Dear Sister in Christ, Nina,<\/p>\n
Rejoice in the Lord! Will try to answer your questions one at a time.<\/p>\n
Concerning particular questions like job, people problems \u2014 individually they aren\u2019t important and they really can\u2019t be solved one at a time. Instead, try to keep the whole picture in mind. Where is your heart? If it is in the desert, as it seems, then deep down make the resolve that you\u2019re going to go to the desert, if it is pleasing to God and He will open the way, and let everything else fall into place around that resolve. When it comes to helping people, especially our poor converts, don\u2019t turn down what God sends, but don\u2019t go seeking for ways to get involved, either. If your desire for the desert is real and God-pleasing, you will be of much more help to people there than in their midst \u2014 not because you are anything or will become a wonderworking hermitess (if you thought that you\u2019d better stop right now!), but because there is something very natural about the desert for Orthodox Christians, and God sees the heart of even the feeblest sinner in the desert and sends His help.<\/p>\n
The second thing to keep clearly in mind is this: the world is your enemy, and that included the \u201cchurch world, \u201d that is, the worldliness of church people. We don\u2019t know any clergy in S. F. who, if they heard of your \u201cdesert desire,\u201d wouldn\u2019t begin immediately thinking and talking about \u201cprelest,\u201d \u201ccrazy converts,\u201d and the like. In principle they are \u201ccorrect,\u201d of course, and it\u2019s quite fine to talk like that in \u201cnormal\u201d times when there are hundred of convents and sketes to go to in order to escape the pitfalls of trusting oneself (but the tapes we\u2019ll send you are of \u201ccrazy\u201d ones who ran away even from all that!). BUT IN OUR POOR DAYS THIS ATTITUDE HAS NO REAL FUNCTION EXCEPT TO EXTINGUISH SPIRITUAL ZEAL. And the church world is not only pretty much against the desert \u2014 any kind of spiritual life is in danger from this \u201ccorrectness.\u201d We are immensely relieved, for example, to hear from Alexey that the baptisms will be in S.F. after all \u2014 for to call special attention to his \u201csecret\u201d is just asking for danger. Do you know that some of our good priests think that a layman has no \u201cright\u201d to burn incense in his own home?<\/p>\n
So: keep your \u201csecret,\u201d live in peace with everyone, help those who ask for it (and beware of \u201chelping\u201d when you\u2019re not asked!), and BEG GOD AND VLADIKA JOHN TO SHOW YOU THE WAY OUT OF THE WORLD AS FAST AS POSSIBLE! About the last point, it isn\u2019t essential yet to have a concrete \u201cplan\u201d in mind; it\u2019s enough right now to nourish the desert seed in the heart, with which we\u2019ll try to help. We\u2019re sending shortly the first tapes of \u201cNeonilla,\u201d which you can start transcribing as soon as you get your machine. The next one, \u201cMaria,\u201d is still more inspiring. Send us the Xerox of her life (and all the other Xeroxes you have) as soon as possible \u2014 but not the books. We\u2019ve been reading these lives at noon trapeza, and they are very inspiring.<\/p>\n
From Boston we are getting just the daily troparia and kontakia. We haven\u2019t received the Little Compline. We mentioned to Fr. Panteleimon several years ago that we would like to print a Horologion, but were not too certain right now. In case you didn\u2019t realize it, printing (at least under our conditions) is not an easy thing even ordinarily, and besides that numerous additional difficulties constantly arise to tempt us. Of late the Linotype has given the most difficulty, and the last part of the last issue was completed with myself supplying complicated manual movements for each line of type to make up for a piece that broke in the back of the machine. You will therefore understand why your nonchalant request to \u201ctype up\u201d your ad was met rather coolly in the printing dept. Consider yourself hit over the head, and remember: what comes easy does not help get one to or keep one in the desert. Your request has been tabled until we can get the new issue out, which we would very much like to do by Pascha, despite the long services. If it is very difficult to mimeograph it or otherwise do it \u201ceasy\u201d yourself, then implore us to help you and we\u2019ll try. We are struggling from first to last, and you should start thinking in those terms too. Recently our tank of gas for the Linotype was stuck with the truck in a ditch for a week; fortunately the old tank barely finished the issue, or we were prepared to take ropes and drag the tank up 1\/2 mile through the snow.<\/p>\n
Another question: the reading of the Sunday night Passion Gospels during Lent is a custom of many centuries in Western Russia. And don\u2019t start thinking about \u201cLatin influence\u201d \u2014 the custom was good enough for Vladika John (which is perhaps why it is still continued in SF) and is also very moving.<\/p>\n
In Berkeley: we need a Xerox of a book by St. Gregory of Tours; I think it\u2019s called Historia Sanctorum, Histoire des Saints, with text in Latin and French on opposite pages (we\u2019d like both), giving lives of Western Saints. If you know French, perhaps you could also check and see if St., Gregory has information on other Saints of the West in his other works, such as History of the Franks (which is in English), which is not in these Lives.<\/p>\n
Also, if you have a little time (!) in Berkeley, you might look at art books of Medieval and pre- Medieval illustrations of Western Saints \u2014 Sts. Martin of Tours, Benedict, Paulinus of Nola, Ambrose, English Saints, etc. You probably won\u2019t find many icons, but it would help just to have any illustration of how the Saints were pictured before 13th century or so.<\/p>\n
Fr. Herman\u2019s wrist is improving. Br. Laurence is in good spirits.<\/p>\n
About your rule: what\u2019s wrong with the one you\u2019ve been using? Is it too difficult? If not, start it again and may God bless your labors.<\/p>\n
Please get us a box of charcoal (enclosed label). Enclosed check for charcoal (which costs $10) and Xeroxing.<\/p>\n
Spring is upon us, though no oak leaves have come out yet. Everything is bright, and one feels expansive and wonders why these whole mountains aren\u2019t peopled with ascetics in caves. But God sends us just what we need, and it\u2019s not for us to question the \u201cstate of humanity\u201d too much, just to save our souls. Pray for us.<\/p>\n
With love in Christ our Saviour,
\nSeraphim, monk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Sister in Christ, Nina, Rejoice in the Lord! Will try to answer your questions one at a time. Concerning particular questions like job, people problems \u2014 individually they aren\u2019t important and they really can\u2019t be solved one at a time. Instead, try to keep the whole picture in mind. Where is your heart? If […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1313\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}