Evil conversation corrupteth good habits

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 3 ~ On Exile

¶24. By much labour and effort a good and stable character is developed in us. But what is achieved with great labour can be lost in a single moment, for 'Evil conversation corrupteth good habits,' being at once worldly and disorderly. The man who associates with people of the world or approaches them after his renunciation will certainly either fall into their traps or will defile his heart by thinking about them; or if he is not defiled himself, yet by condemning those who are defiled, he himself will be defiled.

Think of Him Who for our sake was exiled from Heaven to earth

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 3 ~ On Exile

¶22. When men or demons praise us for our exile, as for some great exploit or achievement, then let us think of Him Who for our sake was exiled from Heaven to earth, and we shall find that throughout all eternity it is impossible for us to make return for this.

Abraham the greatest exile

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 3 ~ On Exile

¶20. No one has surrendered himself to exile to such an extent as that great man who heard: 'Go forth out of thy land, and out of thy kindred, and out of the house of thy father.' And then he was called into a barbarous land that spake another tongue.
¶21. Sometimes the Lord has brought more glory to the man who has separated after the manner of this great patriarch, but even if glory is God-given, yet it is excellent to divert it from oneself with the shield of humility.

This is the generation of them that seek the Lord

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 3 ~ On Exile

¶15. Let him be your father who is able and willing to labour with you in bearing the burden of your sins; and your mother—contrition, which can cleanse you from impurity; and your brother—your comrade who toils and fights side-by-side with you in your striving toward the heights. Acquire an inseparable wife—the remembrance of death. And let your beloved children be the sighs of your heart. Make your body your slave; and your friends, the holy powers (angels) who can help you at the hour of your death, if they become your friends. This is the generation of them that seek the Lord.

Exile is not from hatred

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 3 ~ On Exile

¶14. It is not from hatred that we separate ourselves from our own people or places (God forbid!), but to avoid the harm which might come to us from them. In this, as in everything else, it is Christ who teaches us what is good for us. For it is clear that He often left His parents according to the flesh. And when He was told, 'Thy Mother and Thy brethren are seeking for Thee,' our good Lord and Master at once showed us an example of dispassionate hatred when He said, 'My mother and My brethren are they who do the will of My Father who is in Heaven.'

An exile conceals his knowledge

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 3 ~ On Exile

¶13. He is an exile who, having knowledge, sits like one of foreign speech amongst people of another tongue.

Run from places of sin as from the plague

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 3 ~ On Exile

¶9. Run from places of sin as from the plague. For when fruit is not present, we have no frequent desire to eat it.

The monk is a willing exile from his home

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 3 ~ On Exile

¶8. Eve was exiled from Paradise against her will, but the monk is a willing exile from his home. She would have liked the tree of disobedience again; and he would certainly expose himself daily to frequent danger from relatives according to the flesh.

Do not touch the world any more

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 3 ~ On Exile

¶7. Have you become an exile from the world? Do not touch the world any more; because the passions desire nothing better than to return.

We must most certainly teach ourselves

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 3 ~ On Exile

¶4. In hastening to solitude and exile, do not wait for world-loving souls, because the thief comes unexpectedly. In trying to save the careless and indolent along with themselves, many perish with them, because in course of time the soul's fire goes out. As soon as the flame is burning within you, run; for you do not know when it will go out and leave you in darkness. Not all of us are required to save others. The divine Apostle says: 'Everyone of us shall give account of himself to God.' And again he says: 'Thou therefore that teachest another, dost thou not teach thyself?' This is like saying: I do not know whether we must all teach others; but we must most certainly teach ourselves.

Exile requires great discretion

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 3 ~ On Exile

¶2. Those who have come to love the Lord are at first unceasingly and greatly disturbed by this thought, as if burning with divine fire. I speak of separation from their own, undertaken by the lovers of perfection so that they may live a life of hardship and simplicity. But great and praiseworthy as this is, yet it requires great discretion; for not every kind of exile, carried to extremes, is good.

Exile to reach the goal of piety

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 3 ~ On Exile

¶1. Exile means that we leave forever everything in our own country that prevents us from reaching the goal of piety. Exile mean modest manners, wisdom which remains unknown, prudence not recognized as such by most, a hidden life, an invisible intention, unseen meditation, desire for humiliation, longing for hardship, constant determination to love God, abundance of love, renunciation of vainglory, depth of silence.

It is pitiful to suffer shipwreck in harbor

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 2 ~ On Detachment

¶12. If young people who are prone to the desires of physical love and luxurious ways wish to enter the monastic life, let them exercise themselves in all sobriety and prayer, and persuade themselves to abstain from all luxury and guile, lest their last state be worse than their first. This harbor provides safety, but also exposes one to danger. Those who sail the spiritual seas know this. But it is a pitiful sight to behold those who have survived perils at sea, suffering shipwreck in harbor.

This is the second step. Let those who run the race imitate not Lot's wife, but Lot himself, and flee.

Grief over loss indicates attachment

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 2 ~ On Detachment

¶11. If anyone thinks that he is without attachment to some object, but is grieved at its loss, then he is completely deceiving himself.

He who is detached escapes sorrow

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 2 ~ On Detachment

¶7. The man who has come to hate the world has escaped sorrow. But he who has an attachment to anything visible is not yet delivered from grief. For how is it possible not to be sad at the loss of something we love? We need to have great vigilance in all things. But we must give our whole attention to this above everything else. I have seen many people in the world, who by reason of cares, worries, occupations and vigils, avoided the wild desires of their body. But after entering the monastic life, and in complete freedom from anxiety, they polluted themselves in a pitiful way by the movements of the body.

Do not worry about anything that cannot help in the hour of death

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 2 ~ On Detachment

¶2. After our call, which comes from God and not man, we have left all that is mentioned above, and it is a great disgrace for us to worry about anything that cannot help us in the hour of our need, that is to say, the hour of our death. For as the Lord said, this means looking back and not being fit for the Kingdom of Heaven. Knowing how fickle we novices are, and how easily we turn to the world through visiting, or being with, worldly people, when someone said to Him: 'Suffer me first to go and bury my father,' our Lord replied, 'Let the dead bury their dead.'

Follow Christ without anxiety or hesitation

Venerable John Climacus ~ The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Step 2 ~ On Detachment

¶1. The man who really loves the Lord, who has made a real effort to find the future Kingdom, who is really pained by his sins, who is really mindful of eternal torment and judgment, who really lives in fear of his own departure, will not love, care or worry about money, or possessions, or parents, or worldly glory, or friends, or brothers, or anything at all on earth. But having shaken off all ties with earthly things and having stripped himself of all his cares, and having come to hate even his own flesh, and having stripped himself of everything, he will follow Christ without anxiety or hesitation, always looking Heavenward and expecting help from there, according to the word of the saint: My soul hath cleaved after Thee; and according to that other ever-memorable man who said: I have not wearied of following thee, nor have I desired the day or rest of man, O Lord.

Elder Tadej of Vitovnitsa

Elder Tadej of Vitovnitsa
Father Tadej (Thaddeus, Фадей) was born in Serbia in 1914. Aged 15, he was told by doctors that he had only five years to live. The young man entered the monastery of Milkovo, where he became a monk, the disciple of Russian monks who had taken refuge there. They had come to Serbia as a result of the Bolshevik coup d'etat in Russia and the neo-calendarist persecution of Orthodoxy at Valaam Monastery, then in Finland. Among the Russian monks at Milkovo was the well-known Fr. Ambrose, a disciple of St Ambrose of Optina. It was from him that Fr. Thaddeus soon learned the Jesus Prayer.

After the repose of his revered elder, the saintly Fr. Ambrose, Fr. Thaddeus moved to the monastery of Gorniak, where he was tonsured by its Russian Abbot Fr. Seraphim. Two years later Fr. Thaddeus was ordained priest. After this he was given various obediences and until the outbreak of the Second World War served at the Patriarchate in Pec.

From here he returned to Belgrade where he was arrested by the Gestapo, who had already arrested Patriarch Gabriel and the future St Nicholas (Velimirovich). They considered Fr Thaddeus to be one of the leaders of the Serbian resistance to the Nazi occupation. However, these charges were dropped, Fr. Thaddeus was released and he set off for the monastery of Vintovitsa.

Fr. Thaddeus was to remain in Vintovitsa for most of the rest of his life. He became known as an elder and every day received all who came to him for advice, support and consolation. However, he was persecuted by those jealous of him and spent the final years of his life with spiritual children. He departed this life on 13 March 2003 and was buried in the monastery of Vitovnitsa. He is venerated by his many spiritual children, especially Serbs, Montenegrins, Macedonians, Bosnians, including former Muslims whom he converted to Christ.

Sayings of Elder Tadej in English
Sayings of Elder Tadej in Serbian

Valaam Monastery - Step to the Skies

Valaam Monastery - Step to the Skies
Mount Athos of the North, the worthy and great Lavra -- so was called this ancient monastic dwelling, which was founded by Saints Sergius and Herman, the Valaam Miracle Workers. More than once did the Valaam Monastery see destruction and devastation, more than once did its monks die by the edge of the sword more than once were its holy churches engulfed in flames. But every time, the monastery recovered from its wounds, rose and flourished again.

Official website of Valaam Monastery

How We Left for the Monastery

PRAVOSLAVIE.RU

How We Left for the Monastery
Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov)

In general, in the early 1980's, we didn't just leave for monasteries—we ran to them. I think that people thought we were a little crazy. Sometimes, not just a little crazy. Miserable parents, disconsolate fiancés, and wrathful professors from the institutes where we studied came looking for us. To one monk (he ran away to the monastery after retiring and having raised the last of his children to adulthood) came his sons and daughters, screaming for the whole monastery to hear that they had come to take their daddy home. We hid him behind some enormous baskets in the old carriage house. The children were sure that their father, an experienced miner, had gone out of his mind. But he had simply been dreaming day and night for the last thirty years of the day when he could finally begin to labor in asceticism in a monastery. We understood him perfectly, because we ourselves had left the world that had become so senseless to us, in order to seek God, Whom we had suddenly discovered.

It was the same as in earlier days, when boys would run away to work on ships, yearning for the open sea. Only, the call of God was incomparably stronger. We hadn't the strength to overcome it, or more exactly, we unmistakably felt that if we do not respond to it, we will lose ourselves irretrievably. And even if we should obtain the whole rest of the world with all its joys and successes, we wouldn't need it or enjoy it.

We felt terribly sorry for everyone, first of all for our parents, who didn't know what to do, and couldn't understand. Next, of course, we felt sorry for our friends and girlfriends, and for our beloved professors, who had spent the time and energy to come to Pechory to "save" us. Truly, we were so sorry for them that we would have given our lives for them! But not the monastery.

This all seemed wildly strange and inexplicable to them.

I remember that I had already lived for several months in the monastery when Sasha Shvedtsov arrived. He came on Sunday—the only free day there was in the monastery during the week. After a wonderful Sunday service and monastery meal, we young novices were stretched out blissfully on the cots in our large, sunny, novices' cell. Suddenly the door opened wide, and at the threshold appeared a tall, young fellow, our age— around twenty-two—in "commercial" (as we use to say) blue jeans and an expensive jacket.

"You know, I like it here! I think I'm going to stay!" he announced to us, without even saying hello.

"Tomorrow they'll put you to work in the stables or mucking the sewers and we will see whether or not you'll stay," I thought with a yawn. Probably all were thinking the same thing as they looked over the big city number who had flown into the ancient monastery.

Sasha turned out to be the son of a major trade representative, who had lived with his parents in Peking, London, and New York, and had only recently returned to Russia to study in the university. He had come to know God a half a year before. He didn't know very much, but he apparently knew the main thing, because from that time on he was tormented by the total meaninglessness of everything around him, and by an interminable, forlorn restlessness, until he found the monastery. Immediately grasping that he had found precisely what he was looking for, he didn’t even send his parents word about his new dwelling place. When we reproached him for his cruelty, he said that his parents would definitely not understand, and his dad would find him anyway. That is in fact what happened.

Sasha's dad came to Pechory in a black "Volga" and demonstratively raised Cain—with the police, the KGB, with school friends and college girlfriends he had enlisted, and with all the instruments we have gotten used to for pulling people out of monasteries. This went on for a rather long time, until his father was finally convinced to his own horror that it was all in vain, and Sasha was not going anywhere.

The treasurer, Fr. Nathaniel, tried to console the guest from Moscow as well as he could, saying to him, "Well, give your son up as sacrifice to God. He will be a Pechory hieromonk, and you'll be proud of him…"

I remember the desperate howl that filled the monastery: "Never!"

That was Sasha's father. He simply did not yet know that Fr. Nathaniel was clairvoyant; otherwise, he wouldn't have gotten so nervous. Sasha really did become a hieromonk, and is the only one of us present in that sunny novices' cell on his first day in Pechory who is still serving in the Pskov-Caves Monastery today. Sasha's dad, Alexander Mikhailovich, began working with me in the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow, and later in Sretensky Monastery, as the manager of our book warehouse. He was doing this work for the Church when he departed for the Lord, having become a most sincere man of prayer, and seeker of God.

[Source pravoslavie.ru]