5. Spiritual Direction.

In a few words we have given directions about how a spiritual father should establish in

penitents that disposition of soul — a disposition of repentance, faith and hope — with

which confession becomes fruitful. But this is not enough. When they have noticed that

the priest has pain in his heart for his children, the latter will also persistently expect from

him guidance and directions for the correction of their life. In general this is the first

demand of an awakened conscience. The Jews asked St. John the Baptist what they had

to do in order to enter the Kingdom of Cod; both the rich youth and “a certain lawyer”

asked about the same thing, about eternal life, when they drew near to Jesus, as did the

three thousand witnesses of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles.

Russian people do not go to monastery elders for any other reason than to ask

them directions on the path into the Kingdom of Heaven. When they met Fr. John of

Kronstadt in railway stations, in church, in the street, they seized him by the cassock with

the plea: “Batiushka, teach me not to swear, teach me not to quarrel with my wife; tell me

if I should go to a monastery or get married.. It is difficult even for an experienced

spiritual father to give intelligent answers to such unexpected questions amid a crowd of

jostling people; but our spiritual fathers experience even greater difficulty at confession,

even if it is unhurried. This is because most of them do not have spiritual experience, and

have not endeavoured to borrow it from the Holy Fathers. At theological school the usual

lay teacher could not teach them to do this, preferring to be not a servant of the Church,

but a Titular Councilor,iii and thinking only of how to transfer from pastoral theology — a

subject hateful to him since childhood — to civil history or at least to the Latin language.

What then should I read in order to acquire spiritual wisdom? Read much, but

know that the principal means of learning are attention to oneself, checking on the life of

one’s own soul, reverent prayer and observation, compassionate and full of love, of the

souls surrounding you, of your flock, your family and your acquaintances.

But what should you read? First of all, read the Bible, concurrently from 1)

Pentateuch and Kings, 2) from the Prophets and Wisdom Books and 3) from the New

Testament. Read every day, for at least half an hour. If you make yourself read through

the Bible twice in this way, then subsequently you will reread it at your own desire and

inclination. Anyone who has read the Holy Bible three times cannot help becoming a

religious philosopher and moralist.

However, this is important principally for the priest.s general spiritual

development; there also exist patristic works directly relating to the guidance of

penitents. But before you begin reading them I advise you to master the key to the

understanding of spiritual life, i.e. to read the book The Path to Salvation by Bishop

Theophan the Recluse (d. 1894),iv with attention and, I think, not just once; then start

reading the Synaxarion.v But do not read it in order in which it is written; if you will soon

have to start hearing confessions, look in the table of contents and find articles which

relate to human weaknesses and passions and teach how to struggle with them; such

articles are listed at the end of the Synaxarion.

I am pointing out the primary importance of the Synaxarion for counseling

penitents firstly, because most churches have this book, except for those built recently,

but chiefly because this book, as well as the Limonarion of Sophronius of Jerusalem, or

the Spiritual Meadow by? John Moschus, or similar collections of the “memorable

sayings about the holy fathers,” expounds the rules of piety in parables, as did the Savior,

or in events from the lives of righteous men, which are more easily assimilated than

direct advice, and are remembered longer, on the most part, for one’s whole life. I will

give just one example. A monk who had long been fighting against temptations with

terrible struggles became faint in spirit and started praying to God to lighten the cross

which had been placed on him in life: “Is it really impossible for me to reach the

Heavenly Kingdom and spiritual perfection with a less painful cross?” An Angel

appeared and led him into a spacious upper room, on the walls of which hung many

varied crosses: heavy? iron ones and lighter wooden ones; among both the former and the

latter were some very? large crosses, some smaller and some very small. “The Lord has

heard your prayer,” said the Angel, “and permitted you to choose a cross for yourself.”

“Do you suppose God will forgive me’, said the hermit, that I, after struggling for

many years, am now taking for myself this, the smallest of the little wooden crosses?’’

Then the Angel said to him, ‘‘This is the very cross you have been hearing up to

this day and which you considered too exhausting; all the other crosses are incomparably

heavier.” Then the monk understood his foolishness and offered repentance, realizing that

the Lord never lays on people a burden beyond their strength; but a Christian must accept

it submissively and pray for the help of divine grace.

If a priest assimilates the contents of similar stories in the Synaxarion and

continuously reads at least this and a few other simple books, then he will learn quite

thoroughly to guide Christians in their struggle with sins and passions. But there is a

whole library of such spiritual cures. Such primarily is the collection of patristic writings

in five volumes called the Philokalia,vi collected by the same Bishop Theophan the

Recluse. The volumes of this can be obtained separately, and especially useful are the

first two, in which the writings of the greatest ascetics are collected: Anthony,

Pachomius, Isaiah and so on. One of the most highly developed themes in the fathers is

the teaching about the eight chief passions of the human heart and struggling with them.

If you cannot now obtain the Philokalia, those same fathers can be bought separately.

Especially useful is the book of Sts. Barsanuphius and John, containing the “Answers” to

the monks’ questions on matters of piety, and also the Ladder, by St. John, abbot of

Mount Sinai, in which there is a special word or “epistle” “To Pastors.”vii

Among more contemporary works there is “Advice to the Priest on Performing

the Mystery of Confession” by Archbishop Platon of Kostroma, written sixty years ago,

hut this advice is somewhat formal and scholastic. More practical are the exemplary

“Questions to Penitents” by Metropolitan Jonah, Exarch of Georgia, which many spiritual

fathers in monasteries had in manuscript, and it is unlikely that they remained

unpublished.

However, the priest should be concerned not so much with having the printed

material for guidance through confession in perfect readiness, as with immersing his

attention in this field of spiritual pathology and therapy, which is revealed by the holy

ascetics. Then he will add to it his own independent activity, wiIl make use of the

Fathers’ experience consciously and adapt it to those states of soul which his parishioners

will reveal to him at confession and in general in spiritual talks.