Chapter 171

Make This Your Chief Work, and Then...

Struggle thus and ask the Lord to grant you finally to feel and know what a wound in the heart is, in the word of Elder Paphnutius. Perhaps this is not given at once. A year of intense effort may pass, or perhaps more, before any traces begin to appear. May the Lord bless you, on this labor and path. But do not consider this some side matter; make it your chief work... For when, God willing, a wound is born in your heart, then of itself there will come what you desire, or something far greater than it—a special kind of inner tact will be established, by which everything will go with you smoothly, harmoniously and fitly, without thinking about it. Then within yourself you will carry a teacher, wiser than whom there is no one on earth.