June 14, 1998
A Holy
Conversation -- What Makes A True Monk? (Part III)
BROTHER: Who is the true monk?
OLD MAN: He who makes his word manifest in deeds, and bears his passion with patient
endurance; with such a man life is found, and the knowledge of the spirit dwells in him.
BROTHER: Who is the pure habitation?
OLD MAN: He who is destitute of the good things of the body, and who rejoices in the love
of his neighbors in the love of God; for spiritual relaxation is produced in proportion as
need rules over the soul.
BROTHER: With what is a man able to overcome lust?
OLD MAN: With spiritual remembrance. If the desire for the delights which are to come does
not obliterate that of the things which are here, a man cannot conquer; for if the ship of
the merchant did not arrive over and over again by means of hope, he could not endure the
storms, and he would go on his way of tribulation.
BROTHER: How does a man go forth from the world?
OLD MAN: By forsaking entirely the gratification of desire, and by running to the utmost
of his power in the fulfillment of the commandments; for he who does not act in this way
falls.
BROTHER: Behold, through what have the men of old triumphed?
OLD MAN: Through the fervor of their supernatural love, and through the death of the
corruptible man, and through the contempt for pride, and through the abatement of the
belly, and through the fear of the judgement, and through the promise of certainty;
through the desire for these glorious things the fathers have acquired in the soul the
spiritual body.
BROTHER: How can I conquer the passions which trouble me when they are fixed in me by
nature?
OLD MAN: By your death to this world; for if you do not bury your soul in the grave of
persistent endurance the spiritual Adam can never be quickened in you. When a dying man
has departed from this temporary life he has no consciousness of this world, and all his
perceptions are at rest and are abated. Now if you forsake that which is of nature
naturally, and you do not perform it voluntarily in your person, you are dead; but if your
desire dies in repentance, the whole of your nature ceases from this temporary life by the
death of the spirit just as do the motions of the body at the natural end of time.
BROTHER: To what extent is a man held capable of revelation?
OLD MAN: To the same extent as a man is capable of stripping off sin, both internally and
externally. For when a man dies by spiritual sacrifice, he dies to all the words and deeds
of this habitation of time, and when he has committed his life to the life which is after
the revivification, divine grace bestows itself upon him, and he becomes capable of divine
revelations. For the impurity of the world is a dark covering before the face of the soul,
and it prevents it from discerning spiritual wisdom.
from E. A. Wallis Budge, "The Paradise of the Holy Fathers," Seattle:
St. Nectarios Press, 1984, pp. 264-265
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