guided by Holy Scripture, for the Lord Himself commands us to learn from Holy Scripture, saying: “Search the Scriptures, for you think that in them you have eternal life” (John 5:39).

One must also read the writings of the Fathers carefully and strive, as much as one is able, to fulfill what they teach, and in this way, little by little, ascend from the active life to the perfection of the contemplative.

For, in the words of St. Gregory the Theologian (“Oration on Holy Pascha”), the very best thing is when each of us attains perfection on his own and offers to God who calls us a living sacrifice, holy, and always and in all things sanctified.

One must not abandon the active life even when a person has made progress in it and has already entered into the contemplative, for the active life supports the contemplative and elevates it.

While pursuing the path of the interior and contemplative life, one must not grow slack or abandon it merely because people attached to externals and the sensory strike at our very heart with the opposition of their views and strive in every way to turn us away from pursuing the interior path, placing various obstacles before us on it—for, in the opinion of Church teachers (Commentary on the Song of Songs by Blessed Theodoret), the contemplation of spiritual realities is preferred above knowledge of sensory things.

Therefore, we must not be shaken from pursuing this path by any obstacles, grounding ourselves in this case upon the word of God: “Do not fear their fear, neither be troubled… for God is with us! Sanctify the Lord of hosts in the heart’s memory of His divine name and the fulfillment of His will, and He shall be to you a fear”43 (Is 8:10,12-13).